International Relations MA

Compulsory

• PP5563 - Evolution of International Relations

  This module will provide students with a systematic and critical understanding of the main theoretical and epistemological developments in the subject of International Relations through the application of international relations theory to a range of constitutive problems in the subject area.

• PP5608 - Dissertation and Research Skills in International Relations

  The dissertation builds upon the body of knowledge and cognitive and analytical skills developed in the taught component of the programme. Students will apply knowledge and analytical skills developed in the course as a whole to a specific research area/problem of personal and subject interest. This module is designed to develop students' skills throughout the course of the year, attuned to the specific requirements of each particular stage of study.

Optional

• PX5612 - The Arab-Israeli Conflict

  The module will provide students with a comprehensive understanding of the origins of the Arab-Israeli conflict through the perspectives of the Arab, Palestinian, and Israeli national stories. It aims to provide an opportunity to analyse those conflicting perspectives, and assess the polarised historiography surrounding the conflict with primary and secondary sources. Students will gain comprehensive understanding of the development of the conflict, including the causes of the Arab-Israeli wars and understand the successes and failures of the peace process.

• SA5638 - Global Development: Critical Perspectives

  To acquire a theoretical and historical overview of the changing relationship between the critical social sciences and global development, to understand the multiple ways in which social science research can enhance our understanding of contemporary policies and practices in global development and to critically evaluate, from a social science perspective, various theoretical approaches to global development.

• PP5631 - Great Power Competition

  In this module, students will assess the nature of great power competition historically and how history lays the foundation for current relations. The module will evaluate the core motivations behind Chinese, Russian, and U.S. national security policies and discuss what tools great powers have at their disposal to maintain their dominant position in the world. Students will interpret the security risks involved with great powers competing in the political, economic, and military spheres. The module will also compare how smaller states and non-state actors influence great powers.

• PP5628 - International Development: Politics and Policy

  This module will analyse the origins of the ‘development’ paradigm, competing theories of different development. trajectories observed globally, and contemporary scholarly perspectives on international development. It will examine and assess global and local challenges and policy solutions, drawing on a wide range of country case studies and will review empirical challenges in international development including data, measurement and evaluation methods.

• PP5630 - International Organisations

  The module aims to introduce students to approaches to studying international organisations from theoretical and empirical perspectives. The module will enable students to apply and evaluate the theoretical approaches for understanding international organisations and the role they play and will familiarise students with a range of international organisations. The module will also enable students to assess the advantages and limitations of international organisations in influencing public policies.

• PP5606 - International Political Economy

  On this module, students will gain a comprehensive understanding of the main concepts, debates and theories in the study of international political economy (IPE). Students will also learn several of the principal issues in the global economy that are covered in the IPE literature, including: competing perspectives in IPE, globalisation and financial liberalisation, economic growth and sustainable development, energy, environmental political economy, and climate change, and hegemony: what next for the USA? In analyses of these and other major issues in IPE, students will be able to apply concepts and analytical approaches developed by IPE scholars.

• PP5603 - International Security

  International Security is an omnipresent topic that is either at the foreground or background of everyone’s mind, whether related to pandemics, terrorism, war, or numerous other issues. Because the topic is so extensive, this module covers key topics in three separate sections, followed by a practical exercise. First, it addresses theoretical concepts that guide how we study international security issues. Second, it looks at a range of sectors and examines how these can influence - and are influenced by - international security. After this, it engages with a variety of contemporary traditional and non-traditional issues in the field of security studies. The final part of the module is a series of practical sessions, designed to apply real-world tools to real-world security issues.

• PP5625 - Media, Social Movements and Change

  The module aims to provides students an in-depth and critical understanding of how social movements occur, succeed, or fail in bringing social and/or political change. By focusing on empirical cases, students will study the use of old and new media tools, the role of leaders and collective identity formation during the social movements, as well as governmental and international response to these developments. The students will develop strategic thinking through critically analysing the organisation, mobilisation and coordination of the old and contemporary movements in the digital age.

• LX5553 - The Migrant, The State and the Law

  This module will provide students with a critical and theoretical overview of the central features of migration and refugee law and policy and the interaction between the two, as well as examining the formulation, implementation and enforcement of these laws and policies at international level. Students will also study and assess the legal and political processes behind the construction of ‘the migrant’ and ‘the refugee’ as ‘others’ in relation to ‘the state’. Students will evaluate the potential for law to account for the protection of migrants and refugees and to develop a critical understanding of the law as an instrument of exclusion.

• SA5639 - Migration, Citizenship and Identity

  This module introduces students to a range of key concepts and theories in the anthropology of ethnicity, culture, nationhood and identity. These classical anthropological themes will be examined through the lens of high-profile contemporary social issues, including migration, citizenship, transnationalism and globalisation, xenophobia and deportation. Drawing on ethnographic case studies from settings across the world, we will explore how categories of identity and belonging are constructed, deployed and contested, and the ways in which they are embedded in broader social, political, legal and economic contexts.

• PP5627 - Military History and Strategic Thought from the Ancients to the Present

  This module examines how war has affected the world and how warfare has been affected by broader societal, political, ethical and economic changes in the period from the classical period to the present. It analyses key aspects of warfare, placing them in the broader context of history across a broad span of time and studies change in warfare associated with ‘revolutions in military affairs’ (RMAs). It contrasts ‘total war’ what is termed ‘limited war’ in the period before the French Revolution and after 1945, gives a sophisticated understanding of the evolution of military thought, including in the non-European world with a view to providing a global survey of the subject and not just from a Euro-centric perspective and provides the historical and strategic thought to contextualise wargaming.

• PP5629 - Political and Strategic Communication

  The module aims to develop students' ability to apply strategic thinking to campaign planning while providing a strong theoretical understanding of political and strategic communication across various contexts. Students will also learn to trace changes and continuities in communication technologies and practices over time.

• SA5641 - South Asia: Cultures, Societies and Development

  This module examines the region of South Asia, assessing whether the geographical region can usefully be considered as a cultural area, and going on to examine the key issues for the different parts of the region. The module covers topics including colonial histories, caste and class, gender, kinship, globalisation, and South Asian diasporas. It draws, in particular, on the disciplines of anthropology and history and on the field of development studies.

• PP5632 - Terrorism and Counterterrorism

  This module aims to address a series of empirical questions regarding the causes, conduct, and consequences of campaigns of terrorism in the modern world. It aims to provide students with an understanding of a series of key debates in the social science literature. Why is it so difficult to define terrorism? What are the implications of our choice of definition? Is terrorism motivated by social, political, economic, or religious factors? What strategic choices do terrorists make? What methods do counter-terrorist forces commonly employ and to what degree do these methods help to reduce violence? Finally, this module aims to provide students with the ability of understanding graphs, descriptive statistics and the various approaches used in analysing terrorism.

• SA5627 - War and Humanitarianism

  This module explores war, violence and humanitarian aid from an anthropological perspective. Classical anthropological explanations for war and violence will be examined alongside contemporary theories. In the second half of the module, the focus shifts from war and violence to humanitarian assistance. Drawing on a range of ethnographic examples from settings across the world, we will examine how anthropologists have critically assessed humanitarian aid and its provision. Drawing on media and humanitarian organisations’ accounts, throughout the course we will apply theoretical and ethnographic arguments to contemporary real-life case-studies.