Today, globalization makes us all aware of how closely we are connected to, and often dependent upon, the actions of people who are distant from us. Human migration and economic liberalization have confronted local communities with changes happening on a global level. Given these developments, how can we devise ways to share resources and negotiate conflicts— without succumbing to fear, xenophobia, racism, or violence? How can we understand the origins and consequences of human difference, be they defined by race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, religion, or any number of other factors?

The Culture, History and Society Major draws insights from the humanities and social sciences to help you address the global challenge of living together peacefully and equitably in socially diverse communities.

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Home to the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court, The Hague is the perfect backdrop to explore conceptions of justice in our global society. Questions of human rights, peace, security and the environment present legal and policy challenges for governmental and non-governmental actors, international institutions, and civil society that extend beyond national borders and single disciplines. In this Major, students learn to look beyond the “law in the books” by placing it in a wider social, political, and economic context, and analysing how they deliver results in practice.

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In the World Politics Major, we examine interactions between states, and between states and non-state actors, including multinational corporations, nongovernmental organisations, civil societies, diasporas and armed groups. We start from the assumption that political inter-group conflict is a key driver of these interactions, which can escalate into armed conflicts, or can be managed, resolved and transformed through improved forms of cooperation.

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At the start of the 20th century there were fewer than 2 billion people. Now at over 7 billion, Earth’s population is on target to reach 8 billion by 2027. How has this dramatic increase in human population impacted Earth’s life support systems and natural resources? How should we understand the meaning of sustainability? How do we achieve a sustainable society? These are very big questions and very complex topics to cover. The Earth, Energy and Sustainability major operates at the forefront of the field of environmental sciences, with a balance between understanding key concepts within a classroom setting, and applying the gained knowledge in real-life situations.

Explore the Earth, Energy and Sustainability Major 

How does the health of humans, animals and the planet interconnect? How do stress and nutrition influence the occurrence of disease in future generations? And how can we understand the colonial legacies of today’s global health policy and public health interventions? These questions require working at the intersection of biomedical and social sciences. The Global Health, Innovation and Society major provides students with the opportunity to develop skills for both the technical and the critical analysis required to understand how biology, the social and physical environment, new medical innovations and health policy contribute to health and well-being around the world.  With training in both quantitative and qualitative methods, students engage with communities in the Hague and beyond. 

Please note: this major recently changed names from Global Public Health. You may still find the old name here and there.

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Wrenching poverty, global inequality, violent political and ethnic strife, deadlocked, unresponsive or even collapsing governments, growing dissatisfaction with democracy and missed opportunities for innovation – these are merely some of the challenges of governance and development with which our programme aims to teach students to critically engage. This Major brings together knowledge from multiple disciplines to train you to begin your own journey to understand the origins, challenges in alleviating, and possible solutions to these problems.

Explore the Governance, Economics and Development Major