Eurasian Connectivity: Data-Driven Regional Studies

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the major theoretical schools and approaches in the study of international relations, with particular attention to how these perspectives are taught and understood across different national educational contexts. Students will deepen their knowledge of the discipline’s key paradigms and concepts by examining the various ways in which they are interpreted and presented in academic settings.

The course explores the historical development of international relations theory, the central debates between competing schools of thought, and the emergence of distinct national traditions within the field. It also examines how international relations theory is taught across diverse institutional settings, with particular attention to theoretical approaches to globalisation, deglobalisation, and regionalisation in the contemporary international system.

This course provides a systematic introduction to the principal processes of regional integration shaping contemporary Eurasia. It examines a wide range of concepts, initiatives, and projects designed to promote Eurasian integration and cooperation, as advanced by a variety of regional and international actors. Students will explore connectivity in its multiple dimensions, including transport, digital, and energy links, alongside forms of cooperation based on shared standards and regulatory frameworks.

The course also introduces the historical development, institutional principles, key areas of activity, and current agendas of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), and China’s Belt and Road Initiative. In addition, it considers new multilateral frameworks for regional cooperation in Central Asia, as well as emerging initiatives and evolving patterns of integration across Eurasia.

This course introduces students to the study of energy policy and energy security within the broader context of global and Eurasian political economy and international relations. It examines differing understandings of energy security in energy-importing and energy-exporting states, with particular attention to its three core dimensions: reliability of supply, affordability, and environmental sustainability.

The course focuses on Russia and Central Asia as strategically important energy regions in the context of the global energy transition. Drawing on relevant case studies, students will analyse current developments in the energy sector from political, economic, legal, and environmental perspectives. Through weekly lectures and seminars, the course introduces key concepts and approaches in the study of energy politics, explores the practical dynamics of energy production, trade, and consumption, and considers the relationship between energy, climate, and politics at the domestic, regional, and international levels.

This course provides an overview of Eurasia’s role in the global economy and the integration processes reshaping the region. Students will examine the economic development models of Eurasian states, the structural features of their economies, and the main sectors driving growth, including industry, agriculture, the digital economy, transport infrastructure, and tourism.

The course considers the place of Eurasian economies within the international division of labour and global trade flows, as well as the influence of global supply chains and foreign direct investment. It also examines the factors shaping regional competitiveness and the ways in which Eurasian states seek to position themselves in the global economy.

It further analyses regional integration processes, including the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the interaction between organisations such as ASEAN and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), and the prospects for a Greater Eurasian Partnership. The course also addresses major challenges to sustainable development in the region, including environmental pressures, demographic change, technological transformation, and Eurasia’s evolving role in the global energy market.

This course introduces students to patterns of social development across Eurasia. Using comparative approaches, it examines strategies of social development, changing demographic trends, and the social consequences of economic reform. The course covers major developments in family structures and gender relations, shifts in social stratification, migration, and the evolution of social policy and social protection systems across the region. Students will explore how Eurasian states seek to balance economic growth with social justice, manage urbanisation, and respond to new social challenges arising from rapid modernisation.

Combining theoretical perspectives with empirical case studies, the course provides insight into the distinctive features of social development models in Eurasia.

This course introduces students to the Arctic as a geopolitical region in contemporary international relations. It explores the national Arctic strategies of the circumpolar states, the mechanisms through which these strategies are implemented, and the multilevel system of global and regional governance shaping developments in the region. Students will examine the legal foundations of Arctic governance, including international maritime law and the role of the UN Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf, as well as the work of the Arctic Council as the leading institution of regional cooperation and the different forms of bilateral engagement among Arctic states.

The course also provides a comparative perspective on polar governance by examining similarities and differences between approaches to the Arctic and Antarctica. Special attention is paid to the major challenges and opportunities facing the Arctic today, including sovereignty, environmental security, resource development, and international cooperation in a changing geopolitical environment.

