COURSE CONTENTS
PSI 501 Political Theory I
Overview of enlightenment and enlightenment thought; discussions with special emphasis on 19th century in the framework of the concept of “political”; assessment of liberal, socialist, conservative and Marxist political theories.
PSI 502 Political Theory II
20th century modern political thought; discussions on the evolution of the concept of “political” through analyzing Schmitt-Agamben, Benjamin-Frankfurt School and Badiou-Zizek.
PSI 504 Turkish Foreign Policy
Analysis of Turkish foreign policy before and after the Second World War; Turkey’s internal and external policy interactions; regional problems that Turkey faced; crisis situations and policies pursued by Turkish governments; Turkish foreign policy after the Cold War period.
PSI 505 International Relations Theory
Evolution of IR theory from antiquity to date, with special emphasis on 20th century IR theory. Realism, liberalism, English School, Marxism, constructivism, critical theory, post-modernism, feminism, neo-colonialism, non-western views in IR theory.
PSI 507 Readings in International Law
Assessment of basic concepts and interpretation of international law; examination of contemporary law cases in International Relations in relation to contemporary developments.
PSI 508 Politics in the Middle East
Contemporary political developments in the region, including Israel, Arab states and Iran; fundamental disputes, radical movements, peace processes, the role of religion, impact of historical structures on contemporary state and regional policies; significance of the region at the global level and in Turkish foreign policy.
PSI 509 International Security and Strategy
Conflict and cooperation in international politics: conflict prevention in the post-Cold War period; different approaches and basic peculiarities of “security”; changing threat perceptions and new subjects of security; security-based conceptualization of strategy; understanding the approaches and types of strategy in international politics; military strategy; modern warfare; WMDs, security institutions and their strategies.
PSI 511 European Integration: Integration and Enlargement
Historical background of the idea of European integration; post-war developments; German problem; founding treaties; emergence of the EEC; integration theories; evolution of the EEC into the EU; general principles, conditions and instruments of the enlargement process; future of the EU.
PSI 512 Greek Politics and Foreign Policy
Greek history, identity and geography; post-war domestic politics, Civil War; Greek policy towards Turkey, the Balkans, the EU, the USA and Russia; Greece and the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina; Greece after 9/11; Greek economy; Cyprus problem; minorities in Greece.
PSI 515 Comparative Politics
The concept of “comparative politics”, methodological debates in comparative politics; analysis of types of policy-making in states to be examined; assessment of the evolution of their political structures.
PSI 516 Ottoman Turkish Modernization
The concept of “modernization”; debates on various stages, historical and institutional aspects of Ottoman Turkish modernization.
PSI 517 Ethics and Violence
Assessment of violence as a measurable and cognitive phenomenon; theories on violence and types of violence in the context of contemporary cases; the relationship between violence and ethics.
PSI 518 Contemporary Turkish Politics
Establishment of the republican regime in Turkey and its pillars; post-war period and return to democracy; right-conservative tradition in the context of DP-AP-ANAP (Democrat Party-Justice Party-Motherland Party); CHP (Republican People’s Party) and the left; military as political actor and coups d’état; Turkish and Kurdish nationalisms; future of democratic politics in Turkey.
PSI 519 Nationalism and Ethnicity
Theoretical debates on nationalism and ethnicity; historical roots of nationalism; nationalism and fascism; conceptual analysis of nationalism and nation-state.
PSI 520 Intellectual Foundations of Turkish Political Life
Assessment of the intellectual foundations shaping Turkish political life; discussion of debates in the context of ideological tendencies such as Liberalism, corporatism, Kemalism, nationalism, conservatism.
PSI 521 Social Gender
Conceptual difference between “gender” and “social gender”; theoretical analysis of social gender; patriarchy and patriarchal forms in modern societies; reflections of social gender on family, education, professional life, politics, decision-making, popular culture and media; global gender-based division of labor and its consequences; feminization of poverty; violence against women; basic feminist views; examples of research in Turkey on social gender and women studies.
PSI 522 Elections and Electorate Behavior in Turkey
The concept of “election”; elections since the Ottoman period; election systems; critical elections in Turkish politics; religious, ethnic, cultural and socio-economic factors shaping electorate behavior; characteristics of Turkish electorate.
PSI 523 Cold War
Analysis of superpower politics in the 1947-1992 period; political, social, cultural and economic assessment of superpower-client state relations, inter-bloc and intra-bloc relations.
PSI 524 Image of Turk in European History
Image of the “East” in general and image of “Turk” in particular in European history; dynamics of the emergence of the image of Turk, the role of the image of Turk in European history and culture; its reflection on Turkish-European relations.
PSI 526 Turkey – European Union Relations
Turkey's application to the EEC; Ankara Agreement and Additional Protocol; historical developments with ups and downs; Turkey as a candidate country and common problems; Turkey's performance in the accession negotiations, negotiation chapters, and problematic issues blocking the accession process.
PSI 528 Politics in the Balkans and the Caucasus
History of the Balkans and the Caucasus; disintegration processes since 1991 in both regions in comparison; wars in former Yugoslavia and state-building process in the Balkans; conflicts in Karabakh, Abkhazia, South Ossetia; Ossetian-Ingush conflict; the war in Chechnya; energy politics; the role of global and regional powers; Turkey’s Balkan and Caucasian policies; conflict resolution theories.
PSI 555 Politics: Basic Concepts
Development of politics and social sciences; the concept of politics and different political approaches; power, state, sovereignty, legitimacy, basic political ideologies, modernity; development of modern state, nationality and international politics.
PSI 590 Seminar
Students enrolled in the thesis program are required to take in the semester following the completion of the course load, which requires the preparation of a 6000-word research in consultation with the thesis advisor and its presentation before the jury.
PSI 591 Specialized Field Lecture
Students enrolled in the thesis program are required to take in the semester following the completion of the course load and which is run in close consultation with the thesis advisor.
PSI 592 Project
Students enrolled in the non-thesis program are required to take when they are close to completing (in their last semester) their course load, which requires the preparation of a 6000-word research, in consultation with their project advisor and its presentation it before the jury.
PSI 599 Thesis
Students enrolled in the thesis program are required to take in the semester following the completion of the course load.