Semester's End

So I realize that it has been a tremendously long time since I wrote a good length post but, as you may have guessed I just finished the juggernaut that is exam period at Mount Allison. Thankfully this time I had 4 exams (40%+35%+25%+40%= earning 1.4 classes worth of graded material tested over just over a week's time.). It turns out that I did fairly well. Now I'm finally done all of my distribution requirements and can move onto classes for my major. Next semester is French, Canadian Studies, International Relations, and two History Courses. They all seem pretty interesting and I'm excited for a fresh start.

When reviewing my classes I was grateful I was smart enough to more or less know what I'm taking in the Winter before the Fall because, especially with the huge entering class there is almost no ability to change classes as even intro classes with hundreds of spots are overbooks and have dozens of students on waitlists. With more students should come more professors...but I guess there is a limited budget..and I suppose after paying the travel costs of our losing football team...haha. just kidding. Class sizes are still small and enjoyable...just be sure that you register for your courses way ahead of time because if you wait until a week before classes start you might be...out of luck... in terms of getting in the classes you want/need. Halfway through second year and I most of my friends are taking the classes what they want which are directly related to their major.

This term was fairly interesting: Economic Geography, Technology and Development, Physical Geography, and others but I'm really looking forward to more writing and more history courses and getting into classes with professors I'm going to have more than once or twice. This semester will be good for that. More updates to come.

Shrimp Market Competition and Slave Labour in Southeast Asia

We just finished our commodity chain term projects in GENV 2201: Geography of Economic Activity. Groups documents the different stages of each chain from the beginning to end use. It was an interesting project and in the video below it is clear that knowing the source and steps of commodity chains does have practical and moral implications.

A view of Convocation Hall, downtown Sackville and the Radio Canada International Shortwave Towers on the horizon

...is not what you'll see here...because I don't have a camera with me. I'm in the library writing an essay and so one of the best images of Sackville is one I won't be able to share with you here. The setting sun created a beautiful image of the town that was a welcome relief while I'm in the midst of so much of the everyday. Looking up to see where I'll be two and a half years from now graduating gives more meaning to the essay I'm writing, final lab report I have to finish, and my last live music review for the campus paper this year.

 In less than a month I'll have finished all my papers, studying, and exams. I'll be on a plane on my way to Boston to enjoy the holidays and the snow (but not the shoveling as much) with my family and recoup for sixteen days. I won't have to set an alarm or remember to put the period after the citation for two weeks. After that I'll have a fresh start: new courses, new professors and a renewed focus.

But for now I'm off to take a short break to eat, and then finish up this essay and this semester. More updates will be posted soon.

Squamish, British Columbia New York Times Budget Travel Article

I was surfing around and came across this article from the New York Times... I never thought I'd see Squamish on the New York Times but apparently more and more people are finding that it's an inexpensive, beautiful travel destination. Enough of me...here's the New York Times' take on Squamish. (I'm surprised to not see this article even referred to on the Squamish Tourism Website...):

OCTOBER 6, 2009, 11:00 PM

Near Whistler, a Place to Play for Less

By MATT GROSS

Matt Gross for the New York Times Hikers reach the top of Stawamus Chief, a 2,303-foot tall mountain overlooking Howe Sound in the Squamish Valley.

In the last 5,000 years, the Squamish Valley of British Columbia has seen all kinds of people come and go. Long ago there were native bands who lived on salmon and shellfish and gave the region their name, followed in the 19th century by European traders, trappers, farmers, loggers and prospectors, who brought Chinese and Sikh laborers to build dikes and to work sawmills.

Matt Gross for The New York Times Outdoors enthusiasts come to Squamish for the epic rock climbing.

More recently, the town of Squamish, a bit more than an hour north of Vancouver, has seen an influx of outdoors enthusiasts who’ve come not just for the epic rock climbing on the 2,303-foot- Stawamus Chief (the Chief, as it’s more casually known) but also for the town’s proximity to Whistler, the luxurious winter-sports wonderland 36 miles north, where many of the Winter Games events are to be held.

The distance may be small, but the difference is huge. Squamish’s hotels and bed-and-breakfasts tend to be half the price of Whistler’s, and the town’s lack of pretense mean little things, like cafe breakfasts that aren’t rip-offs. Plus, since many of Squamish’s new residents commute an hour or so to Vancouver — on the newly widened Sea-to-Sky Highway — they want businesses and services befitting locals, not well-heeled tourists.

