Department of Political Science
Courses taught in English
First semester 2012-2013
1. Course title: Comparative studies of democratization and sustainable development
Lecturer: Dr. Rumyana Kolarova, Associated professor
Course duration: 30 academic hours
Course description:
The course is aimed at discussing the current instrumentarium for comparative studies of democratization. The applicability of the basic indicators used is discussed with regard to the different regionalization of the recently democractized European states – South European, East and Central European, Sotheast European states. A special attention is paid to the emerging sets of universally applicable criteria and the outcomes of recent comparative studies , which use alternative “democratization indexes”.
The compatibility/congruency between the two reform-policy models – democratization and sustainable development is discussed by comparing the regular reports on democratization and human development concerning specific states from the Balkans (Bulgaria, Romania), Baltic states (Litva, Latvia) and Central Europe (Slovakia, Slovenia).
2. Course title: Security issues
Lecturer: Boris Kostov, Assistant Professor
Course duration: 30 academic hours
Course description:
The goal is to introduce students to the main theoretical concepts and practical policy issues in contemporary Security Studies. The course will review the traditional theoretical schools as well as the recent theoretical developments – Peace studies, Critical security studies, Human security, etc. The course will employ a broader definition of security, with an emphasis on the economic, environmental, social and cultural dimensions of security. The different levels of analysis will be introduced with an emphasis on the Regional security complexes. The course will include a part devoted to the „New security threats” – it will comprise of topics such as: technology and security, international terrorism, WMD proliferation, trans-national crime etc. A brief introduction and practical exercises in Political risk analysis will be included.
3. Course title: International Dimensions of Democratization
Lecturer: Dr. Rumyana Kolarova, Associated professor
Course duration: 30 academic hours
Course description:
The course examines the international dimensions of democratization considering the essential differences between the transition and the consolidation phase. The teaching is based on analyses of specific national trajectories and common regional tendencies characterizing South European and Post-Communist tranzions to democracy.
The course is aimed at defining the principal international agents and the evolution of their activities concernimg the democratization process. Special attention is payed to the monitoring process and the applicability of the different democratization indecies and regular reports. Another aspect will be the analysis of the evolution of democratic assistance from democracy promotion to democracy protection. The third issue is the evolution of the conditionality and especially the role of conditionality in the policy of European Union towards the accession countries and the attitudes of political elites and the general public towards conditionality.
The course is practice based and relies on learning-by-doing techniques.
4. Course title: NATIONAL SECURITY
Lecturer: Dr. Denitsa Lozanova
Course duration: 30 academic hours
Course description:
The first part of the course outlines the main political, military, economic and humanitarian aspects of national security. It explores how the international and governmental institutions, military forces and intelligence services collaborate in order to protect national security. The first part proposes discussion on several national security strategies of the leading global powers – USA, European Union - Great Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China and others.
The second part applies the theoretical framework to the Bulgarian national security. The students should investigate how Bulgarian national security legislation and policy accommodate in order to meet the challenges of current threats and the interior security problems (such as terrorism, WMD, organized crime, ecological disasters).
Why is national security so important in the contemporary world? What is the cost to be secure and how do the states protect their citizens, resources, territories? What tools do states use to meet the challenges of global risks?
Solutions to these and other similar questions are explored within the framework of the elective course on National Security. It is both a theoretical and practical course, because in the seminars the students are encouraged to participate in group discussions, simulation games, case investigations and policy paper writing
5. Course title: Economic Methods of Analysis in International Relations
Lecturer: Dr. Ruzha Smilova,
Course duration: 30 academic hours
Course description
This course is an introduction to rational choice theory and its application as a method for analyzing political behavior, and for explaining political phenomena and processes more generally. It is intended for advanced, MA level students in political science. It offers an in-depth analysis of such already covered in their prior studies areas of politics as theory of the state, power and constitutional politics, political parties’ and voters’ behavior, conflict resolution, party competition, the characteristic features of bureaucracies and hierarchies, of fiscal and re-distributive policies, etc., which utilizes formal assumptions about political actors as rational utility-maximizers, and based on these assumptions builds explanatory models.
7. Course title: Holocaust and Rescue in contemporary prospective. The Bulgarian Case
Lecturer: Albena Taneva, Assistant Professor
Course duration: 30 academic hours
Course description:
This course is designed to introduce knowledge and understanding of the events in Bulgaria during World War II regarding the fate of Bulgarian Jews. The narrative history is analysed through the concept of the modern leadership theory and generally in the context of the political theory.
The course presents information about all types of repressive acts against Jews in Bulgaria and about all rescue efforts and rescue events during the period 1940-1943. The story of the rescue of Bulgarian Jews is presented in a three fold scheme:
1) Facts about German pressure on Bulgarian government;
2) Politics of the Bulgarian government regarding Jews in Bulgaria;
3) Policies of Bulgarian civil society led to the final rescue of Jews in Bulgaria.
It also describes important facts of the Bulgarian history and of the European history of that period in order to reconstruct relevant context for understanding.
The course is taught in 30 interactive contact hours. It is designed to involve students in discussions on the basis of the given information. Special attention is paid to the analyses of the relationships between Bulgarians and Jews during WWII as to a successful model to defend civil rights and liberties in critical social situations.
8. Course title: BULGARIAN PARTY SYSTEM
Lecturer: Prof. Georgi Karasimeonov
Course duration: 30 academic hours
9. Course title: POLITICAL RISK ANALYSIS
Lecturer: Dr. Stoycho Stoychev
Course duration: 30 academic hours
10. Course title: INTERNATIONAL COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA:
(regional and international aspects)
Lecturer: Assistant prof. Strahil Deliyski
Course duration: 30 academic hours
Course description:
The course give students a reference point for more effective knowledge and understanding of international communications and media functioning. The “compass” points are the role, the meaning and the results of communication intercession in the international and regional relations. It not realistic to present this problematic entirely, that’s why our goal will be focus on two discussing problems:
- International communication (theoretical field);
- Balkan region (field of practical problems).
The construction of European public sphere can be heurishcly analyzed trough specific cross of the two fields.
11. Course title: Intercultural mediation
Lecturer: Prof. Tatyana Dronzina
Course duration: 30 academic hours
Course description:
The main purposes of this course is to contribute to the improvement of the conflict resolution and especially mediation skills. It is concentrated on the features of the mediation process carried out between parties to the conflict having different cultural background.
The course is bases on interactive methods as simulation games, case studies, role playing, implementation of multimedia, etc.
12. Course title: TRENDS IN FEMALE SUICIDE TERRORISM
Lecturer: Prof. Tatyana Dronzina
Course duration: 30 academic hours
Course description:
This course studies terrorism as one of the major new security challenges. The suicide terrorism is viewed not just as a means to achieve specific political goals, but also as an efficient tool to prevail in the consolidation of political loyalty. The course will concentrate on the gender aspects of this phenomenon and will study the motivation for such acts at societal, organizational and individual level. Different interpretative frameworks will be applied, including the Rational choice theory, theories of social identitification, etc.
The Course of Prof Albena Taneva – Holocaust and Resque in Contemporary Perspective – has already started. The seminars are taking place each Tuesday, 10.30 am on room 514 of Blok IV (Campus East on 125 “Tsarigradsko Shose”).