This course examines key issues in technology policy across Eurasia. The course is organised into five thematic modules, each centred on a specific research question and accompanied by a practical case illustrating its relevance in the Eurasian context. Throughout the course, students will investigate the principal challenges that Eurasian states face in developing technology policy. The course integrates theoretical approaches with applied research methods, including digital ethnography, the use of artificial intelligence tools, and data analysis.

This course introduces students to the policy process across a range of political and geographical contexts. It explores how policy problems are identified and framed, how policy responses are developed, and how their effectiveness is assessed. Students will engage with key concepts in policy studies, gain a clear understanding of the policy cycle from initiation through implementation to evaluation, and examine the actors, interests, and institutions that influence policy processes and outcomes. The course also considers policy analysis as a form of power that shapes how priorities are set, alternatives are defined, criteria are established, and outcomes are measured.

Combining core theoretical approaches to public policy analysis with the study of concrete policy issues, the course equips students with the tools needed to analyse public policy critically and effectively. By the end of the course, students will be able to identify and assess policy problems using a range of analytical frameworks, apply key concepts in policy studies to specific contexts, and recognise the main actors and institutions that shape the policy process.

The seminar provides students with practical training in the application of research methods to the study of international relations in Eurasia. It focuses on contemporary regional issues, including bilateral and multilateral relations, processes of integration and disintegration, patterns of conflict and cooperation, cross-border dynamics, and the impact of global factors on regional developments.

Throughout the seminar, students will develop individual or group research projects on current issues in Eurasian international relations, gaining hands-on experience in collecting, processing, and interpreting a range of data. Built around the principle of learning by doing, the course strengthens students’ analytical skills through practical research tasks, critical engagement with information sources, and the careful selection of appropriate methodological tools.

The seminar places particular emphasis on combining quantitative and qualitative approaches, presenting research findings in an academic format, and defending methodological choices with clarity and confidence. It is designed to prepare students for dissertation writing while also developing the skills required of an independent analyst capable of designing and carrying out research in international relations.

This course provides students with practical training in academic writing, an essential skill for successful study, research, and communication within the academic community. Students will learn the fundamental principles of academic writing, including how to structure and present texts effectively, adopt an appropriate academic style, and develop and support their own arguments. The course introduces the main genres of academic writing, such as essays, abstracts, summaries, and reviews, while also examining the structure and style of scholarly articles and the research strategies employed by academic authors.

By the end of the course, students will be able to produce a range of academic texts independently, including notes, abstracts, summaries of scholarly articles and monographs, reviews, and essays. The course also strengthens students’ ability to analyse scholarly texts as part of the research process and to communicate their ideas clearly and effectively to academic audiences.

This course provides students with a foundation in research methodology in the social sciences, with particular emphasis on research design. It is intended to develop critical thinking and methodological rigour in the study of social, political, and economic issues. Students will learn how to formulate research questions, design a coherent research agenda, select appropriate methods, collect and analyse data, and interpret empirical findings.

The course introduces the main stages of the research process, from choosing a research strategy to evaluating evidence and drawing conclusions. Students will explore different types of research design and examine how particular theoretical approaches may be matched to different kinds of research questions. It also considers ethical issues in research and the role of scientific knowledge in informing decision-making.

Throughout the course, students will engage with a variety of methods and approaches used in the social sciences, considering how they differ, how they relate to one another, and how they may be combined in practice. By the end of the course, students will be able to develop their own research projects, present empirical findings effectively, and identify the theoretical and practical significance of their work. These skills will be valuable both for further academic study and for professional careers in public policy, business, the non-governmental sector, and academia.

This course provides students with an in-depth introduction to qualitative research methodology in the social sciences. It explores the main stages and principles of qualitative research, focusing on the logic of qualitative inquiry, research design, data collection, and data analysis. Students will be introduced to key qualitative methods, including interviews, focus groups, observation, and document analysis, while also considering important issues such as research ethics, validity, and reliability.

