International and European Public Policy

Students will be introduced to international public policy theory and gain practical insights into relevant and current cases based on a range of academic texts, media articles, pod casts and videos. Taking an outset in a dynamic version of the traditional ‘two-level game’ of international politics, the course teaches students to analyse, evaluate, and design international and EU policies.

The course will be highly interactive, emphasising ‘active learning’ techniques in both self-study activities and during class room teaching. The course will make use of The Economics weekly articles and pod casts, as well as current material related to the organisations/dilemmas studied each week. At the end of the course, students will be able to critically assess and design public policy interventions, and will understand the policy options and strategies available to policy practitioners.

Students will get to choose a topic for analysis in Week 12 and 13. See outline below.

AI tools are used actively in this course and will be a focus of both the policy analyses and as an integrated feature to support student learning individually and in the class room setting.

Outline:

Week 1: Why do states collaborate? Introduction to current dilemmas in international public policy and why the European Union is a good laboratory for analysis.

Week 2: International politics and public policy: A dynamic two-level game.

Week 3: International politics and public policy: A dynamic two-level game – applied:

Case 1: UN Security Council.

Case 2: Council of the European Union.

Week 4: Who sets the agenda in international public policy?

Week 5: Who sets the agenda in international public policy?

• applied:

Case 1: WHO

Case 2: ECOFIN

Week 6: Power, rules and strategies: Who decides in international and European policy-making?

Week 7: Reading week

Week 8: Power, rules and strategies: Who decides in international and European policy-making? – applied:

Case 1: International Trade – WTO

Case 2: EU in WTO

Week 9: Transparency and accountability in international public policy

Week 10: Transparency and accountability in international public policy – applied:

Case 1: FED

Case 2: General Affairs Council of the European Union

Week 11: AI: Opportunities and challenges for international public policy

Week 12: Free choice – How do we solve a policy challenge?

Students chose topic and international organisations from following list:

• Deforestation of the Amazon forest
• Gender inequalities
• Health
• Climate change
• Poverty
• Migration
• Defence

Week 13: Free choice – – How do we solve a policy challenge?

Case 1: International organisation relevant to chosen topic above

Case 2: European Union policy body relevant to chosen topic above

Week 14: Conclusion: How do we design effective policies in international organisations?