Leadership and Statecraft

The course curriculum in the field of International Relations, major: Leadership and Statecraft is adapted to the contemporary requirements of the labour market. The curriculum meets the needs and expectations of students from Europe and beyond. The graduates of the Faculty of Economics and Management at Lazarski University are among the best-paid experts according to the ELA system. Postgraduate studies in International Relations are an opportunity to gain insight in the essence of the political process.

As a student of International Relations field:

• you will prepare for the role of a leader with impact on political and social changes;
• you will learn to conduct comprehensive analyses and assessments of the contemporary economic and social phenomena;
• you will gain experience working in an international environment through everyday contact with students from all over the world;
• you will gain analytical and managerial skills that are highly valued on the labour market;
• you will be learning from the best: our lecturers include recognised academicians from Polish and international universities, experienced business practitioners, as well as current and former diplomats and decision-makers;
• you will get access to a dedicated tool, which allows you to verify your competences in specific fields. After verification, you will receive a detailed report - a valuable source of information about your strengths for you and your future employer;
• you will gain qualifications that will help you become a member of a new and highly qualified local and international elite, especially in the field of politics and diplomacy.

As a student of Leadership and Statecraft major:

• you will gain comprehensive knowledge with respect to the art of managing countries;
• you will learn the mechanisms of forming policies in different areas
• you will develop your interpersonal and public speaking skills which are indispensable for leaders and politicians;
• you will prepare to begin your career in politics and join the political elite of tomorrow.

Specifically the graduate will demonstrate the following qualities, skills, capabilities and values:

Intellectual

• research skills: ability to locate information and to gather relevant information;
• effective usage of various quantitative and qualitative research techniques for social sciences;
• ability to use both analysis and synthesis, to draw conclusions, to formulate and test hypotheses and build theories.

Practical

• communication, presentation, interaction skills;
• ability to make forecasts considering different time periods;
• ability to apply the rules of diplomacy and international law to a wide range of situations and organisations;
• written and oral communication in English;
• teambuilding—the ability to work creatively and flexibly with others as part of a team;
• mediating skills;
• ability to plan.

Personal and Social

• managing time and resources efficiently;
• effective usage of IT, particularly the Internet, for professional purposes;
• personal and leadership skills, including the use of group initiative, independence, and team working;
• working in a multicultural environment;
• creative and innovating thinking leading to solution of concrete problems;
• ability to work creatively and flexibly with others as part of a team. 

Electives

STATE, NATION AND STATESMANSHIP

The module aims at analysing how modern nation states have strived to achieve its fundamental goals and how key political leaders have contributed to that process. The course offers a complex approach that combines a focus on state’s functions (beyond the boundaries of law and formal institutions) with an examination of personalized leadership techniques. The course will also compare a political leadership within the model of nation state with other forms of leadership. Students will be confronted with the state’s means of standardization, reforming and controlling its own population and how these means create different forms of individual identity and categorization into legal and illegal citizenship. They will also examine how political leaders take advantage of the tools provided by modern nationstates and what are some of the ethical considerations involved. Altogether, this module should give students better background understanding of nations and statesmanship in the times of an eclipsing belief in ‘global’ institutions and an alleged return to ‘localism’ mixed with a perceived crisis of competent statesmanship.

GEOPOLITICS IN CONTEMPORARY WORLD. CHINA’S CASE STUDY

The module is composed of two parts. The first part is concentrated on evaluation of the place of the state within the context of fixed geographical location – for example how geography and spatial patterns influence behaviors of decision makers. The course will familiarize the students with methodology of geopolitics in theory and practice. Major purpose is to enable them to understand the place of the state (as a main actor in International Relations) in the world constrained by geography, and how those constraints guide human decision making process, thereby making politi cal forecasting possible. This knowledge will be applied in second part, focused on China’s emerging role as a global player. It combines information about Chinese civilization, its traditional values, norms, historical factors, character of society and most recent developments with geopolitical perspective. Both parts will allow students to position China’s rise in the context of global affairs, predict its outcome, and forecast responses of other international actors by combining various methods and levels of analysis into comprehensive model. This methodology and approach can be applied to any country.

TRANSFORMATION, DEMOCRATIZATION, AND CONSOLIDATION

The aim of this course is to familiarize students with the dominant theories of political system transformation, democratization and stabilization. A critical discussion of the attempts to explain the processes of regime change will be juxtaposed with empirical examples from across the globe. Students will become acquainted with the processes of democratic transition in Latin America, Europe, the Post-Soviet space and the Middle East. Institutional, structural and behavioral as well as internal and external factors will be explored to answer the question why regime change produces alternative outcomes like successful, stalled, reversed or failed transformation.

LIBERTY, CITIZENSHIP AND STATE

The aim of this course is to acquaint the students with various notions and concepts of political liberty both in theory and practice. The course addresses the question of how freedom was understood and practiced in polities of the past and the present, as well as how it was viewed in political theories. The course is a reading seminar on liberty, citizenship and state. This means that the students read assigned texts, refresh their background knowledge acquired earlier, and discuss them the class.