This course investigates economic and ecological dynamics in the international arena, involving distinct political communities (i.e. nation-states) or other human groups (e.g. corporations, lobby groups, militias, etc.). Ecology is the study of living systems in interaction with physical resources; economics is the study of human activities organized around money; and the concept of “sustainability” in the former is analogous to the concept of “budget” in the latter. We will learn how these two fields overlap and how they affect the global distribution of power.