CCOG for PS 205 Winter 2025


Course Number:
PS 205
Course Title:
Global Politics: Conflict & Cooperation
Credit Hours:
4
Lecture Hours:
40
Lecture/Lab Hours:
0
Lab Hours:
0

Course Description

Examines the nature of relations among states. Includes motivating factors such as nationalism and imperialism, economic rivalries and the quest for security, questions of national sovereignty and international cooperation, war and peace, global issues, and the future. Prerequisites: WR 115, RD 115 and MTH 20 or equivalent placement test scores. Audit available.

Addendum to Course Description

Credits from this course qualify for general education purposes at Portland Community College and may be applied toward satisfying Associates Degrees at Portland Community College.
Courses with three digit numbers may be transferable to four year colleges and universities. Students should consult with a PCC Academic Advisor and/or other institutions regarding transferability and application of credit to other institutions.

Intended Outcomes for the course

Upon completion of the course students should be able to:

  1. Explain how culturally based assumptions shape any countries’ foreign policies and international interactions including those with intergovernmental organizations and nongovernmental organizations.
  2. Explain historical bases for evolving economic and political relationships among national states , including the impact of diverse cultural ideas, behaviors, and issues upon these relationships.
  3. Analyze how policies relating to International Law and Human Rights (including issues of privilege, discrimination, environmental degradation) are often a function of unequal international power relationships.
  4. Articulate personal value judgments, while demonstrating sensitivity and empathy for people of other nations with different points of view.
  5. Practice ethical and social requirements of responsible global citizenship.
  6. Organize information in conceptual frameworks in order to evaluate ethical and social issues.

Social Inquiry and Analysis

Students completing an associate degree at Portland Community College will be able to apply methods of inquiry and analysis to examine social contexts and the diversity of human thought and experience.

General education philosophy statement

Political science is fundamental to helping students understand and act as more effective and empowered citizens. We contribute to the college and the wider community by examining critical questions about power and by preparing our students to be better citizens across the globe. Political science offers a variety of diverse approaches to the college and is strongly grounded in the sub-fields of American and Comparative Politics, International Relations and Political Theory. Our mission is to support educated and empowered students and to foster deep understandings of complex global and local issues. Our goal is to teach critical thinking and to expose students to the complex and diverse world that we live in.

Outcome Assessment Strategies

The SAC assumes that faculty will assess student learning using some combination of the following assessment strategies:
 

  • Exams consisting of essay or other method that integrates and requires application of concepts, themes and issues in the course
  • Written assignments such as papers, reviews, journals and other writing assignments that demonstrate understanding of content knowledge and appropriate application by students of content to clarification of their own views on political issues
  • Oral presentations, summits, model-UN, discussions, debates, or role-playing that articulate views and values incorporating a comprehensive knowledge of appropriate concepts and issues
  • Projects where students can identify resources that provide political information and can utilize these resources to evaluate the political process and identify participatory strategies.
  • Review and critique of political material from different media.
  • Use of standard research techniques and acceptable formats in written work and oral presentations

Course Content (Themes, Concepts, Issues and Skills)

basic concepts of state, sovereignty, power, and nation

  • the theories of IR including realism, idealism, dependency, and others
  • the security dilemma around nuclear weapons an their proliferation
  • the relationship between the developing and less developed world
  • the role of international organizations, multinationals, the U and the EU
  • International law and human rights
  • major problems facing the world that need cooperation of all nation-states


Competencies and Skills
Students should develop the following skills:
 

  • Support generalizations/arguments with examples or evidence
  • Accurately articulates ideas in written and oral presentation
  • Articulates original applications and synthesis of academic theories/frameworks, supporting them by citing valid sources.
  • Demonstrates knowledge of political system in written and oral work
  • Critiques own assumptions and those of others, validating them with substantial thinking and application of appropriate arguments.
  • Use of standard research techniques and acceptable formats in written work and oral presentations