To be sure, Squamish is still a work in progress. At its entrance, just off the highway, there are fast-food restaurants, a supermarket and a flurry of vehicles and shoppers. But a quarter-mile in, it’s suddenly quiet.

There are the Lucky Loonies Dollar Store and the aging August Jack Motor Inn, and a brief stretch of color: the jaunty yellow facades of the Zephyr Cafe, Billie’s Bouquet and Gelato Carina. A cute little design shop, the Hive Home & Gift (38016 Cleveland Avenue; 604-815-4483; www.thehivehome.com), sells Umbra products, intricately patterned vinyl wall tattoos and my notebooks of choice, Ecojot.

Wherever you go in downtown Squamish, you always see the high gray granite cliffs of the Chief in the background. What you don’t see much of is people. The few who were around, drinking good coffee outside the Zephyr Cafe (38084 Cleveland Avenue; 604-567-4568; www.zephyrcafe.ca), looked fit and active — intimidatingly healthy, almost.

Farther down, past a well-tended public park, near where the Squamish River flows into the ice-blue waters of Howe Sound, shiny new condo buildings rise next to empty, overgrown lots with billboards heralding the arrival — someday, depending on the economy — of shiny new condo buildings.

This part of town is where I was staying, at the Howe Sound Inn & Brewing Company (37801 Cleveland Avenue; 800-919-2537, www.howesound.com). Built in 1996, the wood-sided inn is tastefully big, with a pub and a restaurant on the ground floor and the brewery at one end of the building.

On the second floor were a mere 20 guest rooms, ranging in price from 99 to 119 Canadian dollars ($90 to $108 at 1.10 Canadian dollars to the U.S. dollar ) a night — not rock-bottom, but about half what you’d pay for a similar spot in Whistler. My room was spacious and bright, with slightly woodsy decorations and cushions tucked into the windowsill— a perfect spot for catching up on e-mail with the free Wi-Fi.

Downstairs, the barnlike pub — all beer-colored wood — served great brews, like the Bailout Bitter, introduced last fall to commemorate the recession, and my favorite, the Garibaldi Honey Pale Ale. “Honey” doesn’t mean sweet, however. Rather, the ale picked up all the complicated flavors that exist within honey, but with no cloying sugars. Yum.

The food I ate there — a burger, seared wild salmon — didn’t quite live up to the beer, which was fine. Anything fancier would’ve felt, well, like Whistler.

Which is how it goes in Squamish — simpler fare at a lower price. Both the Inn on the Water (38220 Highway 99; 604-892-9240; www.innonthewater.com), right on the highway but with a view of the Mamquam Blind Channel and the mountains, and the Chieftain Hotel (38005 Cleveland Avenue; 604-892-9119; www.chieftainhotel.com), in town with a bit of an Old West frontier theme, start at 69 dollars during the winter and top out not much higher (the Inn at 140, the Chieftain at 119). Compare that with Whistler, where room rates, although hit by the recession, still averaged 173 dollars a night in the first half of the year, according to a recent article in The Vancouver Sun.

Getting to Squamish is fairly easy. PerimeterBus.com runs regular shuttles there from Vancouver International Airport (my round trip cost 73.50 dollars), and Greyhound serves the town from Vancouver proper. The drive itself is magnificent: pick a seat on the left-hand side, and you’ll have a constant view of the upper reaches of the Georgia Strait, the sun reflecting off its frigid waters and dozens of solid mountains rising directly from the shore. It’s not called the Sea-to-Sky Highway for nothing. The only bad part of the trip is that it’s so short.

During the Olympics, the trip between Squamish and Whistler should also be a breeze: a fleet of free shuttle buses will ferry ticket holders back and forth, almost around the clock. In the non-Olympic season, however, it’s a little trickier. There’s no public transport other the rush-hour commuter buses, and hitchhiking on Highway 99 is a dangerous prospect.

Perimeter doesn’t offer rides between the two, and while you can catch the Greyhound, it runs essentially only every two hours, so you have to plan that journey well (or at least better than me). If you want to stay in Squamish to reach Whistler, renting a car is the way to go.

Matt Gross for the New York Times Hikers, runners and mountain bikers share forested paths in the Smoke Bluffs.

