PhD COURSES
Required Courses
Global Governance Core
GGOV 700 (UW) / GV 710 (Laurier) Global Governance
This course provides an overview of current scholarly debates relating to the interdisciplinary study of global governance in the context of globalization. It examines competing perspectives on globalization and global governance, and explores the sources and consequences of global power and authority, as well as the key actors, institutions, regimes, and norms of global governance. This course is open only to students in the Ph.D. in Global Governance program. | Fall 2025
Economics Core
ECON 637 (UW) / GV 730 (Laurier) Economic Analysis and Global Governance
This course demonstrates the usefulness of economic analysis to the study of global governance. Topics include the economic analysis of international trade, foreign direct investment, and international finance. Students with more advanced economics background (as a minimum, at least one economics course above the 100 level that focused on international economics or an equivalent applied course such as development economics, environmental economics) are recommended to replace 637 with one of a list of courses, including internationally oriented economics courses, some of the PSCI international political economy courses, or Faulty of Environment courses that include significant international political economy content. | Fall 2025
History Core
HIST 703 (UW) / GV 720 (Laurier) The History of Global Governance
This course examines the various ways global actors have identified and tried to solve global problems in the twentieth century. We will study the interactions between international organizations, state actors, non-governmental organizations, and informal interest groups as they have confronted global issues such as war, immigration, international trade, human rights, and environmental and health crises. | Winter 2026
Research Methods
GGOV 701 (UW) / GV 701 (Laurier) Research Methods
The course exposes students to various methodological approaches and debates among them in order to help students develop the ability to professionally assess academic work as well as to prepare their own dissertation research. The course examines such topics as statistical methods for the social sciences, issues in methods and methodology, case selection, critical assessment and proposal writing. This course is open only to students in the Ph.D. in Global Governance program. | Winter 2026
Field Courses
Conflict and Security
*GV 733 Security Ontology
This seminar explores current issues and trends in conflict and security (both traditional and non-traditional) and in the study of global and regional governance to prevent or manage conflict and enhance security. Students will have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with a variety of metatheoretical approaches to the subject. For Global Governance programs, the seminar will serve as the core course for the Conflict & Security stream. | Fall 2025
IP 632 The Politics of Human Security
This course explores the ethical, analytical, and policymaking challenges associated with the two dimensions of human security: "freedom from fear" and "freedom from want". The former refers to policies and activities developed to assist people in conflicts or under threat of violence, such as humanitarian intervention and the creation of international regimes to alleviate harm. The second dimension focuses on the social, political, and economic conditions that lead to or arise from both humanitarian emergencies and longer-term inequalities. | Winter 2026
Global Environmental Governance
*GGOV 620/PSCI 604/ERS 604 Global Environmental Governance
This course examines the ways in which environmental challenges are being addressed by means of 'global governance' - that is, international organizations and institutions intended to deal with these environmental challenges. Concepts are investigated both to help analyze the relative strengths and weaknesses of existing structures and to suggest ways in which alternative forms of global governance might advance sustainability. Specific organizations and other actors presently active in global environmental governance are given particular attention, as is the management of selected global environmental challenges. | Fall 2025
*GGOV 621/PSCI 606/ERS 606 Governing Global Food and Agriculture Systems
This course examines the international rules and organizations that have emerged to govern the increasingly global system of food and agriculture. Specific themes to be covered include governance issues related to the rise of global food corporations, agricultural trade liberalization and the WTO, food aid distribution, international agricultural assistance, the global agro-chemical industry, and agricultural biotechnology. | Winter 2026
IP 612 Earth Governance: The Politics of Environmental Policy
This course delves into key issues and policy debates in global environmental governance and law, examining the roles of different actors, paradigms and mechanisms within a broader setting characterized by unequal political and economic power. In addition to exploring cross-cutting questions about the evolving shape of international law and earth governance, the course will probe the interaction between policy directions and human-environment relationships in the context of specific issue areas like water, forests, fisheries and biodiversity. | Winter 2026
Global Justice and Human Rights
