What can we learn about how attempts to create order in the world have to do with how things are connected and disconnected?
How is it that nationalisms and identities, economic systems, ideologies, inequalities, environmental and health issues, as well as belief systems, are used to connect and disconnect people, ideas, and places creating (new) geopolitical realities?
In this track you will be introduced to a novel approach, developed and led by colleagues at Groningen, to understand geopolitics as a connectivity effect. You will learn how spaces are, and have been, the result of connecting (strategically or not), many of the issues mentioned above. Drawing on historical and contemporary case studies and issues, you will develop unique analytical skills to approach any geopolitical issue in time.
Some questions inspired by this approach are, for example, how has the United States tried to change the terms under which it connects to the world in an attempt to force a different geopolitical context? How is China resetting the terms for its global connectivity through its Belt and Road initiative(s)? How is the European Union attempting to develop an environmental agenda to connect its members and create its geopolitical projection in the world? How do actors in the global realm challenge or benefit from these geopolitical aspirations? How do certain people and regions choose, and have chosen, to geopolitically disconnect from global designs?
Methodologically, you will learn how conflicts and wars, pandemics and environmental disasters, economic and financial crises, systemic infrastructural failures, and different forms of radicalisms, alert us of failing connectivities and the emerging of new ones, and how you can use these connectivities to understand and theorize an ever-emerging world. You will learn how geopolitical designs in time have resulted from the strategic connection of complex issues and interests, and how such designs have resulted from thinking space and power creatively.
Hi, I'm Saxon! I've always had an interest in international affairs and the interactions between different countries and cultures; What factors insight conflict, and what factors facilitate cooperation? The Geopolitics and Connectivity track offered the opportunity for me to develop this interest, with enough course flexibility to really structure the programme around what I was most interested in.
Moving to Groningen to study has been one of the best decisions I’ve ever made. I can walk to my classes in five minutes, I get to meet people from all over the world, and take part in all sorts of extra activities not found on the traditional university schedule.
More than anything the Geopolitics and Connectivity programme offers opportunities, opportunities to tailor your subjects, opportunities to meet new people, and opportunities to explore different career possibilities. This, above all is what has stuck out to me about the programme.
While my aspiration is, broadly, to enter the public sector, the further through my studies I progress the more tempting it is for me to pursue a PhD. I suppose time will tell on that front, though, career wise, the placement opportunity the masters programme offers is a great chance to dip my toe in a career outside of academia.
