Formation/Cours

At the end of the course, the student should be able to:

• Discuss and explain various debates and theories on Geopolitics


• Debate the relation between Geopolitics and Human Rights


• Examine how geopolitical shifts and security concerns can have a significant impact upon Human Rights practices


• Have acquired a knowledge of the origins and complexity of contemporary security threats


• Have gained an understanding of how different states, regions and political systems promote human rights practices and why


• Identify the relation between various foreign policy agendas and human rights practices


• Assess critically the role of popular Geopolitics on human rights debates


• Have gained the ability to discuss, theorise and comment upon news regarding human rights violations across the world


• Gather information and apply theoretical perspectives on case studies related to different human rights politics and practices

This course explores, examines, and critically evaluates the complexity of Human Rights in relation to International Politics, as well as their significance both domestically and internationally. Because this course aims at understanding how Human Rights are addressed and practiced in different parts of the world, it uses geopolitical theories and debates as conceptual tools. An examination of several cases of Human Rights violations provides the foundation for comparative analysis and cross-examination. Using a lecture-seminar approach the course provides a forum for promoting dialogue among the students by exploring geopolitical challenges and by addressing universal questions relating to Human Rights, the challenges and the future.

The course starts with questioning the notion of Human Rights, its historic and philosophical origins; It considers then past and contemporary geopolitical divisions and makes an attempt to understand how these divisions have constructed an understanding about varieties between rights across different regions and communities; It examines, first, the role of the state in protecting the rights its citizens, and second, the role of the international community to secure the rights of the citizens of the world; It then embarks on an evaluation of the universality debate. What is the relation between political systems and Human Rights? What is the role of foreign policy and how it can affect human rights practices? How can violations of Human Rights be explained and why do they occur? Finally, the course addresses contemporary security threats and challenges that are able to either promote human rights violations in the future and/or reengine the human rights debate. These topics and questions will be examined by assessing particular regimes and communities as case studies.

Topics to be covered:

• The significance of Geopolitics in understanding and explaining Human Rights practices


• The significance of Human Rights both domestically and internationally


• From natural rights to the rights of person and rights of the communities


• Shifts in International Politics: Human Rights from a political perspective


• The role of Identity in Human Rights debates: Clash of Civilisations and Orientalism


• From a world of states to globalisation: The universality debate


• Communitarian vs. Cosmopolitan perspectives


• Contemporary challenges and Cyberspace


• The rise of Nationalism and the crisis of liberal democracy