Are robots as capable, autonomous, or dangerous as often depicted in the public imagination? Can robots save the world? If so, whose vision of the world do they actualize? This course provides opportunities for students from STEM, social sciences, and humanities to collaborate with Boston Dynamics' SPOT. Through in-class discussions about the potential roles, meanings, and ethics of robots in society and accompanying hands-on lab practicums manipulating a robot for generating its ethically-sound and community-engaged applications on campus, students will innovate and propose Princeton models of introducing robots in human ecology.

This course examines a collection of critical global environmental issues. For each issue the scientific basis is covered first, and the past, present and possible future policy responses follow. Topics include global population growth, climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, air pollution, energy supply and demand, biodiversity and sustainable development. Problem sets, policy memos, projects, news blogs, and presentations are included.

This course explores the emerging phenomenon of "digital public infrastructures" (DPIs). These efforts -- which typically consist of technologies for identity management, payments, and data exchanges -- have been heralded as critical infrastructure for the twenty-first century economy. DPIs have the potential to spur innovation and economic development and to change the relationship between citizens and the state. The course will examine India's digital stack, which is among the most prominent and well-developed, but will take a global and comparative approach, discussing similar emerging systems in China, the EU and USA.

An exploration of the potential consequences of human-induced climate change and their implications for policy responses, focusing on risks to people, societies, and ecosystems. As two examples: we examine the risk to coastal cities from sea level rise and extreme heat, the scientific bases for these assessments, and measures being planned and implemented to enable adaptation. In addition, we explore local, national and international policy initiatives to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions. The course assumes students have a basic background in the causes of human-induced climate change and the physical science of the climate system.

This required course for GHP students explores how we study the distribution and determinants of disease, introducing methods for measuring health status, disease occurrence, the association between risk factors and health outcomes, probing evidence for causality, and characterizing how ecology and evolution shapes human health. Emphasis on: study design and sampling, bias and confounding, the generalizability of research, identifying causality, infectious disease dynamics, global health.

This course examines ebbs and flows in U.S. drug policy, and how issues of race and identity inform the creation, implementation, impact, and dismantling of substance control policy. From "Chinese opium" in the 19th c. to "Hillbilly heroin" (as OxyContin was once labeled) and from "crack" cocaine to menthol cigarettes and marijuana, we examine the forces shaping drug policies, how policies are transformed, why they change, and what drug laws reveal about society. We also examine how social, political, and economic circumstances shape drug policies, and how the US built a vast system governing people and the substances they can and cannot use.

This course introduces major theories of international relations, uses them to explain historical events from 10,000 BC to the present, and investigates contemporary policy issues such as human rights, terrorism, US foreign policy, climate change and global environmental regulation. The course also trains students how to write academic analyses, policy memos and media opinion pieces, thus preparing them for more specialized courses and research in international relations, as well as jobs in foreign policy.

This course will focus on the state's role in promoting economic growth and distribution in the developing world. The core organizing question for the course is: why have some regions of the developing world been more successful at industrialization and/or poverty alleviation than other regions. The students will learn about the patterns of development in Asia, Africa and Latin America, with special attention to such countries as China, India, South Korea, Nigeria and Brazil. General challenges that face all developing countries - globalization, establishing democracy and ethnic fragmentation - will also be analyzed.

This course will examine where and why women and men are not treated equally, how gender inequality impacts human welfare and development, and what works to minimize gender inequality in the Global South. This course will introduce students to cutting-edge research on gender inequality in countries as diverse as India, China, South Korea, Brazil, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, and Mali, as well as the reasons why some government efforts to reduce gender inequality are successful while others fail or even backfire. The course will emphasize the importance of culture and norms.

This course provides a broad exploration about how non-democratic governments throughout the world rule. We examine: the conditions that give rise to authoritarianism; the variety of authoritarian regimes; the strategies authoritarian leaders use to stay in power; the consequences of different types of authoritarianism for outcomes such as economic growth and human development; and the domestic and international sources of authoritarian demise. The course builds knowledge about the governments under which most people in the Global South lived during the 20th century.

A study of the politics and history of human rights. What are human rights? How can dictatorships be resisted from the inside and the outside? Can we prevent genocide? Is it morally acceptable and politically wise to launch humanitarian military interventions to prevent the slaughter of foreign civilians? What are the laws of war, and how can we punish the war criminals who violate them? Cases include the Ottoman Empire, Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, China, Imperial Japan, Bosnia, Rwanda, North Korea, and the Russian war in Ukraine.

This course is designed to survey and discuss research on the political and economic development of Latin America. The first half of the course focuses on understanding the region's political systems as well as the main theories describing the incentives faced by politicians when distributing public resources. The second section covers the main problems that challenge Latin America's young democracies today - including weak state capacity, corruption, and violence. Methodologically, the course pays special attention to understanding the ways in which data can be leveraged to provide evidence to evaluate social science arguments.

While before the 1990s democracies typically died through military coups, since 2000 four out of every five instances of democratic decline is due to democratically elected leaders undermining the very institutions established to ensure their accountability (i.e., "democratic backsliding"). Today, approximately one-third of the global population lives in a country that was once well-functioning democracies but is now experiencing a decline in the fairness of elections, the independence of courts, and the respect of minority rights. This course familiarizes students with the cutting edge of the current democratic backsliding literature.

