Politics of international law

Over twenty years ago, following the immediate break-up of the Cold war, American theorist Francis Fukuyama made a bold statement in the End of history, suggesting that Western liberal democracy was the end-point of our political evolution and the yardstick to govern the world of the people and ensure lasting peace. Yet, in a world now shaped by an unending ‘war on terror’, rising inequity, the mass flight of populations as well as growing internal upheavals in modern democracies with the growth of populism, not only has this statement proven wrong: it is also a challenge to re-examine how we think about war, humanitarian intervention and global justice.

In the past 150 years, there have been continued investments to foreground the ethics of the so-called “Just war” doctrine into the international framework governing armed conflict. However, the protracted war in Syria among other recent and ongoing severe crises is illustrating the growing tension between the need to protect populations and the ethics of restraint in warfare, and a realist push to justify the dictum ‘war is hell!’. Foremost, ‘our’ governments have been at the forefront to diffuse these rules, sometimes even by constitutionalizing the fear of the terrorist or migrant ‘Other’. Be it the new surge of populism in the US, Europe and Latin America or the ‘migration crisis’ in Europe, these evolutions are articulated in a new political grammar foregrounding an apparently all-round backlash against neo-liberal globalization, entrenched political elites and corruption, as much as globalism epitomized by the rejection of the migrant ‘Other’.

This module takes on these evolutions, critically assessing the ‘pull’ of changes in world power dynamics and their impact on the practice and politics of war, humanitarian intervention and the authority of global justice institutions. Built on empirical case-studies, it is an invitation to students to revisit debates among International Relations scholars, and to expand on them by interrogating the relationship between power, law, economics and morality in global governance. Now, more than ever, power is knowledge, and knowledge is power: through this module, students will strengthen their capacity to critically assess our perception of unfolding crises through an empirically-driven, theoretically-strong and historically-enriched understanding of the past.

Whether you are aiming for a practice-oriented career in the various international relations professional markets (diplomacy, non-profit sector, IOs…) or an academic path this module aims at providing you at equipping you with a deep understanding of the broader architecture of global society and the forces that shape it. In particular, it will build upon and consolidate the intellectual and transferrable skills that you have developed during your undergraduate studies and the first term of your Master’s degree and help you build and develop those into specific research skills.