• Week 1: Introduction to the Course

• Week 2: What is IPE?

• Week 3: Societal Interests in International Trade

• Week 4: Preference Aggregation in International Trade

• Week 5: Global Trade Governance

• Week 6: Industrial Policy and Trade

• Week 7: Workshop Week

• Week 8: The Impossible Trinity

• Week 9: Bretton Woods and the IMF

• Week 10: FDI

• Week 11: The Economics of Migration Policy

• Week 12: Foreign Aid

• Week 13: Workshop Week

• Week 14: Conflict and Coercion

• Week 15: Globalization and Development

• 2 Midterm Exams (40%)

• FInal Exam (25%)

• Policy Memo (25%)

• Participation (10%)

For this project, you will focus on a global challenge relevant to international political economy and the solutions proposed by the academic literature. The assignment here is a 2000-4000 word policy memo. This memo will examine one issue area of your choice (examples below). The idea is to apply theories and research we have learned in class to a real-world event/problem. The following list are some examples of broad topics (should be narrowed down):

1. Globalization

2. International trade

3. International monetary policy

4. International migration

5. International finance

6. Economic development

7. Economic conflict

You will get a chance to get your topic approved by me when you turn in your topic proposal on 24 January. Choose something that interests you and will keep your interest all semester. What questions do you have about international political economy? Take this time to learn something new and fascinating. We will have various workshop days in class to work on this, so don’t be afraid to pick something that seems too complicated.

In your memo, you should include:

• An introduction that introduces the issue area and policy you are assessing and contains a clear thesis statement

• Relevant background information on the problem

• Analysis of the problem from the perspective of the scholarly literature

• Policy recommendation with evidence

• A discussion of the limitations of your analysis and/or solutions

• A conclusion

Some resources:

For help in brainstorming a topic, see the Curiosity Handout on Canvas.

For help in writing:

• https://mitcommlab.mit.edu/broad/commkit/policy-memo/

• The Clemson Writing Lab

• Clemson Libraries