Study Objective: Human rights are often violated and at the same time international community is attempting to protect them as the international human rights regime is well developed and gives the normative and legal bases for protection.  This course provides an understanding of the meaning of human rights and the problems of human rights protection from the point of view of both politics and law. The questions is how and why human rights violations occur and what can be done to fight against them? After completing the course students understand and can critically analyse how politics and law are related in the practices of human rights. The course is divided in four parts. After the introduction to the course, the second part discusses human rights form the point of view of international relations the third part from the international law perspective and in the fourth part these insights are put together in order to have a comprehensive understanding on the means to provide human rights protection. Human rights and fighting against their violations are studied in two cases which involve two assignments. 

Part I   Introduction to the course  (Heta Heiskanen, Tarja Seppä and Jukka Viljanen)

Part II   Human Rights in international society (Tarja Seppä)

Students understand different interpretations of the human rights concepts and their meaning in international relations. Students are able to analyze different human rights practices and understand human rights both as a conceptual issue of international relations and as a manifestation of human rights policies and practices. Thus, they also understand why human rights are not always respected but also know how to protect them. 

Part III Human rights and international law (Heta Heiskanen and Jukka Viljanen)

Students understand the main legal aspects of international protection of human rights and the role of supervisory mechanisms. Students are able to analyze different human rights related concepts and understand human rights as part of international and national legal order. They understand how human rights law can enhance protection of rights of individuals.  

Part IV    Fighting Against Human Rights Violations

Students have two different case studies involving both political and legal aspects of human rights protection. During these assignments students are able to apply in practice their acquired knowledge from parts II and III and understand interrelated nature of political and legal human rights discourse. The assignments are chosen to provide comprehensive understanding of both regional and universal protection systems. The idea is also to bring together at the same time both intergovernmental and non-governmental systems and the possibility for individuals to make a difference in the fight against human rights violations.

Compulsory preceding studies: HALJUA42 Human Rights Law 5 op and POLPOP01 Introduction to International Relations 5 ECTS or POLPOP02 Introduction to Political Science 5 ECTS

After completing the course, students will understand the unique characteristics of American political system and the role of Congress in it, as well as understand the limits of presidential power in American foreign policy. Students will have a sound understanding of the evolution of American foreign policy institutions and legislative-executive relationship in forming American foreign policy, including the use of American military power. The course will focus on American post-World War II foreign and security policy, and special attention will be paid to American post-9/11 foreign policy and the effects of partisan polarization and domestic politics to legislative-executive relations.

Indicative Lecture Content 

September 26:  1966. If a Woman Says ‘Perhaps’: The Great Political ‘Seduction’ and Rafael Paasio gets the Centre Party into Bed

Virolainen quotes Lenin but Einari Karvetti is unhappy. The Popular Front years; the ‘liberation of middle beer’; farm amalgamation and the exodus to Sweden and the ‘deep south’. The passing of agrarian Finland? Ämmänsaari 1968; Eero Raittisen ‘vanha holvikirkko’; SALT talks: the US and USSR negotiate whether to negotiate in Helsinki (and Vienna!). Podgorny’s visit and the Soviet’s failure to recognise Finnish neutrality.

October 3: 1970: The Finnish ship sails away from the Nordic Common Market

The ‘V’ linja: Väätäinen, Vasala, Viren and Vennamo. Did Veikko Vennamo really sink Nordek? The electoral ‘earthquake’ and the start of populism as a ‘family business’; Irwin Goodman; the Haukivuori relay; and Kekkonen takes to the television to roast the Communists. TUPO.

October 10: 1977: Why did superman fail to get the job?

The multiple aspects of Finlandisation: patronage, censorship and self-censorship. Westerholm forces a presidential election. The ‘midsummer bomb’ and ‘yleiset syyt’. Did the Kremlin really keep the Conservatives in opposition? Veikko and Manu in Jäähalli. Ilkityö in Kotka. Kekkonen rejects a Soviet approach for joint military ‘manoeuvres’

October 24: 1987 What was in the safe?

Manu and the ladybirds in Vaasa. The ‘Aids election’. Koivisto versus Väyrynen and a non-socialist coalition. From red-green to red-blue cabinets; Schism on the radical left: DEVA, Esko-Juhani Tennilä and the road to Vasemmistoliitto. Gorbachev recognises Finnish neutrality. Esko Almgren’s version of events.

