Geopolitics

The Course aims at improving the students' understanding of the international relations by introducing them, in particular, to the geopolitical approach to the world politics. The Course intends firstly to present the theoretical body of Geopolitics - to make the students familiar with the branch of the international thought which investigates the complex relations between geography and international politics, space and power politics. The Course aims secondly at applying the analytical and theoretical tools of Geopolitics to the contemporary international system; the Course intends in particular to show the enduring relevance of the geopolitical factors to the study of the post-Cold War international politics.

At the end of the course students will have mastered the theoretical and conceptual tools of geopolitics, and be able to look at foreign policy and international politics from a specifically geopolitical perspective, integrating the knowledge acquired in other classes in political science and international relations taken during their course of study. Students will be able to understand the substance and the geopolitical dimension of the great issues of international relations, to define the geopolitical factors and obligations that condition the reality of international politics, at both the regional and global level, and to make sense of the reasoning behind the geopolitical and strategic actions of the major players on the international scene.