Of course, there are plenty of reasons simply to stay in Squamish. Birders come to spot breeds like the Caspian tern and the northern shoveler in the estuary, and windsurfers and kiteboarders make use of the breezes that blow down from the mountains across Howe Sound. Hikers head into the forested hills, fortified by the abundant fruit of the ubiquitous blackberry bushes, and mountain bikers pound up and down steep, soft slopes and across log bridges in the Smoke Bluffs, a series of cliffs right off the highway.

Ground zero for these activities is the Squamish Adventure Center (38551 Loggers Lane; 604-815-4994), an elegant wood-and-glass structure where you can buy guidebooks and trail maps and pick up hundreds of pamphlets on everything from regional investment opportunities to, say, a checklist of birds in the Squamish estuary. The day I arrived in Squamish, the center was also the organizational hub of the Squamish Mountain Festival, five days of climbing clinics, photo exhibits, panel discussions and sporting events. A canted wall had been set up outside, with plastic notches to simulate the handholds on a boulder, and various lanky, unshaven men were trying to launch themselves from one to another — a diagonal distance of over eight feet.

A fake “boulder” is fun for an afternoon, but its really just a prelude to the Chief, one of the world’s largest granite monoliths and in many ways a more accessible alternative to El Capitan in Yosemite National Park, said Christopher Burwell, a 23-year-old American climber I met in the 10-dollar-a-night provincial park campground (www.stawamuschiefpark.ca) at the Chief’s base.

“It’s up there among people in the know,” he told me later by phone from Chicago, where he’d begun a master’s degree program in philosophy. “It’s not as obvious a destination, especially for American climbers,” who see Yosemite as mecca.

Unlike Yosemite, however, Squamish is a relaxed spot. Fewer visitors means you don’t have to compete with other climbers for space, and you can find a tough pitch that no one else has tackled in weeks. Relations among climbers, rangers and other tourists are less strained than at Yosemite, Mr. Burwell added, and the campground is an easy bike ride away from town, whereas at Yosemite you need a car.

Plus, he went on, while Yosemite is primarily for pure climbing, Squamish has excellent “bouldering” as well — huge round stones litter the Chief’s base.

As a nonclimber, I can’t really speak to the quality of the Chief’s rocks, but I can confirm another of Mr. Burwell’s judgments — this place is beautiful. Mr. Burwell compared the humid, verdant environment to the forest moon of Endor in “Return of the Jedi.” “You almost think you’re going to see Ewoks jumping out of the forest,” he said.

Well, I didn’t see any Ewoks as I hiked up the Chief that morning; I had too much sweat in my eyes, as this was no walk in the park. Even the entrance to the trail was daunting, a straight scramble up a slanted rock that hinted at the challenges to come. The path itself was unrelentingly steep — not dangerous, but a workout from the very first steps.

Much of the 90-minute hike led up a rock gully where a stream had once flowed, and throughout were conifers of impressive height: 50, 80, 100 feet high and more. And when at last I reached the top, there was a reward: a 360-degree view of too many mountains, carpeted in green, capped in white, surrounded by blue. The peaks were of all sorts — sharp, rounded, craggy — and felt like a summons to run into the wilds of British Columbia and live off the bounty of the land.

At times, I imagined I could even see Whistler and Blackcomb. But up on the Chief, I felt no envy, no desire to head north. I had all I needed: clean air, a hearty workout and, back down at the edge of Howe Sound, a last pint of well-brewed beer before my bus trip home.

"There will be no single rooms in Campbell Hall at Mount Allison University next year!" : a reasonable assumption.

The somehow ever increasing hoards of frosh that come to meal hall every night coupled with new staff training on remembrance day (where dining hours were drastically cut) resulted in a wait of almost half an hour. During this time baseless rumors were hurled about in the residence situation. Judging from the sudden and unannounced transforming of dozens of rooms all over campus to above original capacity due to higher than expected enrollment it is reasonable to not immediately disbelieve rumours the school may turn the formerly single-room Campbell Hall into all double rooms. It seems reasonable to adjust the newest residence to adjust to increasing admissions numbers, but as was expressed during the planning phase of Campbell Hall future needs also need to be taken into account.

In the Facilities Master Plan (still up as of today), under the section "Building a Future- Residence Plans" the school explicitly states the justification for the new high-quality residence. "Mount Allison must be proactive in keeping its facilities upgraded or we risk losing students to other universities that may be better suited to their residential needs."

