Deadline for Applications: April 15, 2017
Summary
A two-week residential summer school tackling the vital issues that shape politics in the modern world with a regional focus.
- Providing in depth analysis of key countries and regions outside of Western Europe and North America – the Asia-Pacific, Latin America, the Middle East, and Russia and the Former Soviet Union.
- Including a daily lecture programme given by world-renowned academics.
- Offering the opportunity to study at St Antony’s College, Oxford University’s only college to focus exclusively on international affairs.
- There is one scholarship available to offset course fees, with an application deadline of 1 March 2017
The academic programme consists of
- small seminar groups with a specialist tutor, which enable participants to study their subject in meaningful detail;
- a daily lecture programme given by world-renowned academics: previous lecturers have included best-selling authors, Emeritus Professor in Politics Archie Brown, Margaret Macmillan, Rosemary Foot, William Beinart, Laurence Whitehead, Rana Mitter; and
- lively daily discussion groups led by current Oxford University doctoral students.
Applicants choose one course from:
- Democracy and Authoritarianism in Russia and the Former Soviet Union
- Democratisation in Latin America
- International Relations of the Contemporary Asia-Pacific
- Political Transformation in the Contemporary Middle East.
Each seminar has five two-hour meetings per week, and classes will usually contain no more than 12 students.
Contact hours
The programme provides a minimum of 45 contact hours, comprising
- 20 hours of seminar meetings (10 meetings, each lasting 2 hours);
- 15 hours of lectures (10 lectures, each lasting 1.5 hours); and
- 10 hours of discussion group sessions (10 discussions, each lasting 1 hour).
Democracy and Authoritarianism in Russia and the Former Soviet Union
This course examines the ever-evolving political developments in the former Soviet Union from the collapse of communism to the present day. Among the dominant themes running throughout the course will be the extent to which developments since the Soviet collapse reflect basic continuities in politics as well as radical change. The focus will be on the non-EU countries of the former Soviet Union. It addresses the key questions that have dominated politics in this region over the last two decades:
- Why did communism collapse?
- What types of political regime have emerged?
- Do ethnic and clan conflicts pose a serious threat to regime stability?
- What are the causes of political protest?
- How have natural resources shaped the development of market economies?
- What are the prospects for social, economic and political modernisation?
- Is Russia still the dominant power in the region?
Tutor: Professor Paul Chaisty is University Lecturer in Russian Government at St Antony’s College, Oxford, and Director of the Oxford University International Politics Summer School. His publications include Legislative Politics and Economic Power in Russia (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), as well as articles in journals such as Europe-Asia Studies, Government and Opposition, The Journal of Legislative Studies, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Party Politics, Political Studies and Post-Soviet Affairs. He is the co-author of Coalitional Presidentialism in Comparative Perspective: Minority Executives in Multiparty Systems(Oxford University Press, forthcoming).
For more information, and to apply, click here.