DoctorPascale Hatcher

Politics of International Aid and Development (POLS209): This course introduces the main discourses, theories and practices related to the discipline of international development studies and its actors. We will first study the contentious history of the discipline which remains at times influenced by its colonial roots. This historical review will be key in appreciating how, since the end of World War II, global and regional political and economic contexts have informed the rise - and fall - of development theories and practices. Building on these historical insights, the course then turns to the politics of development aid and its actors. Here, a critical analysis of the drivers and practices for and around aid allocation will be pivotal in assessing the impact of aid on the ground. We will discuss key debates in relation to why and how governments give aid (bilateral and multilateral aid) and why, despite billions of dollars spent on international aid over time, poverty still plagues many countries across the Global South. The third part of the course turns to international private aid flows. Here we will discuss the trends and issues that arise from a proliferation of private actors in the aid industry: foundations, corporations, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and broader civil society movements. Practical case studies will be utilised throughout the course, by reference to a variety of historical events, case studies of actors in the field such as the World Bank, NZAid, and Oxfam, as well as guest experts from the field.

The United Nations and Contemporary Challenges (POLS319): International Organisations have become pivotal actors on the global stage today, addressing pressing concerns such as international public good, trade, environmental challenges, international security, as well as the ever critical issue of world poverty. This course provides an introduction to the historical and theoretical foundations of International
Organisations by peering into the specific world of International Governmental Organisations. After exploring the literature on International Organisations, the course sets out to dissect the United Nations. This organisation will be discussed as a key example of international governmental organisations’ structures, functions, discourses and politics. Several case studies will be discussed. The overarching aim of the course is to bring students to reflect on the relevance, effectiveness and practices of International Organisations in our globalising world, as well as the pressing issues of legitimacy that they bring forth.

International Human Rights (POLS444): In 1945 in San Francisco, the members of the United Nations were vowing, in joining the new organisation: ‘to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small […]’ (UN Charter Preamble, 1945). More than seven decades later, human rights continue to be asserted as an international normative imperative. However, they are also ignored, abused and challenged. In the United States, President Trump is a blatant supporter of torture: ‘It works; it absolutely works!’ meanwhile in the Philippines, President Duterte’s war on drugs has led to thousands of extra-judicial killing in less than a year. But beyond such direct contemporary challenges to human rights, other forms of contestations have long been brewing, notably linked to the expected ‘universality’ of human rights. This graduate course provides a foundation for the analysis of international human rights issues – its discourse, philosophy, instruments and institutions – from the perspective of the field of International Relations.