Word from the Chair: Ten Years of the BA International Studies

2022 is a major anniversary year. In September 2012 the first students signed up for the BA International Studies in The Hague. The expectation was that the new programme should ideally attract around 250 students a year.

Prof. dr. G.P. Scott-Smith • July 04, 2022

Word from the Chair: Everyone is a gamechanger

On 21 April the Four Freedoms Awards were presented in Middelburg. Four what? I hear you say. The ‘thinking person’s Oscars’, or the ‘poor person’s Nobel’, the FFs draw their inspiration from Franklin Roosevelt’s ‘Four Freedoms speech’ on 6 January 1941.

Prof. dr. G.P. Scott-Smith • July 04, 2022

An Ancient Civilization Alive Today

Lecturer Natalia Donner gave a critical tour of the Aztec exhibition in the Volkenkundig Museum in Leiden. One of her students reports about the excursion and the central question: how to frame objects from an ancient civilization that is still alive but marginalized today?

Maria Margarita Tamara Lozano • April 21, 2022

Comparing the Ukraine Refugee Crisis With Past Refugee and Migrant Movements in Europe

The warm reception of Ukrainian refugees in various European countries over the past weeks has provoked comparisons with the cold reception and deportation of earlier influxes of refugees. Historian Brian Shaev explains how you can set up such comparisons in an academically sound way.

Dr. Brian Shaev • March 08, 2022

What does Technology do to Humans? Lessons from the UN and Leiden University

Stefano Bellucci responds to the International Studies inaugural lecture on Artificial Intelligence at the United Nations and the controversy surrounding smart cameras on campus. “A world ruled according to a technological logic is a world indifferent to the beauty and the uniqueness of humans.”

Dr. S. Bellucci • March 01, 2022

On Regions, Hierarchies, World Order, and a Vital Question

During a guest lecture, a student challenges Giles Scott-Smith to review a Eurocentric approach to International Relations. This is what the program of International Studies is and should be about.

Prof. dr. G.P. Scott-Smith • January 31, 2022

Academic Panel on Palestine: Freedom of Expression, Freedom to Exist

On November 23rd 2021, Students for Palestine organized an academic panel on Palestine, specifically the intersection of activism and the university. Participating students report on the event and explain why academia and politics do not exist in isolation.

Students for Palestine • January 24, 2022

Winter holiday tips december 2021

Like previous years, the International Studies Blog has collected recommendations from lecturers to get you through the winter break ahead. Check out these books and films and settle back for inspiration, entertainment, education and imagination.

Dr. J.A. Naeff • December 21, 2021

Simply Wrong? The Money Multiplier (part II)

In this sequel, Marat Markert advances three arguments why misunderstanding money, banking and the monetary system might have repercussions beyond the pages of a textbook, and what to do about it.

Dr. M. Markert • December 06, 2021

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