"What does Mount Allison University have in common with Barack Obama, Diana Krall, and Bill Gates?" Or how Peter Mansbridge being the next Chancellor of Mount Allion University makes up for poor marketing.

The e-mail below was sent to students this week along with posters advertising the only major announcement of this apparent magnitude since I've been here. First off...Diana Krall? Who? Clearly they were going for name and face recognition to get students interested...so why have a relatively obscure Canadian artists next in between two of the most universally well known people in the world? It makes no sense and detracts from the interest. It reminds me of Canadian content laws that ensure that mediocre talent nobody would normally listen to is forced down our eardrums.

Secondly, the fact that everybody is jumping on the Obama bandwagon these days and claiming similarity or importance by invoking his name is annoying and almost degrades the importance of his influence. So, for a confusing and almost annoying poster it has told me nothing. There's some mysterious event horribly timed for students in the middle of the day that I'm not at all interested in skipping class to attend. There were e-mails throughout the week saying what a big deal the event is and the hype got to be a bit much. It was exciting to hear that Peter Mansbridge (Chief Anchor at CBC) will be the ceremonial head of the school for a few years and will confer degrees at my graduation. It'll put more of a spotlight on Mount Allison but it isn't as earth-shattering and revolutionary as the allusions to two of most influential people in the world.

Mansbridge named Mount Allison University chancellor Last Updated: Monday, November 9, 2009 | 9:01 PM AT CBC News Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean invests CBC News anchor Peter Mansbridge as an officer of the Order of Canada during a ceremony in Ottawa. Mansbridge was named the next chancellor of Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B., on Monday. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press) The CBC's Peter Mansbridge will become the next chancellor of Mount Allison University in Sackville, N.B. Mansbridge, anchor of CBC News The National and chief correspondent for the network, will be formally installed as the small liberal arts university's chancellor in May and will hold the position until December 2013. Mansbridge will be the ceremonial head of Mount Allison, presiding over convocations, conferring all degrees and acting as an ambassador for the university. Robert Campbell, the president of Mount Allison, said Mansbridge is a solid choice for chancellor because he is a leader in his profession and he'll be able to spread the word about the university to a wider audience. “Peter’s reputation is well suited to Mount Allison,” Campbell said. “He is a recognized leader in his field and is committed to cultivating creative and critical thinkers with the desire to make a meaningful impact in the world.” Mansbridge said he won't be giving up his main job as host of The National, the CBC's flagship news program, to take on the position. But he said he is looking forward to strengthening the relationship that he started with Mount Allison when he participated in a speakers series in the 1980s. He has been associated with the university since then, delivering the inaugural Canadian Studies lecture in 1997, accepting an honorary doctorate in 1999 and serving on the university’s national advisory council. “I am thrilled to further cement my relationship with one of the country’s most respected universities, and look forward with excitement to meeting with students, staff and faculty in the months and years ahead,” Mansbridge said. “I am deeply honoured to have this opportunity and anxiously await my first convocation as chancellor.” Mansbridge will replace Nova Scotia businessman John Bragg, who is retiring as chancellor. Mansbridge was among 35 Canadians who were invested with the Order of Canada in a ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on Nov. 5. He was made an officer of the order — the second rank — in recognition of "achievement and merit of a high degree."

Academic Update: B.A. Honours in International Relations at Mount Allison University

The first round of midterms are coming to an end this week. By now students (even first year students) have an idea of how well or badly they are doing in a class. It's far too late to switch classes but unless I fail at basic counting, you should be able to drop a class without penalty until the end of next week if you so choose.

I am doing fairly well considering my heavy course load and more intense 2nd and 3rd year courses...but as many others have found out there's really never enough time for everything you want. For example: there's a North Side Rez Crawl on Saturday, but I'm so cool I get to lock myself in my room and review for my Geography Environment classes and get reacquainted with rote memorization of French verb conjugations.

Second Year classes at Mount Allison are a bit more challenging. No longer is there a constant reminder about assignments and a complete cessation of the occasional spoon-feeding of first year. This semester I'm getting closer to completing the core courses of my B.A. Honours in International Relations and my final science class. Second year means taking classes specific to your course of study much more so than first year where distribution requirements and courses without prerequisites were the focus. Also, if you're up for it chances are you'll have the prereqs to take third year courses in your course of study.

