International Relations

Course Structure

1. [\'Contemporary Security in International Relations: Providers and Challenges: The analysis of security is a fascinating field of study that tackles issues of enormous significance. This unit evaluates a number of the most pressing security issues in International Relations, focusing on challenges such as cyber war, the security implications of the \\x91Arab Spring\\x92, jihadism, insurgency, information war, humanitarian intervention, piracy and the Ukraine Crisis. This unit provides you not only with detailed knowledge of these issues, but also equips you with the concepts and frameworks to fully understand them.\', \'Global Governance: Today\\x92s policy-makers struggle to grapple with challenges of unprecedented scale and complexity. The ramifications of such issues as climate change and the global financial crisis underline the need for collective action across state borders. However, policy responses at the international level are often criticised for being ineffectual and undemocratic. This unit asks some searching questions about who governs our world, and what reforms are needed to ensure a more effective and equitable system of global governance.\', \'Research Management: A postgraduate degree signals to an employer that you are equipped with superior analytical and communication skills and are trained in a variety of research methods. This unit provides you with such specialised training. It helps to prepares you for the dissertation as well as provides you with competencies that are desirable for numerous careers.\', \'Dissertation in International Relations: This is an extended research project on a topic of your own choice, which you produce under the guidance of a specialist supervisor. It is an ideal opportunity to deepen your expertise in an area that will be relevant for your future career.\', \'Protest, Dissent and Solidarity across State Borders: Civil society actors are perhaps more visible on the global political stage than ever before. Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) play a central role in humanitarian relief operations, the delivery of development aid and global advocacy campaigns. In addition, social media has enabled the phenomenal growth of numerous protest and solidarity movements that are able to change the tide of political events. This unit enables you to understand the impact of these societal actors on world politics, and poses some troubling questions about their accountability and legitimacy.\', \'Nation and Identity: Issues of nations and identity are ever more important for day-to-day policy decisions. This has been most apparent in the context of the migration crisis, whereby nation states and national citizenships have served as a basis of demarcation between people. Against this backdrop, the unit explores the processes through which different actors \\x96 individuals, politicians and societal groups \\x96 make claims for the identity, rights and status of citizenship. We compare various contexts from the local to the regional, and from Europe to Asia.\', \'Europe and the World: At the beginning of the new millennium some commentators were announcing the emergence of Europe as a new world superpower whereas today analysts are more likely to anticipate its irrelevance with the emergence of new regional powers such as Russia and China alongside the ever present United States. Students on Europe and the World will critically examine how political, economic and military power and influence are exercised in world politics, consider Europe\\x92s contested position as a world power, and survey the challenges that it faces in an uncertain future.\', \'Challenges to EU Politics and Governance: The EU and wider Europe is beset by a number of intractable problems. These include widespread feelings of disengagement from European institutions amongst the citizenry; the enduring dissimilarities between \\x91European\\x92 nation states, societies and cultures; and diverging policy preferences on issues of security, migration and economics. This unit deliberates on possible avenues to \\x91fixing\\x92 EUrope \\x96 that is if students of international relations and politics consider it possible or, even, desirable to do so.\', \'Negotiation and Lobbying in the EU: a Simulation Game: Gain insight into how political decisions are actually shaped by social actors, how they are reached across and within various institutions, and into the complexities involved in decision-making at the transnational level. In this unit we study a particular piece of EU legislation and simulate four different EU-level meetings with students taking on the roles appropriate to each meeting to simulate how complex decisions are made.\', \'Europe: Integration and Democratisation: When and why was the idea of European integration first developed? How has this European "project" evolved, and how have historians tried to explain the integration process? This unit offers an introductory overview of the history of Europe from 1945 to the present day EU, investigating along the way the \\\'other Europe\\\' (socialist central and eastern Europe), the revolutions of 1989 and their consequences for integration and enlargement, as well as some of the explanations for growing public disenchantment with the European endeavour.\', \'Independent Project: This unit allows students to develop and carry out an independent research project under the guidance of an expert supervisor, who will be available for individual tutorials. The project will be particularly attractive if you wish to develop interests outside of but relevant to the curriculum on taught units \\x96 particularly if the subject concerned is relevant to your future career.\', \'Work-Based Learning: The unit will provide an opportunity for you to gain academic credit for experience gained in the workplace \\x96 whether for a job that is paid or voluntary. It is an excellent way to ensure that your degree represents recognition for your specific practical experience as well as for your transferable skills and academic ability. The unit is supported by individual or small group tutorials with a supervisor.\']