International Relations and Tourism

The course focusses on the following topics: Tourism and International Relations. Competing perspectives in International Relations. Key issues and actors in current affairs. Tourism and foreign policy. Tourism as a factor of conflict and/or cooperation in international politics. Political violence, terrorism and tourism. 

The course is designed to combine academic analysis with a policy relevant study. The course is divided into two parts. The first part introduces to the key concepts in International Relations and present the features and trends that characterize the contemporary international system, in order to provide with the necessary tools to approach contemporary international politics. The second part debates several patterns of mutual influence between international politics and international tourism so as a) to build a framework that relates tourism to other relevant international phenomena and developments; and, b) to relate general theories and hypotheses to case-studies in three relevant regions: the Western Balkans, the Middle East and East Asia.

This course allows students to understand the relationship between tourism and international politics and to engage with the main practical and conceptual issues this relation calls into play. On successful completion of the course, the students will be able to: (1) understand the basic factors of international politics; (2) approach the political analysis of tourism as an international phenomenon; (3) select and analyze the main challenges and opportunities international politics can bring to international tourism.

In presence

The course is designed as an interactive course relying as much on student preparation and participation as it does on the course instructor’s guidance. As such, the course combines two class formats: lectures and seminars. 

Lectures aim to present some IR issues and perspectives in order to offer the students some basic theoretical and empirical knowledge to understand contemporary international politics. 

Seminars aim to deal with key IR concepts and topics that are more directly relevant tourism-wide. Seminars also aim to relate IR theoretical controversies to tourism real world phenomena and, therefore, to improve students’ awareness of the political dimensions of tourism developments.

1) Written examination on the exam bibliography (6/10 points). The written exam will consist of open questions. Evaluation criteria: conceptual precision, clear reasoning, accurate content. 

2) Participation to class (1/10 points). Evaluation criteria: constructive comments and regular participation to tasks and activities. 

3) Assignment (3/10 points) Presentation in class of a scholarly article. Evaluation criteria: form (effectiveness and length); structure (clarity and articulation); content (thoroughness and originality).