Course List

POLS3203 Introduction to Sustainable Development

可持续发展导论

The course aims at familiarising students with key principles of sustainable development governance. The adoption of the “Sustainable Development Goals” (hereinafter, SDGs) by the UN in September 2015 has officially highlighted the urgent need for a paradigmatic shift towards holistic development governance that may deliver comprehensive solutions to the increasingly interconnected challenges of socio-economic progress. The course, therefore, intends to provoke students’ analyses of both existing issues and available solutions, in the key realms of poverty reduction, equitable resource distribution, social inclusion, environmental preservation.

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POLS3253 Global Routes of Trade and Investment

全球贸易与投资路线

This course investigates the most relevant trade and investment routes of our time, across both established and emerging contexts, such as “BRICS” countries, Central and South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa. Course material shall cover managing institutions - from national governments to global and regional development banks - as well as infrastructure, key drivers and impact along the way. Particular attention will be dedicated to China’s increasing share of global investment, its prominent role as agent of change in world politico-economic governance, and its groundbreaking strategies such as the “One Belt, One Road”.

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POLS4073 Final Year Project (GIR)

毕业论文

Completion of Year 3 in the GIR Programme Course Description: The Final Year Project constitutes a very significant part of the Programme. This requirement is fulfilled by a single, independent research activity. The topic of the Final Year Project will be within the general area of the student’s chosen area of study. Topic selection takes place in the late stages of Year 3 for all students. While the final approval of the Adviser is required, and while advice may be sought by the student and given by the Adviser, the main responsibility for topic selection remains with the student.

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POLS3033 Globalisation and World Order Issues

全球化及国际秩序问题

As the world grows more integrated, as communication and business speed up the changes in our daily lives, the impact of events on our lifestyles deepens, and the necessity to understand and react intelligently to events and forces affecting us becomes more imperative. Lectures are used to inform and provoke students to apply concepts and data acquired in their time of study to current problems facing the global order, and thus, to themselves, their families, and their careers and regimes which play such a vital role in today’s world.

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POLS3163 Contemporary Europe-Asia Interactions

当代欧亚互动

The course aims at assessing the contemporary relations between Asia and Europe. It analyses the regions’ internal and external dynamics, including European colonial rule and its legacy, the evolution of interregional relations “as equals”, and the current intense politico-economic interdependence.

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POLS4013 Topics in Comparative and Global Politics

比较政治与国际政治专题

This course is intentionally designed to be flexible in order to allow discussion of a range of contemporary issues in global politics.

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POLS4023 Political Cultures and Economies in Transition

过渡期的政治文化与经济

This is an interdisciplinary course, which explores the recent political and socio-economic evolution of selected regions and societies across the world, particularly in Asia, Africa and Latin America. It focuses on the dynamic interplay of political, economic and cultural forces at the state level of the international system. It also considers similar forces at regional and global levels, which may link or interact with the development of states.

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POLS3263 Global Environmental Governance

全球环境治理

This course aims at familiarising students with issues relating to climate change and natural resource governance in a post-COP21 (2015 Paris Conference) world. Students shall not only analyse the most relevant environmental challenges at national, regional and global levels, but will also assess latest policies outputs and outcomes, as well as related market opportunities, thus analysing both public and private sector responses to the steep challenge of optimising human activities – such as energy consumption, waste disposal and food production - on a finite planet.

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POLS3273 Growth, Innovation and Development: Case Studies

经济增长、创新与发展:经典案例研究

As economic growth remains crucial to socio-economic progress, both national and international institutions are expected to devise, support and implement conducive capacity-building policies that, in an ever-changing age of knowledge economy, may not only prove to be “quantitatively” successful, but also mindful of the quality and sustainability of the very progress they deliver. The course will explore a selection of case studies from across the globe to highlight the connection between governments’ politico-economic strategies, economic growth and innovative entrepreneurship as crucial ingredients for lasting progress. Particular attention will be reserved to Chinese cases, so as to reflect the country’s ongoing transition towards a more sustainable, high-value, knowledge-based development model; the course content will also include the study of “Research, Development, Demonstration and Deployment” (RDDD) patterns and policies, and the analysis of “innovation ecosystems” in both Asia and the Americas.

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POLS3283 Society, Environment and Development in Africa

非洲社会、环境与发展研究

In the wake of the new millennium, Africa is increasingly dubbed as a land of hope and opportunities: its vibrant young population, unique wealth of natural resources, deepening international ties with emerging superpowers – i.e. China, above all - are finally making it conceivable for the continent to overcome “traditional” problems such as deep poverty and conflict. The course’s main aims are familiarising students with Africa’s human and physical geography, as well as stressing the close interdependence of social, environmental and economic factors. The course shall focus in particular on the analysis of a selection of Sub-Saharan development patterns that will encompass success stories, persisting challenges and market opportunities of both regional and global relevance. They will include East Africa’s fast evolving Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania; Nigeria, the oil-rich powerhouse; resource-rich but income-poor and restive Democratic Republic of Congo; the dynamic island economies of Seychelles, Madagascar and Mauritius.

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POLS3293 International Migration

国际移民

This course analyses relevant issues related to contemporary international migration. First of all, it investigates underlying “push and pull factors” of socio-economic nature in both places of origin and of destination, assessing the broad range of bonds and frictions between migrants and host societies, as well as the persisting interactions with their native homelands. The course also explores the status of “refugee”, examining the core dynamics and implications of a selection of refugee crises occurred over the years in different regions of the world.

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EURO3003 The Political Economy of the European Union

欧盟政治经济学

The course examines the causes and historical evolution of European integration and then looks analytically at the institutions and the policies of the European Union, assessing their effectiveness and investigating their implications for the rest of the world. It provides a focused examination of the political economy of European integration, highlighting the dynamic relationship between economic and political integration and the respective roles of the state, market and EU institutions. Moreover, it highlights the complexities and difficulties in constructing a European constitutional order and offers a critical examination of the draft Constitution prepared by the European Convention in June 2003. It also provides a critical review of the main theoretical contributions to the debate on European integration, and explores the prospects for eastwards enlargement in the post-Communist period.

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EURO3013 Comparative Politics of Central and Eastern Europe

中、东欧比较政治

This course examines the Central European states of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia in historical and comparative context. It begins with a discussion of the nature and weaknesses of the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe and the causes and processes of the 1989 upheavals in the region. It then considers the paradoxes and obstacles in the course of post-Communist transition to democracy, the market economy and the civil society. The key issues of democratic consolidation and pro-market transformation will be addressed.

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POLS2073 Cooperation and Progress in the Guangdong - Hong Kong - Macau Greater Bay Area

粤港澳大湾区的合作与发展

This timely course aims at familiarizing students with the latest governance trends concerning the development of the Pearl River Delta Greater Bay Area. Students will be provided analytical tools necessary to make sense of the integrated advantages of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao region, its underlying cooperation mechanisms, its development prospects, as well as its potential to represent an important driver of cooperation both nationally and internationally.

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POLS3303 Governance and Society in Northeast Asia

东北亚治理与社会

The course aims at familiarizing students with the distinctive traits of public governance as well as with the most significant social and economic trends characterizing modern Japan, North Korea (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) and South Korea (Republic of Korea).

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