Newark Academy • Humanities • IB Diploma & AP

The Course

Aims

An IB Global Politics & AP Comparative Government hybrid

This course carries the full conceptual and dispositional arc of IB Global Politics and the disciplinary rigor of AP Comparative Government within a single sequence. The IB frame supplies the conceptual anchors and the commitment to engaged citizenship; the AP frame sharpens the analytical method — thinking as a political scientist does — and grounds it in disciplined comparison across cases.

1. I

   Explore, classify, and evaluate power and authority in contemporary global politics — applying conceptual frameworks such as hard, soft, and smart power; structural and relational power; and power to, over, and with — to authentic cases.

   IB Concept · Power PAU · Concept Application
2. II

   Examine how state and non-state actors operate, interact, and derive legitimacy within political systems, and compare these dynamics systematically across diverse regimes.

   IB Concept · Legitimacy LEG · Country Comparison
3. III

   Investigate and analyze contemporary political issues from multiple perspectives, drawing on both quantitative data and qualitative sources to construct defensible, evidence-based arguments — thinking as political scientists do.

   IB Aim · Multiple Perspectives MPA · Data & Source Analysis, Argumentation
4. IV

   Account for the internal and external forces — political culture, participation, globalization, and interdependence — that challenge and reinforce states and shape paths of democratization and development.

   IB Concept · Interdependence IEF · DEM
5. V

   Develop a lifelong commitment to active, informed, and principled global citizenship through collaboration, inquiry, and agency.

   IB Aim · Engagement & Agency No AP analog · IB integrity