This seminar provides a broad introduction to qualitative research design and analysis techniques. Topics include case selection, variants of process tracing, small-n comparative case design, comparative-historical analysis, the design and implementation of field research, in-depth interviewing, and archival research. The emphasis is on application of these skills to students' own work, as well as engaging critically with qualitative work across the subfields.

Who succeeds in school, and why? What do schools teach students, in addition to reading, writing, and arithmetic? What is the role of schools in modern society? How do schools reproduce, interrupt, or legitimate the social order? In this course, you will apply sociological perspectives to the study of education.

This course will introduce you to the basic concepts, theories, and methods used in social demography. We will apply a comparative approach that highlights country differences with a special emphasis the US Israel comparison. In the first half of this class we will review basic demographic concepts. In the second half of the class we will focus on demography of the family. We will ask how fertility, marriage and divorce differ for different population groups in different countries. We will also learn how demographic processes may be related to the reproduction of poverty, and inequality.

The course is an introduction to probability and statistical methods for social science research focused on public policy. Topics include data analysis, descriptive statistics, distributions, random variables, sampling, estimation, hypothesis testing, bivariate regression, and multiple regression. Examples will be discussed from tax, health, environment, energy, education, security, law, and other policy areas. Students will be introduced to the statistical software R. (No prior experience with statistics, programing or calculus is required)

This course examines the causes and consequences of international trade. We investigate why nations trade, what goods they export and import, and who gains and loses from trade. We then focus on economic and political motives for countries to regulate international trade and examine the economic effects of trade policies. Topics will include the connection between globalization and wage inequality, the effects of the "China Shock" on the U.S. economy and politics, and the consequences of recent events such as the US-China Trade War, BREXIT, and COVID-19.

Microeconomics is the study of how the economy works as a result of myriad decisions by individual agents (households, firms) in interaction among themselves and with public authorities. This course, taught at the intermediate level, starts from understanding how markets work. It then moves to considering the appropriateness of government interventions in functioning markets. The second half of the course is devoted to understanding market failures, government interventions to rectify those failures and the evaluation of those interventions.

The standard model used in economics is that of perfectly rational agents endowed with unlimited cognitive resources. However, there are many cases in which human behavior systematically differ from this benchmark. The goal of this class is to discuss these cases: when do they tend to occur, what form do they take, how to model them. We will discuss how people relate to the presence of risk, intertemporal choice, fairness, complexity, etc. For each topic, we will discuss the empirical evidence and leading models. Overall, this class will offer an introduction to one of the most exciting areas of research in economics.

Disruption across the globe has placed U.S. diplomacy in the spotlight What are the secrets to the art of diplomacy at the highest levels? What have been the great successes and failures of American statecraft? What is the proper role of the U.S. in the world today?

This course will familiarize students with the practical aspects of policy formulation and implementation that pertain to current public policy issues in the Middle East. The primary focus will be on the challenges associated with improving governance at the national and sectoral levels. It will also examine effective national strategies for capacity-building, rehabilitation, and economic development against the backdrop of strained social contracts.

This course will examine how institutions develop, vary in design, and shape public policy. Law will be a primary focus because it is central to the development of institutions in modern societies and provides the formal means for expressing and fixing policy. The course will cover a wide range of institutions- social, economic, and political- not only in an American context but also in comparative perspective.

This course focuses on contextual factors, health actors and processes that are typical of policy development and implementation in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We review health issues/outcomes across the lifespan and implications for health systems strategies, financing, organizational changes, and policy. We analyze political, bureaucratic and other influences on health policymaking, including by government, civil society, private sector, and global health institutions. The course will involve class discussion and lectures, in-class exercises, and review of academic literature and international and governmental reports.

This course covers policing in the United States as it intersects with constitutional rights and racial justice. Topics will include studying the history of police institutions, from slave patrols and night watches to big city police departments; the constitutional framework for policing powers; various theories and tactics of policing, such as broken windows policing; policing practices in the context of schools, drug enforcement and immigration enforcement; and the rise of social movements seeking to change police's role in society, such as the Black Lives Matter movement.

This course is an introduction to the main issues and research findings underlying decision-making and judgment under uncertainty. The focus is on the contrast between the normative theory of judgment and choice, and the psychological principles that guide decision behavior, often producing biases and errors. The course objectives are to introduce students to key issues in the field, discuss how individuals can recognize and address their own decision traps, and understand how policymakers are using the psychology of judgment and decision making to improve human welfare.

This class is for students who are curious about how behavioral science and psychology can be used to inform policymaking. Lectures and readings introduce you to the basic concepts of behavioral science and to the evidence base for behavioral science in policy application. Precept activities help you to test out these principles as applied to policy areas that interest you. The course also presents and invites you to explore psychologies that are key to the translation of any policy idea to action, including design thinking, and psychologically wise leadership, conflict management, and communication.

How do we evaluate whether a particular public policy is good or bad? Which goals should public policies serve? From Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) to COVID-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX), public policies cannot be properly understood without exploring the political and moral values that underpin them. This course asks what it means to think ethically about public policies. Each week, it introduces a domestic or international public policy, pairing it with relevant scholarship in ethics to better understand what is at stake. Students are invited to consider how they would improve or replace the policies in question.

For the first time, most people now live in cities. One in seven humans lives in an urban slum. We analyze the political, economic, and social dynamics that both create and arise from urbanization, informality, and attempts to govern our contemporary urban world. We ask how formal and informal institutions change inequalities of shelter, work, race, and other social identities, across urban space. We investigate the links between the processes of urbanization and climate change, and how they shape the politics of cities. We draw from cases across the globe and the US, along with a range of social science methods and theoretical perspectives.

