Work Hours
Everyday: 北京时间8:00 - 23:59
MSc in GLOBAL GOVERNANCE AND ETHICS
Preliminary Reading List 2023/24
Brief course descriptions and key texts for the following compulsory courses are given below.
Global Governance Global Ethics
Global Governance
Course director: Dr Tom Pegram
For inquiries please contact Dr Tom Pegram Dept. of Political Science/School of Public Policy
t.pegram@ucl.ac.uk
Theoretical innovations and world developments have combined to ensure that the field of
global governance features prominently in the study of global politics.
Although few dispute its importance, what global governance actually means and how it works
in practice remains in question. This module enables students to critically examine the
conventional wisdom and as a result gain a more critical understanding of global governance –
both in theory and practice. A range of theoretical perspectives on global governance is
surveyed, mapping a shift from an organising principle of anarchy to one of complex
governance. Additionally, we examine how global governance works in practice, with a focus on
what is being governed, how and by whom, and the extent to which global governance
objectives match outcomes when applied to major global challenges. The course examines a
variety of global policy domains to assess how scholarship is adapting to, and making sense of,
contemporary developments in this fast-moving arena, including health, human rights, the
internet, and the environment, among others.
The field of global governance is potentially vast in application. This course is designed to give
students a deeper appreciation of how global governance works (or not) and how a complex
arena of global political interaction may be approached in a theoretically-informed systematic
manner. The emphasis of this module is on critical reflection and context (as opposed to
detailed functionalist analysis of issue-areas). The focus is on questions of how global
governance came into being, how it is changing over time, and the constraints and opportunities
posed for public and private actors engaged in advancing (or resisting) global public policy
objectives. Policy domains have been selected due to their illustrative value and generally lower
coverage elsewhere.
Preliminary readings:
Please read at least one of the following:
London’s Global University
Thomas G. Weiss and Rorden Wilkinson (eds.) Global Governance and International
Organizations (London: Routledge, 3
rd Ed., 2023).
Andrew Hurrell, On Global Order: Power, Values, and the Constitution of International Society
(Oxford University Press, 2007).
Julia Kreienkamp and Tom Pegram, ‘Governing Complexity: Design Principles for the
Governance of Complex Global Catastrophic Risks’, International Studies Review, vol. 23(3),
Sept 2021, pp. 779-806.
Global Challenges Foundation, ‘Global Catastrophic Risks 2022’, Stockholm: GCF, 2021):
https://globalchallenges.org/library/global-catastrophic-risks-2022/
Preliminary viewing:
The UCL Global Governance Institute podcast: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/globalgovernance/podcast-about-global-governance-challenges-opportunity-and-renewal
Global Ethics
Dr. Shuk Ying Chan
Dept. of Political Science/School of Public Policy shuk.ying.chan@ucl.ac.uk
Professor Richard Bellamy
Dept. of Political Science/School of Public Policy r.bellamy@ucl.ac.uk
Most of the major policy issues associated with global governance, such as climate change and
international human rights, raise normative issues. Indeed, negotiations are largely informed by
such issues, with settlements depending on an appeal not so much to national self-interest as to
global justice. For example, debates on climate change measures largely turn on conflicting
normative views as to who should pay and why for mitigation or adaptation measures. Should it
be those who currently pollute the most or those who did so in the past, and became wealthy
through doing so – often at the expense of currently developing states that were their former
colonies? This course examines the main theories of global ethics, and applies them to a
number of pressing contemporary issues. The first part is devoted to an analysis and discussion
of the main theories of global social and political justice: cosmopolitanism, statism, nationalism,
republicanism, and postcolonialism. The second part then illustrates these abstract debates by
looking at proposals involving global social or distributive justice for tackling issues such as
global poverty, immigration and climate change. Finally, the third part of the course will focus on
global political justice by examining the legitimacy of global institutions, such as international
courts, and the normative desirability and practical feasibility of global democracy.
Preliminary readings:
Please read at least one of the following for a general overview of global justice issues:
Chris Armstrong, Why Global Justice Matters, (Cambridge: Polity, 2019) is a stimulating and
accessible introduction to some of the main theories and issues covered by the course. A good
place to start if this is new to you.
Chris Armstrong, Global Distributive Justice: An Introduction, (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2012) is more comprehensive and textbook like
David Held and Pietro Maffettone (eds) Global Political Theory, (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2016)
Has individual chapters written by different people covering a range of topics, many included in
the course.
And at least one of the following for a critical perspective on traditional global justice
approaches:
Patricia Owens, Katharina Rietzler, Kimberly Hutchings and Sara C. Dunstan eds., Women’s
International Thought: Towards a New Canon (CUP 2022) – Ground-breaking volume
reconstructing women thinkers’ contributions to global political thought throughout history.
Olufemi Taiwo, Reconsidering Reparations (OUP 2022) – Looks at global justice issues from a
historical injustice perspective.
Adom Getachew, Worldmaking after Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self-determination (Princeton
University Press, 2019) – Looks global political justice issues from anticolonial and postcolonial
perspectives.
Duncan Bell (ed) Empire, Race, and Global Justice (CUP 2019) – Collection of essays critiquing
global justice scholarship for its neglect of race and empire
Highly Recommended
If you are new to analytical political philosophy you might find one of the following helpful:
C. Fabre, Justice in a Changing World (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2007)
Adam Swift, Political Philosophy: A Beginner’s Guide for Students and Politicians, 4th ed
(Cambridge: Polity Press, 2019)
Jonathan Wolff, An Introduction to Political Philosophy 3rd edition (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2015).
https://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/graduate/taught-degrees/global-governance-and-ethics-msc
