https://at-ceu.studyguide.timeedit.net/modules/INTR5052?type=COREDoes international law still matter in an increasingly polarized world? How transformative are the wars in Ukraine and Gaza compared to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, or the outbreak of World War II in 1939? What is the normative significance of these events compared to the COVID pandemic, accelerating climate change, and revival of the space race? This course aims to assess how international law matters for international affairs in the 21st century, identifying both the strengths and limits of today's norms in a decentralized system that lacks means of universal coercive enforcement. Divided into 4 parts, the course begins with a theoretical overview of international law and its relationship to international relations followed by an analysis of norms applicable to states, the relationship between states and individuals, and third-generation collective action problems that defy territorial boundaries. In canvassing topics like the use of interstate force, human rights and refugee law, global trade and environmental law, the course will pay special attention to how international law shapes world politics and vice-versa, and how to think about international law's universal aspirations in an increasingly post-Western world facing growing contestation from the Global South(s) and Global East(s).