Classes are very intense and I spend a lot of time in my College library and the department library, but I am really happy that I came to Cambridge. What I really like about my Master Programme is that it is exactly the kind of mixture between applied research, theoretics, economics, law and politics.

I take four classes, and for all of them I have to write an essay this term. The first two essays are due next Friday and the second set two weeks later. So currently I spend a lot of time researching and reading. I am taking International Law, International Political Economy, International Economics and US Foreign Policy. They consist each of a 1-hour-lecture and a 90-minutes-seminar.

International Law

International Law is taught by Dr. Gehring, a German law professor who has taught in Oxford and Yale. He is quite young and one day he surprised us all by taking his two-year-old son into his class.

International Law is a big fiction. Without a sovereign legislator and enforcement agency, international law is sometimes contradictory. Despite its incoherence, the legal fiction of International Law has achieved a lot to encourage peaceful dispute settlements between states. Administrations of states have to uphold the fiction of sovereign domestic law, and because many law students enter public service, admitting that International Law is a sophisticated power play doesn’t come easy.

For the seminars, I have to prepare three to four cases and then discuss them in the seminars. Some of the other students are quite vocal in expressing their opinions and have a good background knowledge in law, which sometimes derails the discussions a little bit off-topic.

For the Law class, I have to write an essay related to State and Internet:

Cybernauts have created a virtual state: the Internet Republic. The IR has members in the whole world who communicate via the internet, a clear and democratic system of governance, a flag and other state symbols. The L. A. Nerd is elected as president and proposes that IR applies for United Nation membership. An island in the Caribbean is bought and sovereignty over it ceased to the IR, this is also the place where IR has its main servers. Several states with strong internet commercial interest have signalled that they are prepared to recognise IR as a sovereign state. Advise the Secretary General on IR’s UN membership potential.

International Economics

This class is taught by Michael Kuczynski and John Forsyth. We have a few students which have a very strong economic background, and a few which have only very little. This makes the class very interesting, because both Mr. Kuczynski and Mr. Forsyth are very good at explaining very complex economic matter in simple language. When I am in their classes, I often have these “Aha”-moments.

So far the lectures and the seminars focused on macro-economic performance and trade in all its aspect. The topic of my essay will probably relate to my Master-Thesis, therefore I am currently reading books about Financial Markets and their Financial Regulations. Doesn’t sound as interesting at first glance, I know. Yet researching on whether governments or central banks or markets run this world is a little bit like thinking in conspiracies - which is great fun, if you have to work empirically as well.

International Political Economy

Dr. Amrita Narlikar teaches the class in IPE.

We covered the World Trade Organisation in the last three weeks and together with the International Economics, I feel I have now a much better understanding of how the trade regime works. The course is really the best compliment to the theoretical treatment in the IE-classes.

Dr. Narlikar is very enthusiastic in class and in the seminars encourages a vively discussions, but also is tough on keeping the discussion closely related to the theme of the seminar. I will probably write my essay about something related to the World Trade Organisation, but I am still researching.

US Foreign Policy

The fourth class is US Foreign Policy, by Dr. Stefan Halper and Dr. John Thompson. It combines learning about the domestic politics in the US and the political history in key regions, such as the Middle East.

Currently in the lectures we focus on the Post-WWI-Period and the impact of Woodrow-Wilson, in the seminars we focus on the Post-WWII-era.

Interestingly, the basic features of Post-War-Policy were always planned during Wars, therefore it is interesting to think about what Post-War-Policy emerges if the Iraq-War ever comes to an end - or whether George W. Bush is already planning about the war in Iran.

Given that Dr. Halper has been working in the White House under several presidents, I sometimes catch myself thinking whether the scholar Halper and the politician Halper would have different views on some of the issues that we discuss.

International Security and History of Political Thought

I was thinking for a long time whether I should also choose some more theoretical classes.

I have to admit that I have very little knowledge about political science theories compared to some of my classmates. I chose to attend the lectures of two classes “just for fun”. One is International Security by Dr. Barkawi, the other one is History of Political Thought by Prof. Jonathan Haslam.

What makes both interesting is that they put International Relations into a larger historic frame - and both have no fear to draw conclusions for the present.