The MGA Courses
First year courses are required core courses. They cannot be substituted for any other courses.
| Course Number | Course Name |
|---|---|
| First Year | |
| GLA1000Y | Introduction to the Development of the Global System (Foundational Course) |
| GLA1001H | International Economics |
| GLA1002H | Global Civil Society |
| GLA1003H | Global Security |
| GLA1004H | Global Policy Analysis |
| GLA1005H | Decision Making and Strategic Thinking in the Global System |
| GLA1006H | Public International Law |
| PPG1002H | Microeconomics for Policy Analysis: for students without an economics background. Offered through the School of Public Policy |
| GLA1008H | Macroeconomics for Global Afffairs for students without an economics background |
| Summer of First Year (** Denotes a required course) | |
| ** GLA1007H | Global Internship |
| Second Year (** Denotes a required course) | |
| ** GLA2000Y | Capstone Seminar All students undertake a major project in their final year, integrating the tools they have acquired through the program and bringing these to bear on a global policy problem in their chosen field. Students complete this final project under the joint guidance of a scholar and a practitioner. |
Choice of 5 (2.5 FCE) Elective Courses (Second Year)
Equipped with core competencies—both theoretical and practical—in the global architecture, students specialize in one of the program’s three streams.
See course descriptions below.
Academic Year 2011-2012
Course Descriptions for First Year Courses
(These courses are open only to MGA students. Students from other departments will not be admitted.)
GLA1000Y - Introduction to the Development of the Global System (Foundational Course)
Term: Y
Day & Time: Thursday 10am-1pm
Instructor: Prof. Ron Pruessen & Prof. Steven Bernstein
Establishes a historical, cultural, economic, legal, and political narrative and critical analysis of the global system, its institutions and networks (whether intergovernmental, private, not-for-profit, or hybrid). The course is designed to give students a broad narrative to enable them to contextualize contemporary developments so as to distinguish what is genuinely new from what is not. Students will also develop conceptual tools to understand how and why the current global order developed as it did, emphasizing the conditions that produced political, economic, and legal institutions in the international arena after World War II. Proceeding historically, it will introduce them to some of the most powerful forces that shaped the international system over the past century and spurred the processes of globalization that define the contemporary era.
GLA1001H - International Economics
Term: Winter/Spring
Day & Time: Tuesday 10am-noon
Instructor: Prof. Peter Morrow
Introduction to the key concepts of international trade and international finance, with attention to contemporary issues and policy. Empirically assesses alternative trade theories, and examines international commercial policy, international finance and macroeconomics, as well as their relationship to broader global issues. The course is designed to utilize understanding of international trade and international finance to help students think through real world events and design policy responses. The supplementary readings thus deal with key world issues in order to illustrate the more abstract material and to engage with global economic policy challenges.
Each week will consist of two blocks of two hours. The first block will be used for lectures, the second for tutorials and tests.
GLA1002H - Global Civil Society
Term: Fall
Day & Time: Monday 11am-2pm
Instructor: Prof. Lisa Forman
Explores the emergence, growth, and influence of global civil society organizations and networks, as well as global foundations. Examines their various roles, from knowledge generation and knowledge sharing, to policy development and policy change, advocacy, norm development, global agenda setting, transnational governance and regulation, to program delivery and policy implementation. Examines these processes through the analysis of the interactions among global civil society with states, intergovernmental organizations and processes, and the private sector. Course format will include lecture, discussion and may include guest speakers who have had leadership roles in civil society organizations.
GLA1003H - Global Security
Term:Winter/Spring
Day & Time: Tuesday 4-7pm
Instructor: Prof. Wesley Wark
Analyses the global security architecture, grand strategy, and contemporary and emerging security challenges. Topics may include the evolution of contemporary national security doctrines, the implications of shifting loci of power for global security, the role and limits of multilateral security arrangements, the role of intelligence and intelligence failure, and threat assessments of emerging or ongoing security problems such as nuclear proliferation, terrorism, and insurgency.
