Geopolitical Tuesdays II 2100-MON-GEW2-OG

The course aims to familiarise students with selected issues of geopolitics in Europe and the world, demonstrate different research approaches that explain the essence of these processes and phenomena, and discuss their impact on events in Europe and the world.

The seminar is conducted in English and will consist of seven meetings. The first seminar will be introductory and organisational. An introductory lecture will follow the project presentation. Then, six more meetings will take place, each focusing on one specific aspect of geopolitics. They will be held with the participation of invited researchers from European and International universities.

The seminar's central theme will be Europe's geopolitics in the spring term.

Course coordinators

Anna Konieczna
Tomasz Łukaszuk

Type of course

general courses

Mode

Blended learning

Course dedicated to a programme

4EU+Courses

Learning outcomes

After completing the seminar, the student will obtain:

The knowledge that allows:

1. complete the understanding of selected geopolitics concepts.

2. learn selected approaches to geopolitical research.

Skills allowing:

1. explain selected geopolitical problems.

Attitudes allowing for:

1. Recognizing the advantages of analysing actuality in the modern world based on academic knowledge and a broader intellectual view based on in-depth reflection.

Assessment criteria

To be assigned ECTS credits, students must meet the following three criteria:

- Attendance: One absence is allowed.

- Active participation – 20% – students are encouraged to take an active part in the exchanges: prepare the required readings and be prepared to discuss them critically, think about the themes of the sessions and prepare questions that they will address during the sessions. The questions' quality, rather than quantity, will be rewarded.

- Final paper – 80% –students will choose a topic related to one of the seminar sessions and write a short presentation (around 2000 words) with a bibliography. The coordinators will assess the choice of subject, the quality of the argument and the written expression. The work will be checked as part of the university's anti-plagiarism programme and by the ChatGPT detection programme. The paper must be submitted on the KAMPUS platform.

To validate the course, students must attend the class and achieve a passing grade based on the weighted average of their essay and class activity grades.

Bibliography

The Return of Geopolitics: A Global Quest for the Right Side of History, ed. Kurt Almqvist, Alexander Linklater, Bokförlaget Stolpe, 2022.

Ágnes Bernek, Geopolitics of Central and Eastern Europe in the 21st Century: From the Buffer Zone to the Gateway Zone, Peter Lang, 2021.

Brzezinski Zbigniew, Strategic Vision and the Crisis of Global Power, New York 2012

Grygiel Jakub J., Great power and geopolitical change, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2011

The European Union’s Geopolitics, The Lackluster World Power, ed. Mathias Jopp, Johannes Pollak, Springer Nature, 2025.

Tuathail Gearóid, Dalby Simon, Routledge Paul (red.), The geopolitics reader, Routledge, Londyn, Nowy Jork 2003

On-line literature on the topics covered during the semester will be systematically presented on the UW Come platform.

Additional information

Information on level of this course, year of study and semester when the course unit is delivered, types and amount of class hours - can be found in course structure diagrams of apropriate study programmes. This course is related to the following study programmes:

Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system:

Description of 2100-MON-GEW2-OG in USOSweb