Course Objectives and Requirements

The goals of the course are to familiarize students with different countries throughout the world and how their institutions either lend themselves to cooperate and promote economic trade and a strong GDP per capita or work to undermined this prosperity.  Students will be able to analyze which international markets are favorable to trade and which are not by becoming familiar with various institutions found in most countries.  Students will learn how to write a thesis, debate, and evaluate both their assigned countries, but also evaluate the objectives and arguments posited by their peers.  Class participation in both discussions and peer evaluation are paramount.  

Key Points and Main Areas of Difficulty of the Course  

The key points will be the focusing on various institutions and evaluating these institutions effectiveness based upon applying economic indices to make academic and analytical arguments.  The main difficulty will be that students will need to understand that different countries, indices and be able to argue in a respectful way.  Not all countries are strong.  Most countries have serious weaknesses. Being able to accept the shortcomings of some institutions and be able to distance oneself emotionally may be difficult for some students.

Credits: 2