Older courses

Managing a country is difficult. Internal factions and vested interests need to be dealt with. Uprising, revolts, and rebel groups may threaten, as may terror organizations. Mass atrocities and genocides can and do occur, perhaps in neighboring countries whose refugees now stream into your country. Military alliances may need to be built and maintained, and competition and cooperation with other countries occupy leaders’ time. In the midst of peace and security challenges such as these, an economy has to be run, the well-being of the population to be ensured, and the natural environment to be protection. In a word, much conflict potential needs to be managed and actual conflict resolved. What do economists know about the causes, conduct, and consequences of conflict? Can economics help to make the world more peaceful?

The purpose of this class is similar to that of the Seminar (listed above). The Seminar is entirely student-driven and involves no lecturing at all by the course instructor. The instructor supervises, guides, and serves as mentor. The Seminar content is also more flexible and can accommodate changing students' interests as the course proceeds, for example, picking up new topics as one goes along. In contrast, the Foundations course follows a set pace and involves a number of pre-recorded lectures and other videos. These are accompanied by problem/exercise sets and formal midterm and final exams.

Managing a country is difficult. Internal factions and vested interests need to be dealt with. Uprising, revolts, and rebel groups may threaten, as may terror organizations. Mass atrocities and genocides can and do occur, perhaps in neighboring countries whose refugees now stream into your country. Military alliances may need to be built and maintained, and competition and cooperation with other countries occupy leaders’ time. In the midst of peace and security challenges such as these, an economy has to be run, the well-being of the population to be ensured, and the natural environment to be protection. In a word, much conflict potential needs to be managed and actual conflict resolved. What do economists know about the causes, conduct, and consequences of conflict? Can economics help to make the world more peaceful?