This course offers an overview of Latin America's political and economic development issues. Understanding the region's challenges from institutions to infrastructure, from inequality to insecurity, from poverty to social development, will provide a broad perspective. Also analyzing successful policies inside the region or in other parts of the world, contributes to discuss areas of enhancement: institutions, human capital, competitiveness, investment, equality, and stability among others. In addition, the course intends to explore history and renewed opportunities in the relationship between the US and Latin America.

This course explores the development of the relations between Russia and the U.S. from the end of the Cold War to the present day. In the early 1990s, it seemed that Western liberal values were triumphant all over the world. But as Russia failed to become a democratic country, anti-Americanism and revanchism began to flourish there. After becoming president, Vladimir Putin began to exploit these sentiments, eventually making anti-Americanism his main international political platform. The course will conclude with an analysis of the present-day dynamics.

This course is about how U.S. constitutional law distributes policy-making power among and within the branches of the federal government; between the federal government and the states; between governing officials and the People they govern. It is not about what substantive policy should be, but about who does and should have the power to settle the answer. The course aims to provide students sufficient fluency in the language of law to excel in the world of U.S. public policy.

The Affordable Care Act, enacted in 2010, was the defining (and polarizing) initiative of the Obama era, with provisions to expand health insurance coverage, control health care costs, and improve the health care delivery system. This course will focus on the history of health reform, as well as implementation challenges since the law's enactment. We will examine the federal regulatory process, the many legal challenges to the law, the role that states have played in implementation, and Congressional repeal efforts. We will also investigate the role of federalism in health care policy and the future of health care reform.

In policy seminars students work in groups first formulating the general problem, then engaging in individual research on subtopics, and finally presenting their inferences for discussion and debate and producing a collective policy report.

The junior policy research seminar serves to introduce departmental majors to the tools, methods, and interpretations employed in policy research and writing. Students may choose from a range of topics.

This course will introduce students to contemporary constitutional law in comparative perspective. The emphasis will be on bringing together the main theories of constitutionalism; diverse regions that have been the scene of constitution-making in recent decades (including Central and Eastern Europe, and Latin and South America) in comparison with more 'consolidated' constitutional systems, and some of the main recent trends in constitutionalism (militant democracy, transitional constitutionalism, supranational constitution-making, constitutional populism) but with a firm focus on the question of judicial review and constitutional rights.

Policy ideas are useless unless used. The proof of their value is in implementation. Yet, across the public, non-profit, and private sectors, there are many more good policy ideas than there are good ideas implemented. Why? Because implementation is hard. This course will consist of a guided and case-informed analysis and conversation about domestic organizations and leaders who have been demonstrably effective at translating ideas into action, and implementing policy.

The European Union (EU) has its own legal system. So does the Council of Europe (COE), another international organization, famous for the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). And so do each of the states that are members of the EU and COE. How do these multiple legal systems coordinate and sometimes clash? In Legal Europe, we will learn EU law, ECHR law and national law from multiple European states to explore how they work together (or not) to handle the toughest issues of our time, including democratic backsliding, violations of human rights, international security, economic policy, mass migration and nationalism.

This seminar is organized in three parts: an overview of the impacts of climate change and general approaches to adaptation and transformation in floodplains; a study of several regions that have had to adapt to increasing flooding; and a series of five specific local case studies, coastal and riverine. The topic of climate adaptation is of course vast and of necessity the scope of this seminar is limited to one already major impact of climate change.

This seminar will present a case study of one state's constitutional structure by examining the design and operation of the 1947 New Jersey Constitution. The seminar will explore (1) the Constitution's remarkable history from its modern creation in 1947 and ensuing amendments adopted by the voters; (2) the distribution of state powers among the executive, legislative and judicial branches, and resultant inter-branch tensions; (3) a sampling of individual rights that are afforded greater protection under the NJ Constitution than under federal constitutional law; and (4) the importance of state constitutions co-existing within a federal system.

In recent years, U.S. foreign policy has been unsettled by the rise of new approaches that challenge what in critics' eyes have been the dominant neoconservative as well as liberal internationalist paradigms. What precisely would a different and, in particular, progressive foreign policy look like, and how it might survive first contact with real-life problems, is the topic of this course.

The last half-decade has been characterized by public concern over the spread of formerly-fringe ideas, such as conspiracy theories, violent racism, male supremacy, and anti-vaccination mythologies and their correspondence with the popularity of social media platforms. This class asks students to consider how social media platforms and US government regulators should tackle this problem. We will take a critical approach to disinformation studies and examine social platform policies, global countering violent extremism efforts, and Obama, Trump, and Biden-era policies around political violence to formulate recommendations and best practices.

Democracy may not exist, but we will miss it when it's gone. The course will examine countries that are ostensibly democracies, but where institutions and the way governments behave, as well as the way in which money corrupts, all indicate a backsliding in democratic norms. The countries will include: the US; UK; Brazil; South Africa; Turkey; Israel; India; 3 inside the EU: Hungary, Poland & Romania. There will also be an examination of what can be done to strengthen institutions and fulfill the meaning of the words DEMOS (people) and KRATOS (rule or hold power).

This course examines a series of seminal conflicts or crises in the Middle East. It is an in-depth exploration of key issues that arise from exploring four topics: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; the U.S. invasion of Iraq; the Syrian civil war; and diplomacy surrounding the Iranian nuclear program. Each case is taught from the perspective of an American diplomatic practitioner and policy-maker, delving into broader matters such as the question of one's objectivity and preexisting biases; the weight of competing historical narratives; the role of cognitive empathy in international relations; and the part played by the media.

