Geopolitics Corner: Understanding the world around you

From Cold War to Cold War

Through a journalistic storytelling rather than an academic approach, participants will explore major geopolitical developments, ongoing conflicts, elections, power rivalries, and shifting alliances shaping today's world. The workshop encourages active participation, critical thinking, and open discussion, helping students develop a deeper understanding of current international affairs.

More than thirty years after the end of the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union, the world is experiencing a new form of geopolitical rivalry. While today's international system differs in important ways, with at least three major powers shaping global affairs (the United States, China, and Russia) and no longer a clash between competing economic models, many parallels with the past remain.

Proxy conflicts, competing spheres of influence, and strategic rivalries once again define the international landscape. Just as the first Cold War saw a steady expansion of nuclear arsenals, the current era is witnessing a renewed and potentially dangerous arms race after decades of perceived disarmament. And while Cold War I was marked by severe crises such as the Berlin Crisis of 1961 and the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, it ultimately avoided a direct global conflict. So far, the same holds true for Cold War II.

PROGRAM

Living on the Wrong Side of the Wall | 8/10 h. 6:15-7:30pm

• A personal testimony from inside the Soviet world and the twilight of the original Cold War.

Ukraine | 15/10 h. 6:15-7:30pm

• A European war.

The New Middle East | 29/10 h. 6:15-7:30pm

• Too similar to the old one for anything to change.

Donald Trump's America | 5/11 h. 6:15-7:30pm

• The end of an empire?

Where

Classes will be held online.