October 31: 1992 Finland at 75: the ‘Kannuksen Kennedy’, a Nieminen gold and the ‘pulla index’

Did Nokia save Finland? From the depths of recession to ‘kännykä Suomi’.  The new liturgy: neutrality is replaced by ‘military nonalignment and a credible national defence’. Soft and hard security. Salolainen flops; Sundqvist implodes and so on to Lipponen

November 7: 1994 The EU Referendum, the ‘no butters’ and guess who?

As I said to Jacques Delors! Esko Aho and the airport taxi. Olli Rehn’s parents; the Estonian ferry disaster; Korhonen and Kainuun Sanomat; cocktails on the Royal Yacht Brittania. The Greens and ‘kyllä, mutta’; LFAs.

November 14: 1998 Onpa kiihkeä kosinta: the Centre beats the competition to sign a former ‘Miss Finland’

Tanja Karpela, celebrity candidates and the increasing mediatisation of politics. Finland becomes a founder-member of EMU and VL has a new chair. Why were ‘rainbow coalitions’ necessary? Uosukainen and her ‘water bed’.

November 21: 2000. What’s the most common word in the Finnish language? Answer: Kekkonen

The new Finnish constitution coincides with the centenary of Kekkonen’s birth. The end of semi-presidential government? The Kekkonen legacy. The first female Finnish president. Johannes Virolainen dies at 86. Iraqgate and the end of the social democratic hegemony

November 28: 2012 Finland According to Paavo Väyrynen: A Prophet in the Wilderness?

Neutrality (the Väyrynen version); Euroscepticism and the post-referendum filibuster; the Nordic Community; the minister, MEP and founder of the Citizens’ Party. Why Väyrynen has been good for Finland! Soini and the Social Democrats

December 5: Finland at 100: Independence, For What, So What?

Why, exactly, should we celebrate on December 6? What is the measure of the Finnish achievement? How independent has Finland really been? Punainen viiva. When electoral turnout is below 1907, how ‘well’ is Finnish democracy? How independent is Finland today? Aalto- Saara not Alvar; Tom of Finland; Vesa-Matti Loiri; the ‘Finland brand’. A marsalkka beer?

Email registration essential by September 20, 2017.

This course is centered on finding political scenarios and debates in fictive texts. Politics is an integral part of many fictive texts, and often used to reflect real world issues, debates, and political scenarios. Many seminal works of science fiction, for example, extrapolate political issues like authoritarianism, surveillance, loss of privacy, ecologism, pacifism, militarism, and so on into contexts where they can be addressed in ways less suited for traditional political science. Indeed, these works often comment on the issues of their time through fiction.

During the course the students will receive weekly readings for analysis and reflection. After the course, the students are expected to better understand how politics can be presented in fiction, and how these fictional politics can be used to make sense of actual political events. The students will be more adept at spotting political scenarios and reconstructing them in various contexts. 

The language of the course is English, so students are expected to be reasonably proficient in reading and writing academic texts in this language. English degree programme students can join students of Political Science on the course for a richer mutual understanding of disciplines and the texts.

Enrollment via email to teacher responsible. Students admitted in order of registering, but political science students prioritized. Optimal group size is 20 students. Deadline for enrollment is 06.09.2017.

Active participation in the seminars, topical presentation in seminar, and essay (9-12 pages) for 5 ECTS.

This course offers a way of analysing European integration as a process, and deepens the participants’ knowledge of the most important theories of European integration and of disintegration. Particular emphasis will be put on the consequences of integration and disintegration on the external relations of the EU and international relations more widely.

The course offers students a possibility to engage in a participatory simulation of the EU decision-making and legislative process beginning with the suggestion proposed by the European Commission to the adoption of the legislative dossier. In the end, students will be able to understand the differences and operational logic of each major European institution, familiarise themselves with the ordinary legislative procedure, as well as learn in-depth about the functioning of the European Union as a whole.

Mandatory registration also via e-mail by 15.10.2017.

Active participation in the lessons is required from the students. In addition, the students are required to write smaller 400 word papers in preparation for some of the lessons as well as a longer final essay of 2000 words.

After completing the study unit/the course students understand how the international migration system functions today, the push and pull factors of international migration - the questions of emigration, immigration and integration and are able to analyze them critically.

Registering by email to eero.palmujoki(at)uta.fi 1.-31.12.2017.

This course introduces theories of security and peace, with a special attention to the connection between recent debates about changing patterns of peace and conflict, recent conflicts, and the role of new technologies in both scholarship and conflict. The course is divided into two halves, one which focuses on acquiring the necessary theoretical fluency, and one with deploys this to think about contemporary issues around peace and conflict under rapid technological change. Part of the course is taught in collaboration with the peace MA-programme at Tampere Peace Research Institute.

