Global Challenges through Problem-Based Learning

This course introduces students to global challenges through a problem-based learning (PBL) approach. Rather than treating global issues as abstract topics, the course is structured around a series of concrete, real-world problem cases that illustrate key tensions in contemporary global governance.
Students work in small groups on six thematic problem sets focusing on global challenges and governance dilemmas, including international cooperation under power asymmetries, sustainability transitions and environmental trade-offs, development and labor standards, regional integration and disintegration, conflict framing, and the governance of systemic global crises. The cases draw on empirical material from international organizations, national policy processes, and transnational debates. They are designed to expose conflicting interests, normative tensions, and institutional constraints, and to illustrate how global challenges are shaped by political, economic, legal, and social dynamics.
Throughout the course, students are encouraged to mobilize concepts and perspectives from political science, international relations, law, economics, and environmental and social studies. Emphasis is placed on analytical reasoning, collective problem-solving, and critical reflection rather than on the accumulation of factual knowledge. These skills are developed through a PBL approach in which students work collaboratively on concrete cases, define relevant questions, mobilize concepts and empirical material, and iteratively refine their analysis.