In this intensive seminar, Princeton students have the opportunity to contribute to the exoneration of wrongfully convicted people. A select group of dedicated students will spend the semester as investigators, documentarians, and social justice advocates. The goal is to create a public documentary, website, and social media campaign that makes the case for the innocence of a wrongfully convicted person who is currently languishing in prison and deserves to be free.

Basic concepts and experimental findings of psychology that contribute to an understanding of the effects of policy on human behavior and well-being. Also covered are psychological factors that affect the formulation, communication, and execution of policy. Topics include a descriptive analysis of boundedly rational judgment and decision making, a consideration of social motives and attitudes, and an introduction to the ways in which agents influence and negotiate with one another.

This course applies management concepts and approaches to nonprofit organizations. The course emphasizes the challenges faced by managers of nonprofit organizations in this period of resource scarcity. It also examines the impact that the increasingly blurred boundaries between the nonprofit, public, and for-profit sectors are having on the management of nonprofits. Course materials integrate both theoretical and applied research and writing on this topic with cases based on the real world experience of managers.

This course has been designed to introduce graduate students in public and international affairs to certain principals and analytic tools widely used in the financial management of organizations, be they privately or publicly owned. The course is based on the premise that future civil servants should be familiar with this subject matter, either because they may be involved in the financial management of public agencies, or negotiate financial contracts with the private sector, or regulate financial management in the private sector.

Formal organizations are key to understanding most facets of modern life. This course examines organizations as complex social systems, which reflect and shape their broader social environments. The first half explores why organizations look and act the way they do: Why are they so bureaucratic? How do they influence one another? Why are they so often resistant to change? The second half of the course focuses on the consequences of organizational practices: How do they shape work, inequality and diversity? How do they mediate the effects of public policies? How do they become instruments of political change?

Provides hands-on experience in the application of econometric methods to policy issues. Various aspects of empirical research in economics are covered including 1) development of testable hypotheses, 2) appropriate use of data, 3) specification and estimation of econometric models. The course is taught using a set of cases in which students apply quantitative methods covered in SPI 507b to data in order to answer specific policy questions. Emphasis is placed on interpreting and writing about results.

Provides a thorough examination of statistical methods employed in public policy analysis, with a particular emphasis on regression methods which are frequently employed in research across the social sciences. Emphasizes intuitive understanding of the central concepts, and develops in students the ability to choose and employ the appropriate tool for a particular research problem, and understand the limitations of the techniques.

The main tools of econometric analysis and the way in which they are applied to a range of problems in social science. The emphasis is on using techniques and understanding and critically assessing others' use of them. There is a great deal of practical work on the computer using a range of data from around the world. Topics include regression analysis, with a focus on regression as a tool for analyzing nonexperimental data and discrete choice. An introduction to time-series analysis is given. There are applications from macroeconomics, policy evaluation, and economic development.

Covers the theory of modern macroeconomics in detail. Focus is on the determination of macroeconomic variables - such as output, employment, prices, and the interest rate - in the short, medium, and long run, and addresses a number of policy issues. Discusses several examples of macroeconomic phenomena in the real world. A central theme is to understand the powers and limitations of macroeconomic policy in stabilizing the business cycle and promoting growth.

This course offers a broad treatment of macroeconomic theory and policy issues, using the formal methods of modern macroeconomics. Topics include long-run growth and development, labor, consumption, savings and investment decisions, the role of expectations, short-run fluctuations and stabilization policy, inflation and unemployment, trade and exchange rates.

This course introduces students to evaluation. It explores ways to develop and implement research-based program improvement strategies and program accountability systems; to judge the effects of policies and programs; and to assess the benefits and costs of policy or program changes. Students study a wide range of evaluation tools; read and discuss both domestic and international evaluation examples and apply this knowledge by designing several different types of evaluations on programs of their choosing.

This course is about the economics and some of the politics of central banking, especially monetary policy. Special emphasis is given to central banks as unique policymaking institutions and, especially, to the Federal Reserve System, although other central banks are mentioned frequently. Since the focus is on monetary policy, the course presupposes a working knowledge of the relevant macroeconomics, but particular aspects thereof are taught in the course. Attention is paid to the causes, consequences, and central bank behavior during and since the financial crisis and the Covid-19 crisis.

This course focuses on the role of the government in the economy. The aim is to provide an understanding of the reasons for government intervention, the impact of public policies on the behavior of economic agents, and the best design of public policies. The course covers tax policy, welfare programs, social insurance, family policy, education, income and wealth inequality, gender inequality, tax evasion, labor supply and taxable income responses, migration, pensions and savings policy. Both theoretical and empirical analyses is brought to bear on each of these questions.

In this course, we analyze examples of development strategies in the United States, Europe and Asia, at the urban and regional levels, with a focus on the practical role of city government leaders and strategists, and how to make their role more effective. This course is taught primarily through case studies. Most of the classes focus on economic development, but we also spend some time discussing related issues (such as sustainability and income inequality).

A brilliant policy that suffers from poor leadership or bad management is likely to result in failure. This course is about best practices in leading and managing governmental and not-for-profit organizations in industrialized democratic societies. We assume that the policy problem has been solved and will focus on the non-policy aspects of being a leader and manager. This is a case study course. The goal is to place you in the position of a senior leader-a decision maker-so that you can experience these challenges, as much as possible, in the way actual leaders experienced them.