In theory-focused half of the course, we briefly look at classic understandings of war, peace, conflict and security, and follow how they influence theories and practices in the fields of international relations, security and peace research. The course critically reviews contemporary debates around different understandings of security through the Copenhagen, Paris and Welch ‘schools’ of security thinking, providing students with tools to critically understand developments in the use and understanding of violence within contemporary politics, including for assessing questions such as who is the subject of security, who are the agents of security, how does security relate to peace and to everyday politics?

In the case-focused half of the couse we work with how different theories would understand contemporary developments in peace and war differently, with a new case being in focus at each class. In this half we critically examine cases from recent conflicts such as the Syrian civil war, the war in Ukraine, the protracted conflict in Palestine/Israel, and the European migration crisis.

Students are expected to participate actively and will be graded based on active participation. During the course, each student will have to present a theoretical framework of their own choice, a case analysis of their own choice, and produce a blog post combining theory and case analysis, as well as reply to another analysis on the course blog. These exercises will serve as the basis of evaluation, and part of the evaluation will be peer evaluation where we in class discuss and evaluate the work of each other.

Enrollment via email to teacher responsible.

Political and social trust are often seen as important determinants or elements of a functioning democracy and citizens well-being. But what is trust, and how it actually influences citizens and the political system? The purpose of the course is to give students a comprehensive picture of the concept of trust and its relevance in political science. The course starts with a conceptualization of trust, both as a political and social concept. After the conceptualization, measuring trust is analysed, and main results concerning survey evidence on trust discussed. The course goes then on with discussing the relevance and role of trust in international relations, trust in comparative perspective, the relationship of trust to political inequality and its relevance in explaining the rise of right wing populism. The course provides students analytical tools to study trust and an extensive knowledge of the relevant literature.

The course aims to present the key elements to understand French politics.

Why has the election of Macron in 2017 been considered as a cataclysm for the French political class? What happened in 1981 that radically changed the country? Why do we consider the French parliament as a weak legislature? What is the relationship between the president and the prime minister?

The objective of this course is to introduce the students to the politics of France from the foundation of the Fifth Republic in 1958 to the new political class in 2017. This course will thus discuss concepts such as semi-presidentialism, weak legislature, two-party system and many others. The first part of the course will discuss the institutions and actors in French politics. The second part will focus on the main events that shaped the country. Every concept will be discussed in a comparative perspective to highlight the similarities of the French political system with other countries such as Romania, Portugal and, to a certain extent, Finland.

Email registration to the teacher essential by 3 January, 2018.

This course will adopt a flipped classroom. The teacher delivers instructional content outside of the classroom. Research is conducted at home and students will engage in concepts and applications in the classroom with the guidance of the instructor. The evaluations of students will be based on multiple-choice question tests that will take place every week (answers will be randomly collected) and on the involvement in teamwork during the working sessions.

The class will look at the concept of trust in international relations theoretically as well as through examining a number of case studies from diplomatic history. The relevance of trust for contemporary issues in world politics will also be discussed.

POLKVA32 Foreign Policy and Diplomacy Nau - Ollapally (eds.), Worldviews of Aspiring Powers. Oxford University Press 2012 (2 ECTS)
or
POLKVA22 EU External Relations: Security, Economy and Values Renard – Biscop (eds.), The European Union and Emerging Powers in the 21st Century. Ashgate 2012 (2 ECTS)

The course aims to discuss the EU-Russia relations using the concept of identity. The first part of a course will address the issues the EU and European identity and the EU politics of belonging, its conceptual framework and contradictions. The second part of a course will be devoted to the issue of Russia belonging to Europe, the flaws in the perception that effect interactions and expectations from a side of the EU and Russia. The third part of a course will have a format of open discussion where each class participant is entitled to present his/her vision of European and EU identity, Russia’s belonging to Europe and identity politics as a diplomatic tool.

Practical exercises for class attendees include the following: filling in a questionnaire on a topic of European identity; writing an essay on a topic of European and national identity including belonging of Russia to Europe; writing and presenting a statement on identity politics of the EU as a tool in defining relations with various countries and participation in an open discussion.

Reading list suggests prior reading for each of a class in order to organize class in an interactive manner. The goal of a class not to expose the ready-made knowledge, but to evaluate existing expertise, to connect personal vision on a topic and to discuss the complexity of the topic and approaches that are available to study it further.

