The Global Great Powers Today

Module Title: The Global Great Powers Today

Module Leader: Professor Brendan Simms

Overview:

Which are the great powers today? How do we categorise them, and how do they act? This class will explore what might constitute great power status today in the light of history. This class will also explore how the great powers behave and how the global balance has shifted in the post-Cold War era. It will foreground the past as a key driver and constraint for both the rising and the declining actors, and geography and identity as key variables. This course is an exercise in contemporary history rather than political science and may not be suitable for those with a strong theoretical bent. There will be seven two-hour classes, consisting of a c. 45-minute lecture followed by student presentations and discussion.