This class aims to explore transnational issues in policing. Drawing heavily upon anthropological methods and theory, we aim neither to vindicate nor contest the police's right to use force (whether a particular instance was a violation of law), but instead, to contribute to the understanding of force (its forms, justifications, interpretations). The innovative transnational approach to policing developed during the semester allows for a cross-cultural comparative analysis that explores larger rubrics of policing in a comprehensive social scientific framework.

This course thinks about how to look at public questions through a values-based framework. Drawing from a broad range of readings, we consider what defines "moral" leadership, when a "leader" should act contrary to the will of the people, what to do if the law and justice are in conflict, how to weigh individual rights against the needs of the community, and more. This course is based on a seminar series Professor (and former Congressman) Edwards has taught for many elected officials including governors, members of Congress and Cabinet, mayors, state officials, and presidential candidates.

Issues of identity are factors in public affairs & public policy around the world from international debates over citizenship & immigration to health care & from the resurgence of virulent ethnic politics to the shaping of housing, health, reproductive, or economic and social policies. This course is an overview of how identity and power inform public policy. Sessions planned are: immigration; identity, psychology, & public policy; residential segregation; drug policies, policing, & sentencing; identity & economic development in Africa &the U.S.; policymaking & Islamic identity; identity politics & the U.S. midterm elections.

This course provides an overview of the major questions and debates surrounding politics and public policy in US cities. The course begins by examining the historical evolution and key institutions of cities. This background provides the context for studying how cities are governed and who (or what) determines municipal public policy. The course explores the salience of race, ethnicity, and inequality in American cities and touches on political participation, as well as the growth of metropolitan areas. Course readings and discussion cover a range of municipal public policy domains, including fiscal policy, policing, and growth policies.

This course examines the histories, processes and nuanced dynamics that contribute to the making of cities in the Global South. We explore central debates in the study of these cities across geography, urban studies and planning, and development studies. Students deepen their understanding of the Global South, how it is conceptualized and what this means for urban development, while identifying patterns and specificities across the comparative contexts of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Ultimately, we consider how these actors are, or should be considered, in policymaking and planning interventions in the Global South.

This course examines the roles of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons in international security historically, at present, and in possible futures. The technical basis for these weapons will be presented at a level suitable for the non-scientist, and the challenges of state and non-state acquisition or development will be assessed. Topics to be examined include deterrence, defense, preemption, arms control, nonproliferation, and plausible terrorist capabilities.

Using a balance of theoretical frameworks and practical policy tools, this seminar studies terrorism, and governments' responses to this form of political violence. It is divided into two parts: Part I studies the history, root causes, organizations, strategies, tactics, and types of terrorism. Part II reviews the main strategies, tactics, and tools of combatting terrorism, including preventive and mitigative measures, kinetic and operational tools, and strategic methods in disrupting support structures of terrorism. Conceptual and theoretical frameworks are analyzed in light of the instructor's practical experience in counter-terrorism.

This course examines the strategies that great powers pursue to achieve foreign policy and national security objectives. It aims to help students understand the drivers and dimensions of competition between the United States and China and is structured around a series of questions related to aspects of Sino-American competition, namely the role of power shifts, perceptions, signaling, coercion, technology, ideology, alliances, economic statecraft, and leadership. Students review foundational literature in each area so that they can better understand the fundamental logic of the emerging strategic competition and its likely future path.

With the Taliban takeover of power in Afghanistan in late 2021, the country entered yet another transition. This seminar attempts to assess needs, and to formulate policy recommendations in the context of the virtually complete international boycott of the Taliban-led government. Students write and present a short paper on an area of intervention. Students also produce a joint report with specific policy recommendations. Students benefit from access to the Afghanistan Policy Lab (APL) and participate in APL-sponsored events led by external experts and present their recommendations in relevant policy-making circles.

This seminar engages in political changes observed in Latin America. The region continues to be perceived as one of high growth potential, on the account of demographics, natural resources, and democratic values. However, data on violence, poverty, and inequality present a region lagging behind. The incapacity of reforms to tackle needs of the population, has resulted in a wave of neo-populism with a large role played by social media. We examine polling and electoral results and data analytics of social media. Also, we invite Latin American leaders to discuss about political scenarios and the potential for critical reforms.

Considers role of law in gov't: When is a state constrained by law & when it may legitimately change/ignore the law? Use a range of materials from fiction to court cases, legal theory to political history, etc. Proceed by negative example, considering cases from the US: Lincoln's conduct during Civil War, Roosevelt's economic emergency, the Cold War, Nixonian exceptionalism, "war on terror" after 9/11. Also consider comparative examples: Russian Revolution, the collapse of the Weimar constitution, the breaks from communism in the "revolutions" of 1989 & beyond. Also Nuremberg Trials & Kosovar War.

Course examines how and why society can make us sick or healthy and how gender, race/ethnicity, wealth, education, occupation and other social statuses shape health outcomes. It looks at the role of social institutions, and environment-society interactions in shaping health outcomes and examines how these factors underlie some of the major causes of illness and death around the world including infant mortality, infectious diseases such as HIV/AIDS, and chronic diseases such as heart disease and cancer. The course draws on historical and cross-cultural material from the U.S. as well as global examples from different countries around the world.

