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Has anyone here ever taken college courses in this? What is it like? And what are the courses called? Is it like “international studies 101”?
Has anyone here ever taken college courses in this? What is it like? And what are the courses called? Is it like "international studies 101"?
I've never had a course like that. I've had World Geography, and World Politics, but not International Studies. Is this a Poltical Science class or something else?
I'm not sure, but I don't think it's political science. You can get a degree in it. There may be a lot of politics in the classes. Was just wondering if this was history/politics or if it was more current events. I wonder if Neme's taken any of these classes. I should ask at NJO too.
I think what you would get out of a course like that would depend alot on who was teaching it, I see alot of oppurtunities to push agendas.
I think it totally depends. International Studies could cover a lot of area. I've taken courses in international issues on some different topics and I know there's probably a lot out there. The classes I've taken include International Commercial Arbitration, Global Business, International Human Rights, Comparative Constitutional Law, International Problems with Stolen Art and Artifacts….these were graduate level courses rather than undergrad. If I were to make an assumption as to undergrad courses in IS I would guess they'd cover issues like human rights across the globe, the formation of the U.N. and other global entities, international trade, important issues on the various continents....interesting stuff if you ask me, but watch out if classes are taught by agenda-setting professors. Could turn into a gripe session against you know who.
Thanks for that answer, Phid! I am afraid of the "agenda" factor with these types of classes. I just want to learn, not get all high blood pressure if the prof angers me or if the students are all anti-everything I'm for.This seems to be a graduate program more than UG. hmmm
Well, don't let my warning scare you out of a topic of study. International issues are really quite interesting. I can remember before I started studying them I kind of laughed at the notion of a “human rights” course, thinking it would be an exercise in touchy-feelyness. But when I got around to taking such a course I enjoyed it quite a bit. For example, in that class I wrote a paper on the problem of extrajudicial killings in Ecuador, whereby police would execute people on their own authority (e.g. on the side of a road or whatnot). I went into the possible origin of it in the “caudillismo” attitude of early Latin American countries where executive power was the big thing, rather than judicial or legislative power. A class I took in Global Business was quite fascinating, and it's there that I realized how much we could really help the world simply by eliminating agricultural subsidies in the U.S. We spend millions on subsidies to keep some farmers afloat in the U.S., but this has a price point effect of shutting out farmers in poor countries who could take control of the market. Meanwhile we spend how many hundreds of million dollars to these same poor countries in the form of foreign aid?
