Course: Introduction to Political Science (POLS 1) · Silver Oak University (fictional sample) · Prof. Halloran
Module: Week 15 of 16 · Fall 2026 · in-person, two 75-minute sessions
Objectives covered: Objective 8 — explain the major theories of international relations and the basics of the international system, international organizations and law, and global political economy, presenting competing theories and contested global questions evenhandedly.

This file holds two pieces: (A) the Module 15 Overview page ("Start Here") and (B) the Welcome Announcement that drips out when the module opens. Dates below assume a Tuesday/Thursday pattern with Week 15 meeting Tue Dec 8 and Thu Dec 10, with end-of-week work due Sunday Dec 13, 11:59 p.m. Adjust the day-of-week and times to match your section.

(A) Module 15 Overview — Start Here

Welcome to Week 15: Political Economy & Global Issues

This is your home base for the week. Read it first, then work the checklist below from top to bottom. Everything you need is linked inside the module.

Last week you studied the states-and-conflict side of international relations — anarchy, power, and the three IR paradigms. This week we turn to the states-and-markets side: political economy, the bridge subfield where politics and economics meet. States and markets sit on a real spectrum of mixed economies. Countries trade, and trade has both gains and distributional costs. Global challenges — poverty, inequality, climate change, migration — are political because deciding who bears the cost and who gets the benefit is exactly the "who gets what" question this course opened with in Week 1. And this week carries the term's fourth and final quantitative pocket: real, current global-poverty data from Our World in Data, read the way a political scientist reads any dataset — for what it shows, and for what it does not.

The week's big question

"When politics and markets meet on a global scale — trade, poverty, climate, migration — what does the evidence actually show, and where does the debate turn from facts to values?"

By Friday you'll be able to name where a real economy sits on the states-markets spectrum, explain why economists treat comparative advantage as a descriptive claim while trade policy is a normative one, state the documented basics of the climate collective-action problem, and read a real global-poverty chart the way political scientists read data — correctly, and honestly about its limits.

By the end of this week, you can…

Use this as a checklist. If you can do all four out loud, you're ready for the quiz.

• [ ] Place a real economy on the states-markets spectrum — using the varieties-of-capitalism idea (e.g., liberal market economies vs. coordinated market economies) named factually, without ranking any system as simply "better."
• [ ] Distinguish comparative advantage (a descriptive economic concept) from trade policy (a normative, contested choice) — and explain why free trade has both documented aggregate gains and documented distributional costs.
• [ ] State climate change's collective-action structure and its empirical basics plainly, then present climate policy responses (carbon pricing, regulation, subsidies, adaptation) with their proponents and critics.
• [ ] Read a real global-poverty chart (Our World in Data) — name what population, period, and poverty-line definition it uses, state the documented long-run trend with its dates, and explain what the trend does and does not prove.

What's due this week, and when

Work these in order — each one gets you ready for the next.

Heads-up on the AI tools: you'll use a chatbot to draft and explain, and then you judge its work against the data and the record. Chatbots routinely invent statistics, slide correlation into causation, and slant contested policy questions. Catching the model is the point — in the tutorial, the assignment, and the workshop.

Late policy reminder: 10% off per day late. If life happens, reach out before the deadline — I'd much rather hear from you early.

How to succeed this week

• Separate the fact from the fight. A number on a chart is empirical; what we should do about it is normative. This week's data is real and dated — the argument about policy is where reasonable people disagree, and where this course gives every side its strongest voice.
• "Descriptive or normative?" — ask it of every economic claim. "Countries tend to gain from specializing in what they produce comparatively well" is a descriptive claim political scientists and economists can test. "We should lower this tariff" is a policy choice weighing gains against costs and values.
• Read a chart like a document. What's measured? Over what population and period? What does the line show — and what does it leave out? You did this with texts all term; now you do it with numbers.
• Treat the chatbot as a confident intern, not an oracle. It will hand you a poverty statistic that sounds exactly right and is quietly out of date, or misstated. This week you'll check every number against the actual Our World in Data page.
• Expect fairness, practice fairness. Globalization, trade, climate policy, and migration are genuinely contested. This course never tells you which side is right — you'll get the strongest case for multiple positions, and your grade depends on your reasoning, never on your conclusion.

You don't need any economics background for this week — just the same toolkit you've used all term. Come to class ready to ask, of any global statistic you meet: what exactly does this measure, and what does it leave out? See you Tuesday.

(B) Welcome Announcement — Module 15

Release setting: post on the module's start day (offset = 0 days), i.e., Tue Dec 8, 2026 — not before. If your platform won't preserve the scheduled date on import, post this as a draft labeled "Release: Tue Dec 8."

Subject: Week 15 — states, markets, and the world's hardest numbers 🌍

Hi everyone,

We're in the home stretch. This week we bring political science's whole toolkit to bear on the biggest questions the discipline asks: how should politics and markets share the stage on a global scale, and what does the evidence actually show about the results?

This week — Political Economy & Global Issues — we tackle the big question: When politics and markets meet on a global scale — trade, poverty, climate, migration — what does the evidence actually show, and where does the debate turn from facts to values? You'll place real economies on the states-markets spectrum, learn why comparative advantage is a descriptive concept while trade policy is a contested choice, state the climate collective-action problem plainly, and — in this term's fourth and final data workshop — read a real Our World in Data chart on global extreme poverty the way a political scientist reads any dataset: correctly, and honestly about its limits.

Three things not to miss:
1. Lecture Tutorial 15 — work through the week's ideas with one approved chatbot (Gemini, Claude, or ChatGPT) and submit the share link. Due Sun Dec 13.
2. Political Analysis Workshop 15 (Our World in Data, extreme poverty), Quiz 15, Discussion 15, and Assignment 15 also close Sun Dec 13 — the workshop is data-heavy, so start early and read the source page yourself before trusting any number, including mine.
3. Open the Start Here page first — it lays out everything in order with due dates.

One more promise before we close the term's content: globalization, trade, climate policy, and migration are among the most argued-about questions there are, and this course will not tell you what to conclude about any of them. You'll get the strongest case for every side, the documented facts reported plainly, and a grade that rests entirely on your evidence and reasoning.

Bring your curiosity — and a healthy skepticism toward any number someone hands you without a source — to class on Tuesday.

See you soon,
Prof. Halloran