Current teaching

This course is designed as an overview of knowledge in the field of international relations. It aims to take stock of theoretical and empirical knowledge, drawing on recent literature. This first-semester course is divided into three parts. The first part (International Systems through History) is historical in nature, but does not take a ‘historian's’ approach to the subject. Based on the concept of the international system, we take a political science approach to the major historical configurations that have made it possible to account for international events since the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. In this way, students will be reminded of the essential facts and put them into perspective, without which there can be no certain knowledge. Knowledge of these international facts will inform the whole course. The second part deals with the main theories of international relations as they have been developed, mainly under American impetus, since the institutionalisation of political science in the 1950s: firstly realism, the dominant current based on stato-centrism; liberalism, chronologically prior to realism since it appeared in the aftermath of the First World War, which promotes the individual; Marxism applied to international relations, which developed around the 1960s in the context of a social critique of North/South relations (and which then gave way to critical theories: postmodernism, feminism); finally constructivism, which came to propose not so much a new theory as a new epistemology emphasising the part played by intersubjectivity in international relations. The third part looks at the actors who make up international relations: firstly, the State, the cornerstone of the international system based on sovereignty; secondly, international organisations, which compete with the State ‘from above’; and thirdly, actors from ‘below’, i.e. ‘civil society’ (NGOs, multinationals, public opinion). Finally, there are the transnational illegal actors (mafias, terrorist groups) who are the fruit of the ‘dark’ side of globalisation.

The Politics of Nature will lead us to reflect on the fundamental issue of our time: the adaptation of human behaviour to the Anthropocene era. The central idea of this course is therefore to travel to the heart of the classic themes of political science and international relations, seeking to identify the ways in which the issues generated by climate and environmental change are leading us to rethink them or make them evolve. Indeed, climate emergencies require us to rethink our relationship with others (inter-individual relations), the way we live together (democracy), the way we draw up common rules (public policy) and the way we represent the world, time and space.

This course provides an introduction to international relations issues in Latin America. We will look at issues of conflict, democratisation, the continent's position in the international order and regional and multilateral cooperation, taking a systematic look at history, actors and strategies. Using instruments drawn from the theories of international relations, this course will provide an opportunity to discover and take an initial approach to the major classic schemes for explaining international dynamics in Latin America and linking Latin America to the rest of the world. Finally, one of the objectives will be to gather both literature and empirical data relating to the practice of Latin American international relations by state and non-state actors from within and outside the continent. This course will provide a general overview of Latin America's place in the world over the long term.

Chile, Peru, Argentina, Ecuador, Brazil, Bolivia, Venezuela, Nicaragua, Colombia... in October and November 2019, almost every country in Latin America was engulfed in political and social unrest on an unprecedented scale. The simultaneity of these events was seen by the international community as a veritable ‘autumn of the peoples’ in Latin America. Despite their synchronisation and the similarity of some of their demands, the origins and effects of these different outbursts were profoundly divergent. Ten years of political crises. Ten years separate the forced exile of Honduran Manuel Zelaya in 2009 from that of Bolivian Evo Morales in 2019. Ten years in which the end of the progressive era on the continent has not been a smooth ride, and in which democracies have been severely tested. To better understand the political dynamics at work and their geopolitical consequences, this course looks back at this decade of crises, and examines the international position of Latin America today, both weakened by the Covid-19 epidemic and situated at a true democratic crossroads of its history.