This seminar explores important factors facing the field of global health today, as well as policy actions to address these factors. It examines demographic changes and rapid urbanization, climate change and its implications for global health, the increased importance of non-communicable diseases in low- and middle-income countries, the rise of social media and misinformation/disinformation, new health risk factors such as antimicrobial resistance, and the increased prominence of humanitarian emergencies due to conflicts, natural disasters, pandemics and other disease outbreaks.

This course asks: What are the political, ethical, and historical bases for making these decisions about citizenship, borders, and in/exclusion? These questions are particularly salient in the context of globalization, migration and refugee flows, war and ethnic conflict, poverty, and now climate change. This course strikes a balance between analyzing theory, empirics, and policy debates- especially in light of contemporary issues facing the 21st century.

The course focuses on the "micro" level, not on broad principles of aid effectiveness or unified theories of political development, although it intersects both. It asks you to place yourselves in the shoes of the reformer (think Seretse Khama, Lee Kuan Yew, or Sri Mulyani Indrawati, for example). You have a limited opportunity to build a new institutional order and improve the provision of public goods. How can you get around the challenges that inevitably arise? Is there a way to lock in these changes and help new institutions endure? At the end of the course we return to "big theory" and the task of drawing broader insight.

This class provides students with a firm understanding of the quantitative tools and methodologies available for the production and utilization of rigorous evidence, two necessary ingredients in evidence-based policymaking. The class also discusses how and when impact evaluation results can inform decision-making and how public policy decisions can, in turn, influence the production of further evidence. The class provides practical skills and strategies immediately applicable to the production, interpretation and utilization of rigorous evidence.

This course tackles the challenges of mitigating and adapting to climate change. We study the consequences of climate change and the government policy aimed at limiting carbon emissions. We place particular emphasis on global impacts, including in lower-income countries that face disproportionate damages from climate change, as well as unique difficulties in implementing environmental regulation.

This is a macro, international finance-oriented development course, which will focus on the political economy of policy decisions. It will cover the following themes: 1. GDP growth and volatility; 2. the size, composition, and influence of international capital flows; 3. sudden stops in capital flows and financial crises; 4. the domestic and multilateral response to crises, including the role of fiscal adjustment, external financing, and debt restructuring; 5. We will draw on several country case-studies and students will be encouraged to undertake short research assignments to deepen their own policy interests.

Why do severe recessions happen? Could we have prevented the Great Recession and its consequences? And what actions are needed to prevent such crises going forward? We undertake an empirical exploration of these questions in this course and debate the various macro and financial policy questions that arise. Our discussions are strictly disciplined by data and evidence. The course analyzes the role of debt in generating the Great Recession and the Great Depression, as well as the current economic malaise in Europe.

This seminar explores the effects of the ease of data collection and algorithmic processing on individuals and society. We examine the technical underpinnings of data collection and the lack of individual ability to meaningfully control it. We delve into algorithms, machine learning and artificial intelligence, examining challenges posed by tools developed in the data-rich paradigms. We end by discussing technical & policy solutions that may have the potential to change the status quo. The course is organized in modules, each introducing the relevant technological practices to facilitate discussion of their implications and interventions.

This class provides an introduction to machine learning in R with a focus on applications in policy. The power of machine learning tools is their applicability around a wide range of tasks. Assuming a foundation in linear regression and basic R knowledge, this course provides an introduction to the tools of machine learning, the kinds of tasks where it can be applied, and some of the unique considerations we should have when applying machine learning to the study of social data.

Examines international law and governance in the context of environmental problems. Considers the need for regulation under conditions of scientific uncertainty in issues such as climate change, bovine growth hormones, GMOs, fisheries management, biodiversity conservation, and ozone depletion. Explores the efficacy of diverse regulatory approaches, mechanisms for scientific advice to policymakers and participation by business firms and NGOs. Considers intersections between environmental regulation (both domestic and international) with trade, investment, and multilateral development and aid programs.

This course explores the impacts of & societal responses to climate hazards. Drawing on case studies, students interrogate relationships among extreme events, human behavior, disaster management, public policy, technology, and social inequality to deconstruct what makes people and places vulnerable to hazards. By the end of the course, students should be able to identify the leading environmental and policy drivers of societal vulnerability to hazards and understand how natural & societal processes interact to create disasters. They also learn about public data sources & applying analytical tools used in disaster risk reduction.

This segment of the JDP seminar covers theory and research on social stratification, the major subfield in sociology that focuses on inequality. Course begins by reviewing major theories, constructs, measures, and empirical work on inequality. Weeks two through six focus on institutions that are expected to produce (and reproduce) inequalities, including families, neighborhoods, schools, labor markets, and penal policy.

A course required for and limited to students in the Joint Degree program in Social Policy. Two major areas of psychology make important contributions to the study of social policy and inequality. The first is social psychology, which focuses on inter-group relations, interpersonal perception, stereotyping, racism, aggression, justice and fairness. The second domain involves the fields of social-cognition, judgment and decision making, areas of research that study human information processing in a way that is not about individual differences, and often not social.

This course discusses how economic trends and politics have shaped macroeconomic thinking in the postwar years. Given the nature of how ideas originate and travel, the course traces the evolution of economic policy in the advanced countries, but we also focus on the osmosis of these ideas to and experience with them in developing/emerging economies.

This course covers how the Federal budget process is supposed to work and how it actually does work. Topics include: (1) institutions, processes, and definitions; (2) history of budget outcomes; (3) the current state of the Federal budget process; (4) the role of uncertainty in budgeting; (4) the role of politics in budgeting; and (5) the budget's short- and long-term fiscal consequences.

