International Relations MA

This module analyses the theory and the practice involved in giving international content to universal values and aspirations today. Part I analyses how two central tenets of realism have come under question: national interest and sovereignty. Part II considers the rights of the individual in the international sphere, focusing on humanitarian assistance and human rights. Part III traces the impact of new international practices to extend democracy, and Part IV analyses the recent developments in international justice and law. Part V considers whether a new global political actor is emerging – global civil society – which can overcome the international/domestic divide.

You will receive supervised guidance and research methods training (through a series of research method workshops, the Dissertation induction and colloquium seminars, and individual Dissertation supervision sessions) to prepare you for your Masters Dissertation on an agreed research topic. You will begin identifying your Dissertation interests at the start of your studies, when you will be able to discuss your ideas with different tutors who may direct you towards taking appropriate option modules that support your future research studies. This module must be taken either following the completion of all other modules, or concurrently with modules in your second semester.

This module charts the development of International Relations (IR) as an academic discipline, locating the dominant theoretical perspectives within their historical and political contexts. The central theme is the analysis of how a broad range of theories reflect changes in the subject of IR theory – the sovereign state. It looks at the role of theory in IR, the historical development of the discipline, and focuses on competing theories. A central aim of the module is to familiarise you with the rich debate within the discipline and allow you to make up your own mind about your choice of theories. It is therefore particularly suitable if you have no previous background in IR.

This module focuses on post-Cold War United States foreign and national security policies, and the US policy-making processes. It exposes you to competing interpretations of both policy and the policy-making process. For example, did the end of the Cold War or 9/11 and the onset of the so-called ‘war on terror’ mark new eras in US foreign and national security policy? And how important is the Congress and US public opinion in the making of US foreign policy? The module shows that US policies are rooted as much in domestic politics as they are in America’s perceptions of its interests in a changing international environment.

The discipline of criminology traditionally focuses on the harms perpetrated by the poor and powerless: so-called “street crimes” such as shoplifting, burglary, robbery and selling illicit drugs in public. When it turns its attention to causes and responses, it typically focuses on individual, group, family or community level factors, and the effectiveness of welfare and justice institutions such as local authority youth services, the police and prison system. Critical criminology is a specialist area of the discipline that investigates matters of crime and justice equally within the context of power relations and structural inequalities – e.g., class, gender, nationality, ethnicity, disability, age and sexuality – and pays equal attention to the harms perpetrated by states and corporations and in private rather than public spaces, many of which are not prohibited under criminal laws or are criminalised under laws that are under-enforced

This module explores and assesses new forms of citizen participation across the world. Recent decades have witnessed increasing experimentation and institutionalisation of democratic participation organised and sponsored by both public authorities as part of formal decision making (e.g. citizens’ assemblies, participatory budgeting) and by activists, often in opposition to public authorities (e.g. Occupy, World Social Forum). In both cases, these democratic innovations aim to increase and deepen citizen engagement in democratic politics. The module provides an overview of developments in democratic theory and political and social science that help to interpret these exciting democratic practices. Detailed engagement with and evaluation of cases from around the world is promoted. The module provides an opportunity for students to contribute to the global research project and platform Participedia.

The module examines key issues and debates in democratic politics. It focuses on 20th-century democratic thought and discusses how key democratic ideas/ideals have been interpreted and re-interpreted to address dominant trends and changes in democratic societies. The module identifies some of the challenges confronting democratic theory and practice, and it examines differences between old and new democracies. Throughout the module special emphasis is given to the dynamics of democratic institution and democratic renewal.

This module aims to expose you to key frameworks, tools and instruments used in the practice of development; familiarise you with the debates, challenges and controversies on important aspects of development practice; and, offer practical development insights, skills and competencies. You'll explore policy directions and dynamics with attention to the broader questions and challenges of sustainable development. These approaches are introduced through a range of thematic studies relating to policy-making in international, national and local contexts. The module will be in the format of thematic workshops on key aspects of development practice delivered by the module leader as well as leading policy experts from the field of international development. Although the course is applied in nature, you will gain skills to use and critically evaluate the methods, tools and techniques used in the study and practice of development.

The module examines continuity and change in foreign policy making and diplomatic theory and practice in a world characterised by simultaneous processes of integration and fragmentation and uneven distribution of power. It evaluates state and non-state actor external policies and assesses the diplomatic strategies and negotiation techniques they employ. The module focuses on agency: the formulation of foreign policy and the adoption and employment of diplomatic tools and instruments and negotiation techniques in pursuit of security, prosperity, environmental and humanitarian objectives. It considers the possibility of a sustainable or decolonised diplomacy and foreign policy.