By the end of the year I'll be done with all of my distribution requirements and need only three classes to fulfill my core requirements and another nine for my entire degree. Thankfully this will allow me to take some courses without prerequisites that seem interesting (PHYS 1031 Stars, Galaxies and the Universe or LING 2001 Introduction to the Study of Language).

Also, in case you thought you'd changed your mind enough about your major/classes more than enough first year think again. Some second year student (dun dun dun) haven't yet decided on their major through not wanting to choose or going back and forth between many options. Thankfully I've chosen a program that will allow me to keep my employment options fairly open upon graduation. The following tentative degree audit of my B.A. Honours in International Relations cannot express the frustration and many hours of deciding and un-decideding and re-deciding which classes were the best fit for me. Here is the final list (subject to change) of my major with course descriptions for classes I'm taking beyond this academic year. I think I've finally decided on courses I'm interested in and think I'll do well in.

Interdisciplinary B.A. Program

MAJOR in International Relations is 72 credits as follows:

Core (51 credits as follows):

6	from POLS 1001 and INLR/POLS 2301
3	from Political Science
6	from INLR 3001, 3101, 3201, 3301, 3401, 4101, 4301, 4951
6	from HIST 1601, 1611, 1631, 2001, 2011, 2031, 2041, 2411, 2421, 2511, 2521, 2721, 2731
9	ECON 1001, 1011, 3501
12	from FREN 1651, 1701, 1711, 2401, 2501, 2601, 3101, 3111
or	from GERM 1001, 1011, 2001, 2011, 3001, 3401, 3501
or	from SPAN 1101, 1111, 2101, 2111, 3101, 3111
or	from JAPA 1001, 1011, 2001, 2011
	Note: Students may substitute another language approved by the International Relations Program Advisor.
6	from GENV 1201, 2001, 2201, 2221, 2311
3	from an Intercultural area at the 1000 or 2000 level including ANTH 1011, 2521; ENGL 1111, 1121, 1201; FREN 2841 or 2851; SPAN 1801, 1811; RELG 2401, 2801; SOCI 1001; WOST 2001

Interdisciplinary electives at the 3/4000 level:

21

from 3/4000 level courses chosen in consultation with the International Relations Program Advisor from the following courses, of which a maximum 12 credits can be taken from any one discipline: ANTH 3831*, 3841*, 3861*, 3871* CANA 3421 COMM 3251* ECON 3301, 3531, 3551, 3901, 3921 ENGL 3751*, 3761*, 3771*, 3781*, 3921* FREN 3841* GENV 3101*, 3301*, 3321*, 4101*, 4111*, 4211*, 4301* HIST 3001*, 3021*, 3031*, 3121*, 3131, 3141, 3151, 3161, 3211, 3221, 3231, 3241, 3301, 3311, 3321, 3331, 3361, 3381, 3441, 3511, 3521, 3561, 3710, 3721*, 3741*, 3761*, 4110*, 4221*, 4231*, 4250*, 4260*, 4300*, 4401*, 4440, 4500*, 4550*, 4701* INLR 3101, 3201, 3301, 3401, 4101, 4301, 4950, 4951 POLS 3021*, 3200, 3310, 3701, 4200, 4211, 4300, 4550 RELG 3001*, 3101*, 3301*, 3311*, 3501*, 3601*, 3641*, 3701*, 3891*, 3941*, 4401*, 4411*, 4421*, 4821* SOCI 3121*, 3221*, 3431*, 3501*, 3511*, 4511*, 4521* SPAN 3060

INLR 3101 (3CR)
GLOBAL GOVERNANCE
Format: lecture/group projects 3 hours
Prereq: INLR/POLS 2301; or permission of the instructor
This course examines the role of international organizations in International Relations with a focus on the United Nations. It addresses the challenges of multilateral diplomacy in the age of globalization and U.S. supremacy.

INLR 3201 (3CR)
PROBLEMS IN INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Format: lecture/group projects 3 hours
Prereq: INLR/POLS 2301, or permission of the instructor
This course focuses on leading issues in international development from an international relations perspective. The themes covered may vary from year to year.