*GGOV 640/PSCI 658/PACS 633 Human Rights in a Globalized World
The course is a study of international and local responses to human rights abuses in the contexts of economic globalization and proliferation of armed violence. It examines major debates on international human rights. It also deals with specific human rights situations in the developing/transitional countries. Topics include: universalism and cultural relativism, global economic justice, rights to food and health, women's and children's rights, the rights of displaced civilians, human rights and R2P, prospects for transitional justice. | Winter 2026
Global Political Economy
*GGOV 610/PSCI 688/PACS 630 Governance of Global Economy
A survey of the theoretical and public policy debates relating to regulation of the global economy, examined through case studies ranging from international banking an intellectual property rights, to labour and environmental standards and the control of illicit economic activity. | Winter 2026
GGOV 616 Theories of Political Economy
An advanced examination of theoretical approaches to the study of political economy. The course explores both historical and contemporary approaches and how they inform political economy research. | Fall 2025
*IP622 Power and Policy in the Global Economy
This course covers the politics of international economic relations. It focuses on the ways in which power, interests, institutions and ideas shape policy-making in the global political economy, and on the various kinds of actors that take part in the process. Topics covered include trade, regional integration, money and finance, foreign direct investment, development aid, natural resources and energy, agriculture, and the illicit/criminal side of the global economy. | Winter 2026
IP642 The Social Politics of Migration
The course examines the politics of migration ranging from international migration governance regimes to immigration and integration policy at national levels. Attention is given to mechanisms of migration governance, and levers for political change and for enhancing rights and social protection. Some course themes may include: citizenship, pluralism and governing diversity; social cohesion and public attitudes to immigration; politics of migrant rights and transnational social movements; securitization and enforcement; and policy responses to contemporary migration and population crises. | Winter 2026
Global Social Governance
*GV 740 Global Governance of Borders & Human Mobility
This course explores the global governance and management of borders and border-crossings, including human mobility and migration. Students will learn about state and non-state cooperation and struggles over sovereignty, issues related to access to human rights associated with border governance and enforcement, cross-border governance arrangements, and social justice movements related to inclusion and exclusion at the border. | Fall 2025
GGOV 644 International Migration: Practice, Theory & Regulation
This course explores theoretical perspectives on migration and critically examines how states deter or facilitate migration flows, including irregular immigration, refugees and asylum seekers, and low and high-skilled labourers. A multidisciplinary approach allows students to investigate the ubiquitous rise of border controls as a state tool to control migration, and how their implementation intersects with gender, race, class and nationality. | Winter 2025
IP 642 The Social Politics of Migration
The course examines the politics of migration ranging from international migration governance regimes to immigration and integration policy at national levels. Attention is given to mechanisms of migration governance, and levers for political change and for enhancing rights and social protection. Some course themes may include: citizenship, pluralism and governing diversity; social cohesion and public attitudes to immigration; politics of migrant rights and transnational social movements; securitization and enforcement; and policy responses to contemporary migration and population crises. | Winter 2025
Multilateral Institutions and Diplomacy
*GGOV 660 Public International Law
This survey course will provide students with a systematic introduction to the international legal system. Topics to be covered include: the origins and nature of the international legal system; the formation, sources and application of international law; the law of treaties; international legal personality; the institutional framework of international law; the relationship between international law and national law; the relationship between states and territory; the law of the sea; state jurisdiction; jurisdictional immunities of states; state responsibility; and a selection of substantive international legal topics including, as time permits, international trade, international investment, the use of force by states, and/or international humanitarian law. | Fall 2025
GGOV 664/SOC 721 - Law, Tech, & Society
The course provides a comprehensive introduction to the intersections between technological innovations, law, and the regulation of social life. Emphasis is placed on how socio-technical and legal orders condition information environments, and, by extension, inform power relations and social inequalities. Focus is also placed on a range of empirical contexts to reveal how social harms are both produced and regulated through a nexus of technology, legal rules, and social relations. | Winter 2026
*denotes the field core