GLA1004H - Global Policy Analysis
Term: Fall
Day & Time: Tuesday 3-6pm
Instructor: Prof. Wilson Prichard
Explores the processes of global policy development and change. Applies tools of policy analysis to explain and understand the forces that act on policy development and the impact and limits of global policies in producing political, legal, economic, social, and environmental change. The course will draw from the emerging literature on global public policy, which applies some of the same tools and methodologies as its domestic counterpart, but adapts them to policy development within the increasingly visible arena of global policy. It also pays explicit attention to the multiple nodes through which global policy is made and implemented, including national, transgovernmental, intergovernmental, non-state, and marketplace actors, networks, and institutions. In so doing, it encourages students to see policy development from multiple perspectives of different kinds of actors and networks, their influences and limits in producing policy change, and the processes through which policy is developed and put into action across or transcendent of national jurisdictions.
GLA1005H - Decision Making and Strategic Thinking in the Global System
Term: Fall
Day & Time: Wednesday 10am-noon
Instructor: TBA
This seminar introduces students to scholarship on the psychology of decision making and the analytics of strategic thinking. Drawing from the literature on public policy making, behavioral economics, and strategic analysis, the seminar will develop the analytical tools and the practical leadership skills students need to navigate the intersection among the global economy, global institutions, and global civil society. Students are required to analyze and craft strategies to address global public policy problems in the context of the three sectors.
GLA1006H -Public International Law
Term: Winter/Spring
Day & Time: Wednesday 9:30am-12:30
Instructor: Prof. Jutta Brunnee
Introduces students to public international law and the global legal environment, with an emphasis on legalization and the interaction of law, institutions, civil society, and the global marketplace. Students will be introduced to: the sources of international law (treaties, custom, and the debates about the role of other sources); the concept of international legal personality (the concept of the sovereign state; the evolving role of other international actors, such as international organizations, non-governmental organizations, firms, and individuals); questions of jurisdiction over territory and persons; the relationship between international and domestic law; the peaceful settlement of international disputes in multiple issue areas. Students will also be introduced to topical areas in international law, such as the evolving roles of UN organs such as the Security Council and the International Court of Justice; the law relating to the use of force; the law of state responsibility; the protection of human rights and the environment; international criminal law; international humanitarian law; international economic and trade law; and the law of the sea.
GLA1007H - Global Internship
Summer 2012
Students must complete an internship in the summer between the first and second year of study. Students will be matched to an appropriate internship related to one of the program’s three sectors (global institutions, global markets, or global civil society). The internship allows students to apply their knowledge to significant global problems from the vantage point of one of the program’s three sectors, and provides an opportunity to develop and enhance skills, and build networks, in areas of professional interest. A report on the internship will be required and will be graded pass/fail. A faculty member, in consultation with relevant teaching faculty in the program, will grade the report. Internships may be paid or unpaid.
GLA2000Y- Capstone Seminar (Required)- Taken in the second year of the program.
Day & Time: Friday 10-Noon
Instructors: TBA
Description: Students will be required to apply skills learned in the program to analyze a global policy problem relevant to their chosen sector and propose a plan of action in response. Where possible, the seminar will be co-taught by an academic and a practitioner. Students will get instruction on developing the project, relevant research and project design issues, and have an opportunity to present on and get feedback on their projects from the instructors and fellow students.
Course Descriptions for Second Year Elective Courses
(MGA students have priority in these courses. Limited space available to non-MGA students. Contact mga@utoronto.ca for more information).
MGA students are required to take at least 1.5 elective FCEs in their chosen stream. Each course lists the stream(s) it falls under. These designations are to allow you to specialize broadly in your main area of interest (global civil society, global markets, or global institutions) rather than to constrain your choices. You will see that many courses fall under more than one stream. Courses from other departments or units may be counted toward an appropriate stream at the Director's discretion.
GLA2001H -Global Capital Markets and Global Strategies
Streams: Global Markets
Term: Fall
Day & Time: Wednesday Evening 7-9pm
Instructor: Prof. Alan Alexandroff, Jonathan Hausmann
Description: This course will examine the intersection of the global political economy and investment strategies as the current global economic realignment takes place. It analyzes new players, new structures, and new opportunities as the global economy restructures and examines how strategies are built. Students will analyze cases and prepare two memoranda and a group project. Students will also learn the practical skills required to develop investment strategies.
