Year 1

Semester 1

Politics and Government of Thailand

This course will introduce and explore fundamental topics regarding to Thai contemporary politics and government by using developmental and historical approaches. The topics include development of Thai politics and government in the context of social, economic, and global transformation and impacts of social, cultural and political structures including related institutions where periodical modification of different institutional roles and interconnections covered. The institutional topics such as political parties, legislation, and bureaucratic agencies will be explored. Students will explore topics from the theoretical lens such as Statism, Bureaucratic Authoritarianism, or Hierarchical Capitalism. It will also explore issues such as patron-clients in Thai politics, political polarization, or urbanization.

Development of the International System

This course aims to build an understanding of the making of the modern international system. It explores transitions and transformations of sovereignty and relationships between states from the collapse of late antiquity to the establishment of the "Westphalian System" in the early modern period, and the subsequent post-World Wars order. Students will learn critical historical phenomena that impact the contemporary world order in both conflict and cooperation.

Social Theory and Design Thinking

A combination of reading classic and contemporary texts, analyzing case studies and group projects; examining the many ways that “design”—conceived broadly to include any intentional plan, process, or product—can influence individuals’ sense of identity and possibility, structures and systems of social organization, and the expression of political power.

Media and Political Imagination

Communication among political actors and institutions, and the public; roles of communication and media in politics; election and political campaign, development and public policy process,  public opinion; exploration of types, organizations, structure, and process of political communication; relationship  of  political communication and democracy;  interaction among political discourse,  political communication and mass media; analysis of important problems and issues in communication and politics.

Reading Fundamentals for Politics and Global Studies

Practice in using reading strategies in identifying main ideas, major details and minor details of semi academic articles on politics and global issues; making inferences; paraphrasing and summarizing; writing descriptive and argumentative essays on political and global issues.

GEN-ED Course

Choose one GEN-ED Course from this list available in the fall semester.

Semester 2

Public Policy

An examination of concepts and processes of policy-making models, the coverage of which includes states intervention and its consequences.

Leadership and Strategic Management

Concepts and significance of planning; project management processes; project feasibility study; project preparation; factors affecting success or failure of project implementation.

Foreign Policy Analysis

Level-of-analysis and unit-of-analysis problems in foreign policy studies; foreign policy as public policy in light of international anarchy and interdependence in inter-state relations; concepts theories, and approaches to account for the conduct of foreign policy, decision-making process, and policy decisions; application of concepts and theories to analyze foreign policy through case studies.

Urbanization and Migration

State and decision making process in urban development; peoples’ participation in planning; citizenship and well-being; politics of collective consumption; wealth and resource distribution in urban setting; local finance; comparison of problems in politics and urban development and developing countries; incorporation of migration issues in the region.

Advanced Academic English for Politics and Global Studies

Practice critical reading of politics and global issues; analyzing and synthesizing the information from the texts read; writing essays on political and global issues based on research data.

GEN-ED Course

Choose one GEN-ED Course from this list available in the spring semester.

Year 4

Semester 1

Administration and Society

Administrative interaction of public and private sectors and society, emphasizing impacts of the state’s roles on administration affecting the society; various factors influencing modern administration designs.

Global Political Economy

Political and economic globalization; current global economic and political issues; their relationships to Southeast Asia and Thailand; implications of neoliberalism; roles of multi-national corporations; global civil society network; cosmopolitanism; global production and consumption; global economic governance structures.

Seminar in Current Issues

Exploring and discussing current issues involving politics, economy, and society in national and international settings; current issues to be explored such as global governance, international cooperation in East and Southeast Asia regions, immigration, environmental and natural resource effects in Southeast Asia.

International Development Studies

Studying the concept of development; development theories and aspects of practices in the real world; the relation between theory and practice and the outcome of this relationship; a comprehensive survey of development thinking from ‘classical’ development ideas to alternative and post development theories; critically review contemporary debates about development, including the link between modernity and development, participation, people’s empowerment, gender and the role of the development practitioner.

Peace and Conflict Transformation

Characteristics, types, and roots of conflicts leading to political violence; peace studies and analyses; conflict resolution including non-violence approaches, religion, local cultural practice, negotiation, mediation, institutional development.

Environmental and Energy Politics

Environmental as Politics and Policy; environmental movements as social movements and their activities; environmental policy and management.

GEN-ED Course

Choose one GEN-ED Course from this list available in the fall semester.

Semester 2

Cross-cultural Management

Study of cross-cultural theoretical approaches that are relevant for managing different cultural groups; highlighting how culture is expressed through organizational behavior within the business community in Thailand and abroad; Topics for study including issues such as cross-cultural communication and cultural sensitivity, solutions to overcome culture shock, ethics in the management of different cultures, and cross-cultural management practices for efficient and productive work results.

Senior Project for Society

Training students to develop projects that community and society can apply for usage; encouraging students to integrate theories, research skills, and practices into developing projects; encouraging students to formulate, operating, and implementing projects.

Security in World Politics

Theoretical concepts, approaches and problems of international security and threats; traditional security paradigm during the Cold War; changes in international and transnational security environments and paradigm shift in security studies; non-traditional security studies; current security issues in world politics and their future trends.

US Politics

Sources, decision-making processes, determining factors, and policy approaches of US foreign policy since World War II; continuities and changes in U.S. foreign policy towards different regions during and after the Cold War; the U.S. and world order; the U.S. and current international issues and global agendas; theories and approaches explaining U.S. foreign policy.

East Asia Politics and Society

Evolution and change of East Asian politics and society; relation between politics and society; relation between East Asian and other countries; effect of East Asian on global economy and politics.

Free Elective

Choose any course from this list available in the spring semester.