1. EU and European identity: quest for understanding and fulfilling the promises

The first part of a course will discuss the issues the EU and European identity and the EU politics of belonging, its conceptual framework and contradictions. Identity politics is an important part of the EU activity in defining the belonging of a country to Europe and specifically in terms of partnership and enlargement. European identity became a buzzword for defining the EU belonging on a level of the EU institutions, while not all European citizens, politicians and scientists share the vision that the EU is ‘ideal’ or ‘whole Europe’.

Reading:

Turkuler Isiksel (2018) Square peg, round hole: Why the EU can’t fix identity politics / Brexit and Beyond: Rethinking the Futures of Europe. Editors Benjamin Martill, Uta Staiger. UCL Press, 2018.

The Promise of the EU: Qualitative Survey: Aggregate Report (September 2014). URL: http://ec.europa.eu/commfrontoffice/publicopinion/archives/quali/ql_6437_en.pdf

2. Russia is being as a part and being apart of Europe: Russia-EU relations and factors influencing the perception of belonging within and outside

Second part of the course addresses the issue of Russia belonging to Europe and the contradictions the perception might cause on a level of interactions and expectations. Russia is a part of Europe in geographical terms, but for centuries Russians themselves have doubted their own belonging to Europe in political and civilizational terms, not talking about these doubts among Europeans. Since 1991 Russia underwent deep transformation of political, economical and social system. At the beginning of 1990s the majority of Russians had very positive perception of Europe and the EU. The war of 2008 and Ukrainian crisis 2014 dramatically changed the perception of the EU among Russians while the majority of them expressed sense of patriotism and national pride including high level of patriotism expressed by young people.

Reading:

Semenenko, I. (2013), The Quest for Identity: Russian Public Opinion on Europe and the European Union and the National Identity Agenda //Perspectives on European Politics and Society 14, no. 1: 102–122.

Helge Blakkisrud (2016) Blurring the boundary between civic and ethnic: The Kremlin’s new approach to national identity under Putin’s third term /The New Russian Nationalism: Imperialism, Ethnicity and Authoritarianism 2000–2015. Editors Pål Kolstø, Helge Blakkisrud. Edinburgh University Press, 2016

3. Politics of European belonging as a practical policy in regard to Russia

The third part of a course will be organised in a format of open discussion. During the discussion each participant will present his/her vision of the importance and the meaning the concept of European belonging in terms of practical policy, priorities, mechanisms and resources that are available to succeed and prioritise.

Reading:

Deriglazova Larisa (2017) How much ‘Europeaness’ remains in Russia? // Anthropological Journal of European Cultures. Special issue. Que reste-t-il de nos amours? The expectations of 1991 revisited. Vol. 26, No. 1 (2017): 75-97.

Marlene Laruelle (2016) Russia as an anti-liberal European civilisation /The New Russian Nationalism: Imperialism, Ethnicity and Authoritarianism 2000–2015. Editors Pål Kolstø, Helge Blakkisrud. Edinburgh University Press. 2016.

Additional reading:

Deriglazova «What does it mean to be Russian?“ in essays of Tomsk students studying International Relations, 2006, 2014» / Martin Tamcke (Ed.), Europäische Interaktionsfelder: Erkundungen zu deutsch-russischen Beziehungen /  European Fields of Interaction: Investigations on German-Russian Relations. Studies in Euroculture; 3. Göttingen: Universitätsverlag, 2018. P. 33–49. (eng)

Pitirim A. Sorokin (1967) The Essential Characteristics of the Russian Nation in the Twentieth Century // The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science Vol. 370, National Character in the Perspective of the Social Sciences (Mar., 1967), pp. 99-115

Putin's Russia: How It Rose, How It Is Maintained, and How It Might End. (2015) Edited by Leon Aron. American Enterprise Institute, 2015.

Peter Rutland (2016) The place of economics in Russian national identity debates /The New Russian Nationalism: Imperialism, Ethnicity and Authoritarianism 2000–2015. Editos Pål Kolstø, Helge Blakkisrud. Edinburgh University Press, 2016.

John Besemeres (2016) A Difficult Neighbourhood: Essays on Russia and East-Central Europe since World War II. ANU Press, 2016. 526 p.

Russia 2025: Scenarios for the Russian Future (2013) Editors Maria Lipman, Nikolay Petrov. Palgrave Macmillan, 2013.

