Thanks. I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes. It's the first time. Hopefully the course will be around to be able to benefit from first experiences.

Let me know Peter, I am always curious about new teaching approaches in IR. In fact, you may find this useful: http://www.e-ir.info/2017/11/19/nurturing-cognitive-and-affective-empathy-the-benefits-of-perspective-taking/

Thank you. An insightful piece! It's been my experience that groupwork can be great, but for some students it simply doesn't make a difference as they have mor fundamental issues of not being able to open-up. I guess this applies especially for a school like CEU, where the English language requirement might be..simply too prohibitive as some students don't feel like they can speak EN well enough. Although, of course they can... since the requirements for getting in are quite strict... a problem, that I have yet to see a solution to.

@Jan Luedert - The simulation is going to happen this Friday. The idea is pretty simple in the end. We have a starting point and an endpoint that we establish as factual (the creation of the WTO and it's current institutional crisis, spanning a period of about 25 years). Students are divided into three groups - Realists, Liberals, Social Constructivists - and are tasked with comming-up with a plausible causal mechanism, or narrative as to why the WTO is where it is. I give them stepping stones - pointing out that trade has become more contentious in general as we have moved away from tariffs to regulation, or that the Doha Round was a spectacular failute... but they are expected to do independent research!

That sounds great Peter. A great way to bring the conversation back together is to highlight how the various assumptions of the theories will likely point towards different empirical exectations (e.g. what to look for in terms of data collection and expected outcomes). Keep me posted! 

Will do!