This course investigates how ethnic diversity influences policymaking and how state institutions structure ethnic politics; why and how ethnic diversity shapes individuals' and groups' beliefs, preferences, and behaviors in ways that influence the formulation of policy; and also examines sources of inter-group conflict and how policies can help ameliorate or exacerbate such conflict, focusing on immigration policy, multiculturalism, and state institutions that raise or lower the salience of ethnic identity. Topics and readings cover advanced industrialized democracies as well as economically and politically developing countries.

This seminar explores supply-side approaches to addressing this pervasive housing crisis. We examine critically the current policies, challenges, and practice of developing new, income-restricted affordable housing, both single-family and multi-family, for sale and rental, in the United States. We assess the impacts of building affordable housing on residents and communities, including issues of race and class. We conclude by discussing student papers and assessing likely and desirable alternative future affordable housing policies.

This half-term course provides an overview of recent applied research on bureaucracy in the developing world. Students will examine questions such as how bureaucrats are selected; how the incentives environment they face in office shapes their performance; how politics intervenes and enables bureaucratic work; and what factors shape the efficacy of bureaucratic systems.

The course is about the urgent need to develop principled leadership. It is based on one premise: a democratic form of government cannot exist if citizens distrust each other, and dishonesty is a form of life. The goal is to expose students who have expressed an interest in developing their leadership skills to the threats, risks, and challenges they will confront. Researching leadership techniques, values, and principles, students will explore how others have defied similar challenges in the past. Through lectures, readings, and case studies, students will have an opportunity to reflect and develop their own concept of effective leadership.

This seminar explores the forces driving the erosion of democratic norms, values and institutions and the concurrent surge in authoritarian rule of a new and more sophisticated type. We also explore democratic resilience, including strategies crafted and implemented by civil society actors and movements seeking to rejuvenate or even reinvent the democracy project. Students sharpen their thinking about the shifting global political landscape and explore the daunting challenges to advance democratic freedoms and fundamental human rights. Drawing on international case studies, this seminar provides a policy practitioner's perspective.

This course explores how economics has recently incorporated a number of insights and findings from psychology and experiments and examines some of the implications that follow for the workings of markets and policy. Topics include Imperfect self-control, present bias, fairness and reciprocity, motivation, signaling concerns, wishing thinking, reference dependence, malleable preferences, bounded rationality, and more.

This course is about the politics, ethics, and policy of war crimes tribunals. How do law and politics interact? Why do states pursue international justice, and how sincere are they? Is war itself a crime? Do states have the right to punish war criminals, and what makes such efforts succeed or fail? We look not just at Nuremberg, but also at efforts arising from World War I, World War II in Asia, and the wars in the former Yugoslavia.

This course uses the lens of reproductive justice to examine policy and politics around reproduction and family formation in the United States. The course explores the social, historical and cultural forces that shape reproduction, focusing on how inequalities based on gender, sexuality, race and ethnicity, class, and citizenship structure and influence reproductive opportunities and experiences. Topics include contraception and abortion, childbirth and maternity care, adoption and family policy, reproductive technology, eugenics, the maternal mortality crisis, and the role of law, medicine and activism in shaping contemporary reproduction.

This course addressed state and local regulation of public health and health care. It explores the opportunities and limits of government intervention to promote health and address health care deficits, with case examples drawn from New York City, New Jersey and other cities and states. Topics include controversies surrounding efforts to address obesity and other chronic illnesses, regulation of reproductive health services, policies to reduce gun violence, and the opioid crisis. The course combines in-depth readings, discussion, lectures, and a written assignment.

This course examines the principles of negotiation and provide firsthand experience in simulated negotiations. Sample topics include distributive negotiation, integrative negotiation ("expanding the pie"), conflict management, and coalitions. Research on the variables that affect success in negotiations are discussed. Students engage in a series of bargaining exercises between individuals and teams, and results are analyzed by the class.

Why are countries increasingly turning to 'industrial policy' as their primary strategy for transitioning from fossil fuels? This course examines the historical roots of industrial policies and how they have been translated into the contemporary policy architecture of a 'green transition.' We explore key industrial sectors targeted by contemporary green industrial policies, such as semiconductors, automobiles, energy utilities, and the built environment. This course is global in scope and examines cases of green industrial policy in both rich world contexts and middle-income contexts, like China, India, Brazil and South Africa.

This course examines the challenges of managing crises in large organizations. By using real world case studies as well as exploring the literature in the field, students gain familiarity with critical tools needed by leaders confronted with handling events that are beyond the normal capacity of an enterprise to manage.

America's founding principles of equality conflict with its record on civil rights. No more is this the case than the issue of race in American politics. This course brings together a wide range of scholarship about race and democracy to encourage thinking about equity and fairness across public systems, in policy making, and why it matters. Specific attention is given to how these racial dynamics are articulated in terms of public opinion and political behavior, with some consideration of racial equity tools and culturally responsive evaluation.

The goal of this half semester class is to familiarize students with principles and methods of impact evaluation. The lectures cover a mix of theory and applications from both international and domestic contexts, with an emphasis on LMICs. By the end of the class, students should be able to evaluate impact claims made by others and to design impact evaluations themselves.

This graduate seminar explores the role of the military in politics and society through a global comparative lens. With a focus on policy implications, the course interrogates the fundamental problem of civil-military relations: establishing effective, democratic control over the armed forces. Through diverse case studies, we explore how the complex relationship between soldiers, society, and the state can influence political and economic development. Topics covered include revolution, coups d'état, and state repression.