Natalia Zubarevich (2012) Four Russias: rethinking the post-Soviet map. URL: https://www.opendemocracy.net/od-russia/natalia-zubarevich/four-russias-rethinking-post-soviet-map

Further information: dlarisa@inbox.ru

According to the United Nations, climate change is the greatest challenge of our time. In this course we explore some central political, legal and moral questions related to climate change, with an emphasis to global climate ethics. How does climate change affect people, states, and international affairs? How negative climate effects could be regulated and mitigated at regional and international level? Who bears the greatest responsibility for climate change? What rights the most vulnerable people and states have? How the future of just climate governance would look like? By looking at these and related questions this course offers an overview of key debates in climate ethics and politics literature, and introduces students to essential questions of global climate justice.

Enrollment via email to responsible teacher by 15.2.2018. Maximum 15 students are admitted.

The language of instruction is English.

Multilateralism can be understood as a cooperative form of decision-making on issue areas where supranational authority does not exist but where coordinated action is necessary. It is ideally an institutional arrangement that ensures global governance in a non-discriminatory manner wihtout regard to particularistic interests. Regionalism on the other hand refers to the different forms of regional cooperation among states that are drawn together through geography, politics, culture and transnationalism and most importantly, the benefits of cooperation. European integration process is the most developed form of regionalism and as such has served as a stepping stone for global cooperation. Under US leadership, the transatlantic region has been instrumental in developing the current structures of multilateralism and global governance. However, while population growth and climate change (among other things) necessitate even stronger cooperation, multilateral institutions like United Nations and World Trade Organization are being sidelined by regional organizations. Moreover, under Trump administration the former champion of liberal institutionalism has turned its back on multilateralism at the same time as the EU struggles with internal political and economic crisis.  This course provides tools to analyze current affairs of regional and global governance within the framework of comparative regioanalism and comparative institutional analysis. Studend also learns to set their analytical skills in practice through a policy paper workshop.

- Lectures and instruction, 12 hours  - Seminar work, 12 hours - Individual and group work about 100 hours to be used for the following: a) individual reading of course material about 6 research articles, b) 300 word commentaries of each article, c) group work: preparing and presenting a policy brief, d) 1800-2500 word individual essay or policy paper.

This course is an introduction to the Finnish Political System and Finnish Political History. The main focus of the course is on the development of the Finnish Political System from 1809 until the 21st century. This course provides an overview of the Constitution, political decision making and elections, political participation, tripartite agreements and welfare.  After the course, students are expected to understand the key features of Finnish political history, the political system and society, as well as able to perceive the political position and national identity of Finland in a wider context: Scandinavia, Russia and the EU.

Instructor: Andrei Semenov, PhD,  Director of the Centre for Comparative history and Politics, Perm state University, Russia

Why do people protest? For social scientists of all kinds this question constitutes a centrepiece for many puzzles: political scientists are interested in causes and consequences of political mobilisation, international relations scholars - in the roots of insurgence and policies for handling violent resistance, sociologists work with social movements and related concepts. Introduction to contentious politics course is aimed at familiarising students of politics with basic conceptual and analytical tools developed within the “political process” theory to collective actions and protests. This theory links together strategic behaviour, contextual features, and frames; it posits that collective public claim-making that involves governments can take different forms - from revolutions and ethnic strife to grassroots movements and NIMBY-protests. However, these shades of contention share some common underlying mechanisms.

The course is primarily based on the works of Charles Tilly, Sidney Tarrow, and Douglas McAdam, however. Prior knowledge of the literature is beneficial but not required, however, the background information on the basics of collective action theories is highly recommended. The course is designed for the students working on social movements, political mobilisation, collective actions and related issues. 

Class 1. Contentious Politics and Theories of Collective Actions

• Classic theories of collective actions: relative deprivation/grievances, resource mobilisation, rational choice, and political process.
• Charles Tilly’s status model of contention.
• Dynamics of contention and beyond. 

Required readings:

Opp, K.D., 2009. Theories of political protest and social movements: A multidisciplinary introduction, critique, and synthesis. Routledge. Chapter II. Protest, Social Movements, and Collective Action

Class 2. Contentious Politics as a Research Tool

• Building bricks of the theory: contention, mechanisms, processes, episodes.
• Putting different things together: rationality, context, and frames.
• Critiques and challenges.

Required readings:

Tarrow, S., Tilly C. (2015) Contentious Politics. 2nd Edition. Oxford University Press. Chapter I: Introduction

Class 3. Case-study: Political contention in Russia

• Post-Soviet democratisation and contention in Russia.
• Urban mobilisation and protests.
• Contention and national politics.

Required readings:

Robertson, G., 2013. Protesting putinism: the election protests of 2011-2012 in broader perspective. Problems of Post-Communism, 60(2), pp.11-23.

Enrolment by e-mail to andreysemenov@comparativestudies.ru by 12 March.