Diplomacy in Action charts the evolution of diplomatic practice from the earliest examples of diplomatic interaction in Mesopotamia and Babylonia via Greece, Persia and Rome, China and India to contemporary modern diplomacy and beyond and examines the extent of diplomatic adaptation and innovation over time and across place. The module will discuss and problematise the theory-practice nexus and explore changes in diplomatic and negotiation practice, including the rise of digital/AI diplomacy and public diplomacy, the sources of such change and the implications thereof. How has diplomacy and diplomatic theory changed in response to the new challenges and opportunities? Who has had what influence or power, over what issues, during what periods? What methods and mechanisms did they use? How can the diplomatic practice of particular types of actors be understood from multiple theoretical perspectives and approaches? How can constructivist, poststructural, feminist and postcolonial perspectives contribute to a decolonisation of our understanding of diplomatic practice? How should we study non-traditional and non-western diplomatic cultures? What can we learn? To what extent are we moving into a ‘managerialization’, ‘de-professionalization’, or ‘transprofessionalization’ of diplomacy with the expansion of informal diplomacy?

This module explores International Relations (IR) using the ‘lenses’ of gender and sexuality. The module draws from feminist and queer scholarship to critique the conceptualisation of IR in gender neutral terms, revealing gendered and heteronormative power relations and engaging with intersectionality including race and global location. The module will explore key issues in global politics including war, (in)security, diplomacy, peace building, human rights, international political economy and transnational activism.

Your main focus throughout this module will be on the domestic and international politics of China and India, and on empirical examples of the global change characterised by the predicted rise of these two non-Western states. The aim will be to go beyond the news headlines to develop a scholarly and critical understanding of the emerging great powers. This offers you an opportunity to train in international relations and recognise, understand, and deal with the changes in the global political landscape.

This module investigates the theoretical and empirical frameworks utilised by criminologists who take a global approach to the study of crime and justice. You’ll focus on how law, crime and justice policies and practices differ between one country or geographical region to another, and the extent to which what happens in one country or region affects or is linked to others, in other words the connections between the local and the global. The module pays equal attention to criminological theories and concepts developed by researchers in the global South as well as the global North.

In recent decades, policing practices have become more transnational and involved greater cooperation across borders. At the same time, policing has shifted away from a ‘law and order’ approach towards being more ‘intelligence-led’ and framed around notions of both ‘internal’ and ‘global’ security. These two shifts have led to a multiplication in the actors, practices, technologies and referent objects involved in global policing and transnational security. This module draws on critical criminology, international relations (IR), sociology, anthropology and geography to critically investigate these actors, practices and technologies of global policing and security. How have different social and political issues such as mobility, global health, or digital technologies become issues of policing and security? What are the political implications of these policing and security transformations?

This module focuses on development policies and practices from a political economy perspective. You’ll examine relations between the state, market and civil society and will analyse the politics of growth, aid, agriculture and food, natural resources and labour. An emphasis on the global sustainability challenges of the 21st century will enable you to evaluate development visions from a range of institutions and actors in the global South and beyond.

This module aims at evaluating the relevance of contemporary debates in international relations and political economy to the study of energy security, energy markets and climate change. It examines the political history of the modern energy systems and the role played by states and major private and state-owned companies. In addition, it explores the role of global institutions and their impact on the interplay between energy security, energy markets and climate change. It scrutinises issues that underpin key discussions in the energy and climate change area, such as development, limits to growth, transparency, sustainability and the role of civil society. The module also critically assesses standard approaches to the issue of energy security by focusing on the problem of energy poverty and resilience.

You will explore the EU as a polity and as a system of governance. The module offers a practice-led survey of governance issues in the EU, informed by relevant theoretical approaches. You will cover the legal framework of the EU and the roles of member state and institutional actors in its decision-making processes; questions of institutional efficiency, accountability and the wider legitimacy of the EU; and characterisations of the EU as a polity and as a global actor.

This module explores and compares a range of approaches to analysing and evaluating governance and policy in relation to questions and challenges of sustainable development. These approaches are introduced through a range of case studies relating to policy-making in contrasting international, national and local contexts.

