Geopolitics (2235.YR.004320.1)

General information

Type:	OBL	Curs:	1	Period:	S semester
ECTS Credits:	4 ECTS

Teaching Staff:

Group	Teacher	Department	Language
Year 1	David Murillo Bonvehí	Ciencias Sociales	ENG
Year 1	Angel Saz Carranza	Dirección General y Estrategia	ENG

This course should be of value to:

- Participants who want to pursue a career in an international environment
- Participants who are good at quantitative analysis but find themselves confused or less prepared when confronted with intercultural, interpersonal issues
- Students who would like to understand geopolitical thinking and how it has helped to shape the world,
- Participants who are aware of the issues that this course examines, but need to deepen or broaden their understanding of these issues

Still navigating the global impacts of the war in Ukraine and the reverberations of a pandemic that has altered the way we live and work, the interrelations between governments and corporations and between countries, this course moves away from the reality of day-to-day managerial practice to zoom out and explore socio-political change at a global scale.

In our given hectic environment, it is desirable for management students to understand the ramifications of current geopolitical events; to learn to analyze the socio-political constraints that surround corporate practice and the specific global hot-spots that condition international relations. Specifically, this course will endeavor to help participants to understand prevailing trends in the geopolitical arena, to think more in a global context and to anticipate future developments in these highly turbulent times. The following themes and questions will work as guidelines for the discussions we are going to have in class.

The course has two main axes. The first one will concentrate on constructing a solid framework for understanding the role of geopolitics when looking at global affairs. At this point we will face and try to answer these questions: What is geopolitics? What is power and legitimacy and what role do they play in international relations? We will then think and reflect upon the work of geopolitical scholars and analysts: Is there anything like a grand strategy for international relations? How are identity, ideology, resources, geography or geoeconomics shaping current geopolitical events? Which are the predominant powers in today's world? What is history telling us about the rise and fall of global geopolitical leaders? What has been the impact of the Brexit vote or the Trump Administration in global affairs and particularly on the geopolitical role of the USA? Most fundamentally: what are the main global issues that will be discussed in the coming years?

The course's second axis revolves around the geopolitics of global governance. Do we really need global governance at all? Can we think of global solutions to systemic problems without embracing some form of collective or collaborative effort? Without more robust global institutions? Main areas going to be discussed here will be: current multilateral structures, the present and future of the EU and the eurozone, and finally the geopolitics of trade and energy.

The objectives of this course are to give business aspirants a solid perspective on the prevailing international situation and so to be able to:
- Present a general vision of the new arrangement of the international system and its actors, particularly from 1989 onwards
- Evaluate some of the techno-economical, sociopolitical and cultural consequences that stem from the above mentioned changes
- Introduce the main attempts to construct new paradigms to understand the driving forces in the international environment
- Identify key trends in the geopolitical arena, mainly from a European perspective
- Think strategically in the light of these developments

1. How to see the World. An Introduction to Geopolitics Faculty: David Murillo ¿ Studying geopolitics in uncertain times ¿ How to read a Map: The cartographic illusion ¿ Geopolitics. Definitions, theories and political use

2. Geography and Geopolitics: From Imperialist Geopolitics to the collapse of the Berlin Wall (1900-1989) Faculty: David Murillo ¿ A globalization framework ¿ List of Geopolitical paradigms ¿ A brief history of classical geopolitical thinking

3. Ideology and Geopolitics: From the Unipolar moment to the War on Terror (1989-2001) Faculty: David Murillo ¿ Fukuyama and the power of ideologies ¿ The Neoconservative push and the Bush Doctrine.

4. Identities and Geopolitics: Nations, Culture and Civilizations (2001-2008) Faculty: David Murillo ¿ Huntington and the clash of civilizations ¿ Nationalism and the clash of identities ¿ A broken Middle East

5. Back to geoeconomics? Rising Asia, Populism and the COVID crisis (2009-today) Faculty: David Murillo - Redefining power in the XXIst Century - US foreign policy and the Obama Doctrine - 2016: The year that rocked the world: Brexit, Trump and the populist revolt - War in Ukraine

6. Global Governance; an introduction Faculty: Ángel Saz ¿ Why do we need to govern the world? ¿ How is it being governed? ¿ What are the challenges?

7. Economic Governance in the EU Faculty: Ángel Saz ¿ What are the political equilibria of the EU? ¿ How is the euro crisis unfolding? ¿ What is the political economy of the crisis?

8. World Trade Faculty: Ángel Saz ¿ How does global trade work? ¿ What are the main problems? ¿ How is it governed?

9. Global Energy Governance Faculty: Ángel Saz ¿ What role does global energy play in geopolitics? ¿ What are the problems that must be dealt with? ¿ What is the current situation and where are we heading?

Sessions will combine an introductory lecture, a group presentation and a debate on the readings.
A certain amount of reading will be compulsory for each class. All readings for the course will be available on the website of the course. Accordingly, some questions (called "threads") or multiple-choice activities will appear on the website of the course to help guide the reading and check your level of understanding of the materials provided.


PLAGIARISM & USE OF AI IN CLASS

Please read and familiarize yourself with the statement on plagiarism available on ESADE's website. If you are still uncertain as to what constitutes plagiarism please do not hesitate to contact the professor. Plagiarism is a serious academic offense and may lead to failure of the course.
The use of AI in exams is strictly prohibited. If students make use of AI (Chat GPT, Bing AI or others) to respond to the weekly activities, this must be acknowledged in the text.

Group	Teacher	Department
Year 1	David Murillo Bonvehí	Ciencias Sociales
Year 1	Angel Saz Carranza	Dirección General y Estrategia