INST 401 Senior Seminar: Contemporary Global Issues

Professor Klesner

This seminar will examine some of the problems inherent in cross-cultural comparison and will explore the ways in which a variety of disciplines grapple with these difficulties by investigating contemporary themes in international affairs. These themes will include some or all of the following: (1) ethnic conflict; (2) comparative perspectives on development; (3) religion and socioeconomic development; (4) contemporary environmental problems; (5) the ethics of armed intervention; (6) the emergence of a world popular culture and its consequences for national cultures; (7) the challenges of democratization in the countries of the former Soviet bloc; and (8) perceptions of the United States, Americans, and U.S. foreign policy abroad. Open only to international studies majors with senior standing.