The module focuses on current debates on Middle Eastern politics from a number of perspectives, with a focus on the role of Islam. You will be introduced to a variety of theoretical approaches to studying the modern Middle East, to relevant perspectives in International Relations, to selected case studies and various contributions to the debate from inside and outside the Arab world. A multidisciplinary approach will be adopted, where you will be steered through the fields of comparative politics, Islamic and Middle Eastern studies, and social and political theory so that at the end you will have achieved, in addition to familiarity with key issues in modern Middle Eastern politics, an appreciation of the theoretical perspectives being covered. In the process, you will be encouraged to develop a critical understanding of the workings of the region and challenged to assess the explanations given and provide your own explanations.

This module will provide you with a systematic and coherent introduction to the main theoretical advances, critical debates and policy related issues in the field of just development futures from an inter-disciplinary and cross-cultural perspective. Broadly, you will engage with current appreciation of development as part of a broader project of social justice rather than a post war project. In the first part of the module you’ll learn about critiques of development as a postcolonial encounter and critiques of grand narratives of economic development. The next part of the module covers the different schools of just development thought and the contestations between them. You’ll explore contemporary approaches from social justice, feminism, race theory, environmentalism, indigenous studies, and decolonial theory. In the final part of the module through case studies on global development challenges, you’ll explore the extent to which politics and justice forms a key element of sustainable development and appreciate the linkages between politics, governance and practical applications for envisaging just futures for people and the planet.

Since the 2000s the global energy landscape that took shape in the last two decades of the twentieth century has been altered due to major geo-political and geo-economical shifts, the rise of new players in the energy sector and technological breakthroughs. The aim of this module is to analyse the impact that these developments had on the energy security of key producing and consuming countries. It will analyse these problems by focusing on change and continuity in the decision-making processes of state and non-state actors. Countries covered include the US, the EU, the Asian rising powers, Russia and specific case studies from the Middle East, Central Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

This module questions if and why people need religion and their lived experience of it and how religion operates as a source of conflict and/ or integration within and beyond local, national and global communities. It examines the role of religion in society sociologically, starting with what is religion and how it can be studied empirically in relation to themes such as gender, politics, the death of religion and revivalism, migration, place, media and education.

Terrorism and radicalisation have predominantly been studied according to state centric perspectives which dismiss state facilitated harms. This perspective has not only led to a partial examination of the root causes and consequences of terrorism, but through doing so has dismissed the entities that have the most power to facilitate radicalisation and terrorism. This module introduces you to the relationship between state crime, injustice, and radicalisation in the ‘war on terror’. It discusses how state crimes, including violations of International Humanitarian Law (IHR) and International Human Rights Law (IHRL) perpetuate global and national injustices and facilitate radicalisation, and through doing so, maintain the socially constructed ‘war on terror’ discourse. The module contributes to the diversification and decolonisation of criminology through its exploration and use of post-colonial perspectives. In considering the construction and impact of the ‘war on terror’, you are introduced to post-colonial perspectives as not only equally valid discourses to the western constructed discourses of the ’war on terror’, but through evidence are encouraged to recognise the value of post-colonial perspectives to reducing the perpetuation of harm within the ‘war on terror’. The use of post-colonial perspectives therefore encourages you to consider how discourses are constructed and their value and importance in relation to policies and legislation.

You will explore the European Union’s international role: as an international trade partner; in its evolving competencies in foreign policy; in its dealings with NATO, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and its member states over defence and security issues; in its relations with accession states and other ‘third states’; and in its self-image and values as an international actor. The module offers a practice-led survey of the EU’s external activities, informed by relevant theories.

This module introduces you to the theoretical frameworks and practices of the politics of global complexity, the debates that have been triggered, and the way that complexity understandings have developed, especially in the 1990s and 2000s. Emphasis is placed upon the conceptual frameworks deployed in understanding system effects on political, economic and social life and how these enable us to rethink democratic governance, power and agency. While focusing on conceptual frameworks, this module also engages with how complexity is reflected in new approaches to policy, and external stakeholders will provide input to the module (for example, the Social Market Foundation, Demos, the New Local Government Network and the Foreign Policy Centre).

You will explore the main 20th and 21st century theories of the state and examine the different approaches to the phenomenon of violence and its causes. The module examines the challenges arising from globalisation and will help you to grasp the new forms of antagonisms that have evolved in the new world order emerging after the collapse of the Soviet model.