Course 2021-2022 a.y.

20763 - GEOPOLITICS FOR BUSINESS

Department of Social and Political Sciences

Course taught in English
Go to class group/s: 31
CLMG (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/12) - M (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/12) - IM (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/12) - MM (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/12) - AFC (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/12) - CLELI (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/12) - ACME (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/12) - DES-ESS (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/12) - EMIT (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/12) - GIO (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/12) - DSBA (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/12) - PPA (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/12) - FIN (6 credits - II sem. - OP  |  SECS-P/12)
Course Director:
ANDREA COLLI

Classes: 31 (II sem.)
Instructors:
Class 31: ANDREA COLLI


Suggested background knowledge

None background knowledge is required.

Mission & Content Summary

MISSION

Geopolitics, defined as the interaction between the two dimensions of the geographic/physical space, and power, has recently acquired and increasing relevance, gaining growing attention by scholars and academics but also practitioners, commentators, opinion-makers, consultants and not least business leaders. With increasing international political conflict, organizations need to be managed with innovative methodologies. The most successful multinational companies will be therefore those that make expertise in international affairs central to their operations, adopting what can best be described as a corporate foreign policy. Such a policy will have two goals: to improve a company’s ability to operate in foreign environments through effective corporate diplomacy, and to ensure its success wherever it is engaged through careful geopolitical due diligence. It is therefore vital for executives and management students to understand geopolitical events because companies, whatever their location, sector or size, must consider how they are affected when devising strategies. This course aims at introducing students to the understanding of the contemporary geopolitics and geopolitical trends, focusing on the most important areas of emerging geopolitical conflicts, and understanding the nature, and the ways to manage and control, geopolitical instability, treats and risk.

CONTENT SUMMARY

1

Geopolitics and Strategy: a key topic

 

 

2

What is Geopolitics?

 

 

3

From the Imperial World Order and Beyond

 

 

4

The Cold War Geopolitical Order and its present meaning

 

 

5

After 1989: Unipolarity to Multipolarity

 

 

6

Geopolitics to Geoeconomics

 

 

 

 

7

Seminar 1

 

 

 

 

II. ISSUES IN GEOPOLITICS

 

 

8

From Space to Spaces

 

 

9

The Geopolitics of Natural Resources

 

 

 

 

10

The Geopolitics of “Other” Spaces

 

 

11

The Geopolitics of Infrastructures

 

 

12

Climate Change Geopolitics

 

 

13

Workgroup Tutoring

 

 

14

Seminar 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

III. STRATEGY AND GEOPOLITICS

 

 

15

Corporations and Political Risk

 

 

16

Navigating Political Risk at Home

 

 

17

Nationalism and Geopolitical Threats

 

 

18

Doing Business with Dictators

 

 

19

From Political Risk to Geopolitical Risk

 

 

20

The Geopolitical Role of Corporations

 

 

21

Managing geopolitically

 

 

22

Seminar 3

 

23

Presentations 1

24

Presentations 2

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILO)

KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course student will be able to...
  • To understand the trends in geopolitical equilibria in the light of the main interpretative frameworks in the field
  • To analyze and discuss the main topics in current geopolitical analysis and research
  • To understand the nature of political and geopolitical risk

APPLYING KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING

At the end of the course student will be able to...
  • To understand and evaluate the impact of political and geopolitical risk on entrepreneurial decisions and logics
  • To understand and master the main techniques in order to manage political and geopolitical risk

Teaching methods

  • Face-to-face lectures
  • Guest speaker's talks (in class or in distance)
  • Case studies /Incidents (traditional, online)
  • Individual assignments
  • Group assignments
  • Interactive class activities (role playing, business game, simulation, online forum, instant polls)

DETAILS

The couse will include 2 or 3 talks by experts in the field and several cases and inidents for discussion.

 

A grroup work (ccase-based) will be part of the final grade as well as a final individual assessment.

 

The third part of the course will include some role-playing in corporate diplomacy.


Assessment methods

  Continuous assessment Partial exams General exam
  • Written individual exam (traditional/online)
     x
  • Individual assignment (report, exercise, presentation, project work etc.)
     x
  • Group assignment (report, exercise, presentation, project work etc.)
     x
  • Active class participation (virtual, attendance)
 x    

ATTENDING AND NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS

The course will not distinguish between attending and non attending students. Students are supposed to atten the lectures in presence, if not possible this will be done in distance through the class recording available to students.


Teaching materials


ATTENDING AND NOT ATTENDING STUDENTS

The course materials include articles, cases and incidents, plus a set of slides provided by the instructor. Teaching materials and reading will be uploaded by the instructor some days before each class.

Last change 21/06/2021 14:43