Global Politics: Engaging a Complex World

What are the crucial elements of a strong Global Politics program? This is the question we posed to instructors around the country. The answer: critical thinking and theory. These constitute the foundation of Global Politics: Engaging a Complex World. This contemporary presentation stresses the importance of global events and offers students a number of lenses through which to view the world around them.

With Connect, Global Politics is an integrated print and digital content program geared toward undergraduate students taking a first-time international relations course. This highly accessible, comprehensive, yet concise text will help students develop a deep appreciation of global politics―equipping them to encounter the threats and opportunities of their generation.

Mark A. Boyer, Ph.D. is a professor of political science at The University of Connecticut. He received the 2004 UConn Alumni Association Award for Excellence in Teaching at the Graduate Level, the American Political Science Association’s 2000 Rowman & Littlefield Award for Innovation in the Teaching of Political Science, and the 2001 UConn Chancellor’s Information Technology Award. He is coauthor with Davis B. Bobrow of Defensive Internationalism (University of Michigan Press, 2005), coauthor with Brigid Starkey and Jonathan Wilkenfeld of Negotiating a Complex World (Rowman & Littlefield, 1999), and author of International Cooperation and Public Goods (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993). He has also published numerous articles in such journals as the Journal of Conflict Resolution, Simulation and Games, Journal of Peace Research, Review of International Political Economy, Diplomacy and Statecraft, Instructional Science, and others. Boyer is co-director of the GlobalEd Project (www.globaled.uconn.edu), which conducts computer-assisted international studies simulations for middle school and high school students throughout the United States. In 1992–93 he was a Pew Faculty Fellow in International Affairs, and from 1986 to 1988, an SSRC-MacArthur Fellow in International Peace and Security Studies. A strong proponent of active forms of learning, Boyer applies a wide mix of teaching approaches, ranging from case teaching to various types of simulations. His emphasis on active learning is reflected throughout this book and also in the Web site that accompanies the book.