A central feature of the course is the development and implementation of students’ own research projects. Students will gain practical experience in collecting empirical data, analysing qualitative materials using a range of methods and techniques, and interpreting findings from the field. They will also learn how to assess research quality, justify methodological decisions, and evaluate results in line with scientific standards.

By the end of the course, students will be equipped to conduct rigorous qualitative research on complex social phenomena. The course is particularly relevant to topics in areas such as urban studies, organisational studies, and policy evaluation, and offers students the opportunity to engage with social theory while applying it in practical research settings.

This course provides students with a foundation in quantitative research methods in the social sciences. It introduces the main types of data used in quantitative analysis and the core techniques for describing, presenting, and interpreting statistical information. Students will learn how to work with descriptive statistics, graphical representations of data, and the basic principles of probability theory and mathematical statistics.

The course also covers the main tools of inferential statistics, including estimation, hypothesis testing, and the comparison of groups. A substantial part of the course is devoted to regression analysis, including classical linear regression, multiple linear regression, non-linear models, and the key assumptions involved in building and interpreting regression models. Students will also learn how to assess the quality and reliability of regression results.

Alongside technical training, the course explores the role of quantitative methods in the social sciences and introduces broader perspectives on their development and application. By the end of the course, students will be able to use quantitative methods to investigate social, political, and economic issues in a rigorous and informed manner.

This course is designed for humanities students seeking a contemporary foundation in applied mathematics to support their studies or professional development. It enables students to consolidate existing knowledge, address gaps in understanding, gain confidence in the use of mathematical language, and develop the theoretical and practical skills required to work with data and mathematical models.

The course begins with a review of core principles before moving on to key areas of applied mathematics, including linear algebra, calculus, probability theory, optimisation, and graph theory.

This course provides a solid grounding in the fundamentals of programming in Python, one of the most widely used languages in data science, analytics, and automation. Students will become familiar with core syntax, data structures, functions, and modules, and will learn how to solve practical problems with the support of contemporary AI assistants.

Key topics include Python fundamentals such as variables, operators, loops, and conditional statements; working with data structures, including lists, dictionaries, and sets; creating and using functions and modules; reading from and writing to files, including text and CSV formats; and the basics of object-oriented programming, including classes and objects.

The course has a strong practical focus and introduces students to the effective use of AI coding assistants, such as Copilot and similar tools, to improve programming efficiency. By the end of the course, students will be able to apply their knowledge to real-world tasks in data analysis.

This course introduces students to AI-based tools that have become an integral part of contemporary research in international relations. Students will learn how to use neural networks to search for and organise relevant literature, improve the efficiency of reading academic articles, work with data and web-scraping tools, and use AI ethically in academic writing. A central focus of the course is the practical use of AI tools in ways that help address challenges such as hallucinations and cognitive debt.

By the end of the course, students will be able to enhance the productivity of their research by reducing the time spent on routine tasks and redirecting it towards deeper expert analysis. In doing so, they will strengthen the key competitive advantages expected of a modern specialist in international relations.

As part of the programme, students may choose to study one of four foreign languages: Chinese, English, Russian or Turkish. English is taught at an advanced level, whereas Chinese, Russian, and Turkish are offered at beginner level. Language training is intended to foster regional expertise and prepare students for fieldwork.

This course introduces the core principles of spatial analysis for academic and applied research. Using a range of datasets, geographic information systems, and spatial visualisation tools, students will examine how geography shapes social, political, and economic processes.

The course covers key concepts in spatial analysis, including scale, spatial heterogeneity, spatial autocorrelation, and patterns of distance and interaction between spatial units. Students will learn to create thematic maps, work with spatial data layers, visualise statistical information linked to geographic features, and interpret the results of spatial analysis.

By the end of the course, students will be able to use GIS and spatial analytics tools with confidence, interpret geographical patterns effectively, and apply spatial methods in their own research.