GLA2002H-Global Development and Change
Streams: Global Civil Society, Global Institutions, Global Markets
Term: Winter/Spring
Day & Time: Thursday 10-noon
Instructor: Prof. Wilson Prichard
Description: Introduces the key ideas, debates and actors that have shaped development policy at the international level. The course comprises three main components: first, an introduction to the main approaches to international development, covering economic (growth), political (governance) and social (civil society) perspectives; second, an overview of the primary international actors shaping development policy and outcomes, with a focus on the management and impact of foreign aid; and, third, detailed discussion of selected key issues and debates in international development, likely including economic liberalization, resource rents, conflict and post-conflict reconstruction, social development and participatory development. By the end of the course students will have a detailed knowledge of the most important contemporary debates in the field along with the analytical tools to engage with a broader range of development issues.
GLA2003H- Global Governance
Streams: Global Civil Society, Global Institutions
Term: Fall
Day & Time: Wednesday 2-4pm
Instructor: Prof. John Kirton
Description: Growing global challenges in the post cold war, globalizing world have led to a proliferation of intergovernmental institutions, on top of the major multilateral organizations created after World War Two. The current international institutional galaxy offers great diversity in its policy coverage, breadth of membership, legal formality, organizational strength, civil society and private sector engagement, and its effectiveness and legitimacy in meeting global needs. Just how effective are these intergovernmental institutions meeting contemporary and coming global challenges, and in inducing their state members and other targets of governance to comply with collective principles and commitments? How and to whom can they be held accountable? What mechanisms do they use to reliably and transparently monitor, report on and enforce compliance, and with what effect? How can these institutions be reformed to better meet pressing global needs? How do evolving alternatives to intergovernmentalism such as partnerships or private governance fare in comparison and what are their implications for coherence, complexity and conflict within global governance?
GLA2005H- Negotiating Internationally
Streams: Global Institutions
Term: Fall
Day & Time: Monday 10-Noon
Instructor: Tom Tieku
Description: Many negotiating experts believe that the basic principles of negotiation are applicable across all negotiating environments including international relations. This course does three things:
(i) examines the basic principles of negotiation including both integrative and distributive negotiating; (ii) applies these negotiating styles in negotiating settings; and (iii) examines these styles in the context of international relations determining where these styles are applicable and where they are not thus requiring the principles to be modified to accommodate international behavior.
The objective of the course is both to improve student negotiating skills and to improve their ability to analyze negotiating situations and assess how to improve the negotiating process and outcome.
GLA2006H - The Politics of Money and Trade
Streams: Global Institutions, Global Markets
Term: Winter/Spring
Day & Time: Wednesday 10am-12pm
Instructor: Prof. Louis Pauly
Description: The course concerns the political economy of global governance. The course examines the key formal and informal institutions of the global economy – the World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund and the global investor regime. These three institutions/organizations plus the informal Gx leaders’ summits provide the rules and condition the behaviors of actors states/private and public sector actors in the vital aspects of contemporary globalization – trade, currency and investment. Students will come away with a solid knowledge of how the key political economy institutions/organizations operate.
GLA2009H- Financing Global Cities
Streams: Global Institutions, Global Markets
Term: Winter/Spring
Day & Time: Mondays 11am-1pm
Instructor: Prof. Enid Slack& Prof. Richard Bird
Description: This course will introduce key finance and governance issues and challenges facing global cities and city-regions in developed and less developed countries. It will set out a basic framework to evaluate different issues in municipal finance and governance and apply this framework to various issues. Topics will include, for example: city-regions as engines of economic growth; fiscal decentralization; expenditure assignment; revenue assignment; municipal budgeting; sources of revenue for large metropolitan areas (e.g. property taxes, income and sales taxes, user fees, etc.); financing infrastructure (e.g. development charges, municipal borrowing, land value capture taxes, etc.); the role of the private sector in delivery and funding of services and infrastructure; the relationship of cities to other governments in federal and unitary systems; managing the coordination of service delivery in fragmented metropolitan areas; governance models for metropolitan areas; and the special case of capital cities.
GLA2010H- Geopolitics of Cyberspace
Streams: Global Institutions, Global Civil Society
Term: Winter/Spring
Day & Time: Tuesday 2-4pm
Instructor: Prof. Ron Deibert
Description:New information and communication technologies, such as the Internet, are widely believed to be transforming world politics. While these transformations have brought about important challenges to state power and authority, they have not eliminated power politics and the quest for security and competitive advantage among actors on the world stage. Today, states and non-state actors alike are seeking ways to exploit information and information systems to pursue political objectives. The control of information has long been widely seen as a source of political power, and is manifest today in competition over both the media and the messages of the global communications environment. From the filtering and interception of Internet traffic to the circulation of home-made videos by militant Islamists, a new geopolitics of information and communication technologies is underway.
