Master of Arts in Public Policy and International Law: News & Events

This workshop aims to present the foundational concepts of microeconomics to students interested in policy-making. The workshop is divided into three parts, all of which relate the theory of markets with the reality of policy and government intervention. We first examine competitive markets. We then move on to imperfect markets/natural monopolies. Finally, we show how even competitive markets can fail, thereby justifying policy intervention.

In the first part on competitive markets, we look at demand and supply curves, with a particular emphasis on shifts of and movements along these curves. From these curves, we derive equilibrium price and output. In the second part, we examine monopoly, monopolistic competition and oligopoly, concluding with the notion of natural monopoly. In the third part, we illustrate the concept of market failure through public goods and externalities. We conclude that market imperfections and market failure open up scope for policy intervention and we illustrate this through the example of pollution management.

The aim of this workshop is to familiarize students with the procedures at the UN Security Council, to study the interaction inside the UN and the work of the nations’ permanent representative in New York in order to vote a Resolution. The study will be organized around a practical case, namely the vote of resolution 1937 (August 30th 2010) concerning UNIFIL (Lebanon).

This workshop will be organized in three phases. The first one will consist of studies conducted by the students mainly through documents available on the NET (un.org) and documents made available on AUP info network. This phase will allow students to do their own research in order to deliver presentations on the historical background and to prepare questions on UN. The second one will be conducted on October 9th morning, it will consist of presentations made by students on the historical background and by the teacher on the Security Council and UN procedures. It will introduce the subject giving everyone the necessary knowledge on the crisis and the way UN deals with it. The third phase on October 9th afternoon will be the Security Council meeting. This will be a practical exercise where the class will discuss the subject and deliver a decision (Resolution).

In order to achieve this objective, during phase one, students will be designated as representatives from a member of the Security Council or from the UN Secretariat. On October 9th, the workshop will be conducted following that format.

This workshop teaches basic principles and standards of labor rights, as well as their implementation in the modern world. In this workshop you will learn a chronological progression of international labor standards; how they have been utilized to promote respect for the rights of workers through trade; and the dynamics of the multilateral institutions most relevant in the “labor world”. You will also learn how labor rights are implemented at the national level by sovereign nations through inspections and investigations.

Additionally, you will analyze the labor rights progression through a unique method: by applying modern day labor rights to the characters of literary masters, such as Aleksandr Pushkin, Fyodor Dostoevsky and Anton Chekhov (© 2010). Find out whether or not modern labor rights address the social concerns of these literary masters (© 2010). Investigate how the characters of famous North Korean, Chinese and Persian operas and fables would fare under modern-day labor protections. Examine the labor rights psyche of these countries and determine the relevance of their literary pieces in the context of the current global labor situation (© 2010).

The workshop considers various case studies applicable to the United States, Europe and developing countries. You will investigate how the characters of famous literary pieces would fare under today’s labor standards situation and how much progress this exemplifies (©2010).

Negotiations are a central aspect of any career in law, policy, or management. Professionals often find that far more of their time is spent negotiating than they would have imagined.

The study of negotiation is different from the study of many other matters, even those that involve the development of skills. Unlike other competencies, we don’t come to the study of negotiation with a tabula rasa – each of us has been negotiating (whether we called it that or not) to resolve conflicts and to make agreements from the time we were very young. Thus, we have already internalized habits and attitudes regarding situations of overt or latent conflict. When such situations arise – especially when they are emotional and something important is at stake – we quite automatically follow these ingrained patterns, even after we have learned intellectually about what research has shown to be more effective! So, it isn’t sufficient to understand negotiation principles, or even to practice them in a classroom setting – being able to use new insights and approaches in real time, when it matters, also requires self-awareness regarding one’s predispositions if one is to be able to override them.

The workshop will use short simulations to provide opportunities for self-awareness and for discovering common negotiating mistakes, and through their debriefing and discussion of a few pre-workshop articles, you will develop an understanding of negotiation fundamentals. The workshop will serve as a foundation for continued learning about your relationship to conflict and the development of your negotiation skills.