This course introduces students to the core methods of computational text analysis. It covers the main stages of text data pre-processing, the creation of vector representations, and their use in analytical tasks. Students will learn to apply methods of text clustering, classification, and topic modelling, as well as more advanced techniques for information extraction and the analysis of semantic change.

The course uses Python as its principal analytical tool and classical socio-political and economic texts as its empirical basis. By the end of the course, students will be able to apply computational methods to large text corpora and interpret the results in a rigorous and informed manner.

This course introduces students to contemporary methods of statistical causal inference. It examines the main causal frameworks, including the potential outcomes approach and directed acyclic graphs, as well as the design of randomised controlled experiments. Building on these foundations, the course covers a range of advanced methods, including weighting and matching techniques, quasi-experimental approaches for panel data such as difference-in-differences and synthetic control, instrumental variables, and regression discontinuity designs.

The course also considers established sociological approaches to causal analysis, including standard and multilevel structural equation modelling, path analysis, and causal mediation analysis. By the end of the course, students will be able to formulate causal research designs rigorously, define appropriate theoretical and empirical estimands, and select suitable estimators and methods of estimation. These skills will enable them to evaluate public programmes, investigate policies aimed at reducing inequality, and contribute to quantitative analysis in government, research, and corporate organisations.

This course develops advanced skills in reading and text analysis in the social and political sciences. Students are trained in analytical reading methods that move beyond surface-level comprehension, including text segmentation, identifying the research problem and the author’s voice, and reconstructing a text’s semantic structure through conceptual distinctions.

The practical component of the course focuses on the critical analysis of texts from a range of disciplines and genres, including sociological studies, political manifestos, and analytical reports. Students learn methods of internal and external criticism, approaches to redescribing empirical fields through conceptual frameworks, and ways of transferring theoretical models across contexts. The course ultimately equips students with transferable skills for critical engagement with both academic and political texts.

This course introduces students to the main theories and methods of discourse analysis, combining conceptual foundations with practical work on a range of materials, including texts, images, and video recordings. Students will become familiar with key approaches to the analysis of narratives and interviews, methods of transcription, and the formal and contextual dimensions of narrative structure. The course also examines media discourse, including news, visual images, and video, as well as public speech, with particular emphasis on audience interaction and intertextuality.

The practical component of the course develops students’ ability to analyse a range of discursive materials. Students will learn transcription techniques, identify the formal and thematic features of narratives, and analyse extracts from interviews, media materials, and public speeches. The course equips them with the skills required for the critical analysis of discursive practices in a variety of social and political contexts, including international issues, intercultural communication, and public discourse in international relations.

This course introduces students to higher education systems in Eurasian countries and examines them in the context of foreign policy strategy. The first part of the course focuses on the sociological analysis of education systems and on key conceptual approaches to the study of higher education as a foreign policy instrument, including soft power, the geopolitics of education and knowledge, and public and cultural diplomacy.

The second part of the course explores the higher education strategies of leading states in East, South-East, and South Asia, as well as the Middle East. Students will explore the contemporary political geography of higher education, major patterns of academic mobility, and the global and regional centres of influence that shape the modern globalised higher education market.

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to contemporary urban studies, combining key theories of urban development with practical approaches to urban research. It examines the foundations of the field, including the evolution of cities, stages of urbanisation, and the impact of globalisation and digitalisation on urban space. Students will also explore patterns of urbanisation across different world regions, from the Global North to the rapidly growing cities of the Global South.

The course examines Eurasian models of urbanisation and governance, urban policy, and the contemporary challenges that sustainable development and climate change pose for urban planning. It also introduces students to current methods of collecting, analysing, and interpreting urban data. Students will become familiar with different types and sources of urban data, the use of geographic information systems in urban research, and key indicators of socio-economic urban development.

In addition, the course considers the quality, accessibility, and limitations of urban data, preparing students to engage critically with digital tools of urban governance and data-driven approaches to contemporary urban challenges. By the end of the course, students will have developed a strong understanding of the theoretical foundations of urban studies and acquired practical skills for researching and managing urban development.