CANA 3421 (3CR) CANADIAN-AMERICAN RELATIONS Format: lecture 3 hours Prereq: CANA 2001 and CANA 2011; or permission of Program Advisor This course explores the political, economic, cultural, and social interaction between Canada and the United States. It pays special attention to the demise of the Canada-US 'special relationship', the current status of this relationship, and a comparative perspective of the values animating Canada and the United States as political communities

ECON 3551 (3CR) INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT Format: lecture 3 hours Prereq: ECON 3501; or permission of the Department This course focuses on differences in the patterns of economic development in the world economy. The primary focus is the developing world and on national and international policies designed to improve the global distribution of income. The economic development policies of the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the United Nations will be critically examined. HIST 3311 (3CR) EUROPE SINCE 1945 Format: lecture 3 hours Prereq: Second-year standing and at least six credits in History at the 1000 or 2000 level; or permission of the Department Exclusion: HIST 3390 This course examines the major political, social, cultural and economic developments in Europe from the post-war era of reconstruction to the present. HIST 3361 (3CR) CULTURE AND SOCIETY IN MODERN EUROPE Format: lecture 3 hours Prereq: Second-year standing and at least six credits in History at the 1000 or 2000 level; or permission of the Department Exclusion: HIST 3360 This course examines major themes and issues in Continental European social and cultural history from the seventeenth century to the present. Selection, emphases and time frame may vary from year to year but may include such topics as: identity formation; class and gender; community and nation; family, work and leisure; myth and memory; popular and high culture; the emergence of mass consumer society. HIST 3441 (3CR) MODERN CANADA Format: lecture 3 hours Prereq: Second-year standing and at least six credits in History at the 1000 or 2000 level; or permission of the Department This course traces the development of those institutions, movements and ideas which are an integral part of the texture of modern Canada and which have been shaping influences on the direction and pace of social, intellectual, economic and political growth. HIST 3561 (3CR) UNITED STATES FOREIGN RELATIONS Format: lecture 3 hours Prereq: Second-year standing and at least six credits in History at the 1000 or 2000 level; or permission of the Department Exclusion: HIST/POLS 3560 This course surveys American diplomacy and foreign relations from colonial times through the twentieth century. Throughout, attention is paid to American domestic policies and the role of public opinion in determining foreign policy. INLR 3401 (3CR) INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY Format: lecture/group projects 3 hours Prereq: INLR/POLS 2301; or permission of the instructor This course is a survey of the critical International Political Economy (IPE) tradition in the study of International Relations, from Marx and Polanyi to Cox and Strange. As a critique of realism and liberalism, IPE posits the inseparability of the domestic and international realms, of the political and economic spheres, as well as state and society. The course examines the impact of globalization and environmental change on states in the global order.

Note: Not all these courses may be available in any given year. Also, a student may choose to include up to six credits at the 3/4000 not explicitly included in the Interdisciplinary electives at the 3/4000 level list provided a written rationale is submitted to the International Relations Program Advisor before the substitute courses are taken and provided the substitutions are approved by the Program Advisor.

Note: * Courses marked with an asterisk require additional prerequisites.

HONOURS in International Relations is 84 credits as follows:

72	credits as in the Major, plus
	6 from 4000 level Anthropology, Economics, English, Geography and Environment, History, International Relations, Political Science, Religious Studies, or Sociology, chosen in consultation with the International Relations Program Advisor =POLS 4200 POLS 4200 (6CR) POLITICAL AND CULTURAL CHANGE: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF NORTH AMERICA AND EUROPE Format: lecture/seminar 3 hours Prereq: Three credits in Political Science at the 2000 or 3000 level; or permission of the Department A comparative analysis of the impact of political change on the broader culture, as expressed in literature, cinema, architecture and communications media. Examples will be taken from North American and European experience.
	6 from INLR 4101, 4301, 4950/1, 4701, 4990 INLR 4101 (3CR) GLOBAL GOVERNANCE SIMULATION Format: lecture/simulation 3 hours Prereq: INLR/POLS 2301, INLR 3101; enrolment is restricted to Honours students or by permission of the instructor This course engages students in an innovative and intensive semester-long simulation of an international conflict or crisis in order to highlight the challenges of international decision-making in multilateral forums. Case studies are drawn from the United Nations, other international organizations, or disputes among states and non-state actors. INLR 4701 (3CR) SPECIAL TOPICS IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Format: seminar 3 hours Prereq: INLR/POLS 2301, restricted to Honours students in International Relations; or by permission of the instructor This seminar is open to upper-level students and addresses an advanced topic of current importance in International Relations. Topics may vary from year to year.