Course Description

The course covers studies of Africa’s economic and political developments and the role played by the United Nations as a catalyst in the continent’s democratization process and economic development. The course further provides students with a basis for examining Africa’s violent conflicts and the mechanisms employed by the United Nations (during current global turmoil) in resolution, reconciliation of these endemic conflicts and peace building.

Course Description

This is a supplemental program that enhances credit courses. We organize monthly International Forum addressed by Ambassadors/Diplomats from United Nations on selected topics/ themes that augment and add value to relevant courses in Liberal Arts Studies (History), Social Science programs (Specializations) and International Studies. UN diplomats who work in a world of multilateralism will be able to speak on global topics that are selected, in consultation with relevant faculty for the month or semester.

A topic selected for presentation/discussion by UN Ambassadors (fall 2009): Impact of united nations and other organizations on social, economic and political developments in Africa and the Diaspora”

Course Description:

The course is structured to provide students with a better understanding of Africa’s contemporary challenges, problems and also review successful stories.  This will include a critical examination of current topics of interest. The course is designed to provide students with a basis for examining Africa’s current situation in terms economic and political developments, and conflict resolution and reconciliation. The course will also critically examine social issues like poverty and health, the role of the African Union and sub-regional organizations in conflict resolutions and peace building.  The relationship between the United Nations and the African Union will be critically explored.  The course will afford participants the opportunity of researching, preparing and presenting papers on current topics relevant to specific African countries.

Course Description

Global governance is extensive and multilayered; extensive because it can embrace pretty well any challenge facing the global community. The peoples of the world are becoming interconnected and interlinked and therefore mutually concerned. This can be human rights; the environment, cultural creation, operation of financial markets, or the health of national economies; it is a case of “what affects one can affect all”:

Governance involves national governments, the international institutions that they create, private companies and the associations to which they may belong; with increasing influence, civil society with the proliferation of non-governmental organizations pursuing their particular interests.

It is against this backdrop that the course examines in detail the role of the United Nations in dealing with most global governance issues, the challenges it has faced since its establishment in 1945, the successes and failures, and how developing countries in particular cope with the agenda.