This class explores the recent history, current debates, and possible future trajectories of stakeholder capitalism, including the role of public policy in shaping the role of business in society. The course seeks to equip students with an understanding of how business and investment are being used to address social & environmental problems. It provides an understanding of how companies & investors engage with traditional philanthropic, nonprofit and government institutions and equips students with a critical lens on how to differentiate between rhetoric and substance, assess risks & opportunities, in the dialogue around inclusive capitalism.

This course explores three questions in the economics of education: What are the economic returns to education? How do people's valuations of education relate to economists' measures of returns? how are individuals' choices and educational outcomes mediated by information? We pay special attention to higher education policy and to choice-based reforms in K-12 education. Do these reforms 'work?' If not, why not? Topics include signaling and human capital theories, valuation of school quality, charter/magnet schools, and informational and financial frictions in higher education.

This course will introduce students to strategic approaches and tools for countering corruption at the national, regional and global levels. We will review successes, failures, and challenges in reducing corruption, and learn the best international anti-corruption standards and practices. We will focus on effective policies to combat kleptocracy in governments. The course will also cover the following: international standards (OECD/UN/EU); model anti-corruption institutions; best practices to avoid corruption in large infrastructure projects; anti-money laundering measures; transparency and accountability; and institutional integrity systems.

The last two years have seen increased calls for unionization (Amazon/Starbucks), a surge in strikes, new forced labor cases tied to H2A visas. Questions about extreme wage and income inequities, health and safety risks, and the future of work dominate the headlines. But what to do? In this seminar we will address the history of labor unions in the United States and new models for unions; Worker-driven Social Responsibility as a new model for protecting workers' human rights; and the future for defining, claiming, and protecting workers' human rights of fair pay, safe working conditions, and dignity at work.

Even though numerous influential reports call for earlier and better integration of behavioral science theory and insights into the policy process, the reality is that disciplines other than economics and the law have had little or no influence on the design or implementation of environmental or technology policy. We review reasons and consequences for this failure and examine paths towards better future integration.

Designed to improve students' skill, confidence and judgment in use of science in policy applications. Using case studies, real-world examples, and in-class exercises, in the areas of atmospheric and energy policy, the emphasis is on preparing both non-scientists and scientists to use, understand, and critique science in environmental policy applications. Exercises are scaled to the student's background.

The handling of personal information by both public and private entities has become one of the central concerns of our time. The use of new technologies and their rapid innovations pose ever new challenges for the protection of privacy. In this half-term course, we study the legal frameworks pertaining to data privacy in the US and the EU and their interaction, we critically examine the policy behind it and we engage in readings (including relevant case law) and discussions surrounding the current topics like government and private surveillance, privacy and media, platforms liability, privacy harms or targeted advertising.

Vaccination is one of the most powerful tools in global health. However, vaccines are arguably much less deployed than they should be, due to a combination of economic and biological constraints, as well as the rising trend of vaccine hesitancy Here, we review the biology of vaccines and their impact on infectious disease dynamics, focusing especially on the key concept of herd (community) immunity. We then use case studies to discuss the successes and limitations of vaccination against human diseases, drawing general implications about their optimal future deployment.

This course offers an interdisciplinary introduction to debates and policy questions related to energy, environment, and development. Some of the topics to be addressed are changing patterns of energy and electricity use in developing countries; the environmental consequences of energy production and use; the relationship between energy and well-being; choices of different energy technologies for climate mitigation and the social and livelihood implications that flow from their adoption or expansion; and ecological limits to growth and their implications. Readings in the course are drawn from a variety of disciplines.

This course surveys a wide range of health effects from climate change and discusses strategic opportunities to improve health outcomes through energy decarbonization efforts. The course is highly interactive, combining lectures with a wide variety of in class activities. Class participation is a critical component of the learning experience. Course activities and assignments are designed to help students understand the topics covered in the class, as well as to develop key research and communication skills related to climate and health.

This seminar provides a broad introduction to qualitative research design and analysis techniques. Topics include case selection, variants of process tracing, small-n comparative case design, comparative-historical analysis, the design and implementation of field research, in-depth interviewing, and archival research. The emphasis is on application of these skills to students' own work, as well as engaging critically with qualitative work across the subfields.

This course combines a traditional public health course in epidemiology with a policy-oriented course on population health. Conventional topics include measurement of health and survival and impact of associated risk factors; techniques for design, analysis of epidemiologic studies; sources of bias and confounding; and causal inference. We also examine: models of infectious disease with an emphasis on COVID-19, inference and decision making based on large numbers of studies and contradictory information, the science underlying screening procedures, social inequalities in health, and ethical issues in medical research.

This course is limited to students participating in the Scholars in the Nation's Service Initiative (SINSI) or an approved MPA middle year out. Enrolled students participate in one or more internships with a federal, state, or local government agency, non-governmental organization, or multilateral institution in the U.S. or overseas. The purpose is to provide a learning environment for students to use/develop quantitative and qualitative analytical skills in an active public policy setting, with oversight from Princeton University faculty and staff.

This course will examine different crises confronting cities in the 21st century. Topics will range from informal settlements, to immigration, terrorism, shrinking population, sprawl, rising seas, affordable housing, gentrification, smart cities. The range of cities will include Los Angles, New Orleans, Paris, Logos, Caracas, Havana, New York, Hong Kong, Dubai among others.