IR493 Half Unit
Global Governance of Technological Risks
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Prof Mathias Koenig-Archibugi
Availability
This course is available on the MSc in International Relations, MSc in International Relations (LSE and Sciences Po) and MSc in International Relations (Research). This course is not available as an outside option to students on other programmes. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process.
All International Relations (IR4) optional courses at LSE are Controlled Access and require an application via LfY. Students must include a statement in their LfY application of no more than 200 words explaining their interest in the course and its relevance to their academic and career goals.
Application deadline: 12:00 noon, Friday 26 September 2025.
Notification of outcome: by 12:00 noon, Monday 29 September 2025.
After this date, students should consult the MSc Course Availability Spreadsheet for remaining spaces on IR4-level courses.
For further details, see the LSE Selecting Courses webpage in the first instance or contact IR.Programmes@lse.ac.uk only if necessary.
Course content
Technological change can generate major benefits but also significant harm. The course examines harms that display three features. First, their impact is not limited to the country of origin but extends across borders, raising the problem of international collective action. Second, their impact may be particularly severe in the future, raising questions of intergenerational justice. Third, the harms are potentially catastrophic in magnitude. The scope of the course encompasses nuclear technologies, biological research with the potential to cause pandemics, growing antibiotic resistance, geoengineering, misaligned artificial intelligence, and cyberwarfare and cyberterrorism. The combination of international and intergenerational dimensions can make the governance of such risks especially challenging. The course applies to such problems the insights on the conditions for effective cooperation in a world of sovereign states that are offered by the current literature in International Relations and related disciplines.
The course has three parts. The first part analyses the features and implications of major risks that transcend national borders and have long-term impacts. The second part examines international governance schemes - those that are already in place, those that are being negotiated, and those that have been proposed. The third part consists of a classroom simulation of the negotiation of an international agreement aimed at mitigating a major contemporary risk.
Teaching
15 hours of seminars and 10 hours of lectures in the Winter Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.
The sessions of the last two weeks of the term will be entirely dedicated to the simulation.
Formative assessment
- A class presentation between Week 3 and Week 8.
- A background paper for the role performed in the simulation, due in Week 9.
- Participation in policy simulation in Week 10 and 11.
Assessment
Essay (100%)
Key facts
Department: International Relations
Course Study Period: Winter Term
Unit value: Half unit
FHEQ Level: Level 7
CEFR Level: Null
Total students 2024/25: 30
Average class size 2024/25: 15
Controlled access 2024/25: YesCourse selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.
Personal development skills
- Leadership
- Self-management
- Team working
- Problem solving
- Application of information skills
- Communication
- Specialist skills