The Geopolitics of Cyberspace course is an intensive examination of the ways in which states and non-state actors are contesting the newly evolving terrain of global digital-electronic-telecommunications. Topics covered include Internet censorship and surveillance, information warfare, computer network attacks, hacktivism, and governance of global communications. The course is organized as a series of intensive modules. One feature of the class will be a hands-on” analysis of censorship circumvention and network interrogation techniques at the Citizen Lab (http://www.citizenlab.org/).
GLA2011H- Citizenship & Globalization *This course is taken at the Law School.
Streams: Global Institutions, Global Civil Society
Term: Winter/Spring
Day & Time: Monday 2-4pm
Instructor: Prof. Ayelet Shachar
Description: Citizenship and immigration have become a hot-button political issue in recent years in Canada, as well as in many other destination countries. Debates range from admission questions – who should be allowed to enter, according to what criteria, and for how long – to queries about the civil rights of migrants, cultural diversity, and the level of integration that can legitimately be expected from newcomers once they have settled in the country. Another emerging topic is the growing impact of economic remittances, transnational investments, and political contributions by dual citizens in both sending and receiving countries. This course will draw upon domestic, comparative and international law, as well as political theory and social science literature to explore these new developments. Emphasis will also be given to the impact of globalization on the rise of supranational and non-territorial conceptions of membership and the future governance of citizenship regimes.
If you are in the JD/MGA program you must register under the postcode you want the course to count towards. It cannot be counted towards both.
GLA2090H- Topics in Global Affairs I: Corporate Social Responsibility
Streams: Capital Markets; Global Civil Society
Term: Fall
Day & Time: Thursdays 10-noon
Instructor: Peter Utting
Description: Concerns about the power and impacts of global corporations throughout the world, as well as the need for corporations to protect their brands and control their supply chains, have led to important changes in management practices, business regulation, and public-private partnerships associated with “Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)”. This course examines the potential and limits of these developments. It will consider their effectiveness from the perspective of good governance, regulation, and inclusive and sustainable development.
The rise and proliferation of CSR standards and practices during the past two decades has raised questions and debates about i) the appropriate roles of governments, civil society and business organizations in regulating global corporations and their supply chains, ii) the effectiveness of different types of regulation and public-private partnerships related to environmental and social protection, human rights and governance, and iii) how CSR practices impact people, the planet and profits. Key questions addressed in this course include: What accounts for the rapid rise of CSR standards and practices? What are the appropriate roles of government, business and civil society actors in shaping how firms behave? Does CSR do more to legitimize “business-as-usual” than effectively improve social and environmental conditions? Under what conditions do meaningful improvements take place? How effective are new types of voluntary ‘private’ standards designed and implemented by non-state actors? What role should international law and intergovernmental institutions play in regulating global corporations?
GLA2091H Topics in Global Affairs II: Understanding National, Transnational and Global Security Threats
Streams: Global Institutions
Term: Fall
Day & Time: Wednesday 10am-noon
Instructor: Linda Goldthorp
Description:This course has the following learning objectives: To identify and understand contemporary national, transnational and global security threats and how they are evolving. To critically evaluate the effectiveness of national, regional and global responses. To contrast and compare Canada’s national security challenges with other selected nations. To consider legal, policy and other constraints to delivering security in a national context.
GLA2091H Topics in Global Affairs II: The Politics and Security of NATO
Streams: Global Institutions
Term: Winter/Spring
Day & Time: Monday 4-6pm
Instructor: Jean-Yves Haine
Description:This course is about the evolution of the Atlantic Alliance in global security. Since its creation in 1949, the Alliance has fundamentally changed. Analysts have argued that NATO is the most successfull alliance in history, others considered NATO as an obsolete security institution. The objective of the course is to better understand the politcal and strategic dilemma faced by its members when addressing security crises and conflicts. Classes will review the constraints of NATO complex decision-making process in peace and war, the evolving function of membership, the changing nature of NATO's strategic posture, the role of public opinion, the dynamics of coalition politics. These issues will be addressed through actual cases, from Bosnia and Kosovo to Afghanistan and Libya.
