Certificate in Politics and International Studies

This is a core module in both the BA Politics and BA International Relations degrees and provides a general introduction to methods of political analysis. The module provides the foundation for further study of Politics and International Relations, covering such areas as philosophy of social science, scientific methods, theoretical and methodological debates and skills key to critical reading, writing and analysis. Substantive areas of coverage include debates over structure and agency, politics and policy, historical methods, qualitative and quantitative approaches to the study of politics and international relations, measurement, inference and interpretation, the use of evidence in argumentation, narrative and language. The module is designed to complement other foundational modules in the Department of Politics and International Studies.

This course not only covers major concepts and theories in the study of Comparative Politics, but also offers empirical analyses of the government and politics in a select group of countries. The course covers a wide range of issues, including the formation of the nation-state, democratization, authoritarianism, political culture, political development, comparative political economy, nationalism, ethnic politics, politics of religion, and political institutions. The course will also discuss some debates in Comparative Politics that have been important in the policy-making community in recent decades, such as state-building, role of the state in economy, the concept of social capital, and the effort to promote democracy around the world. Although paying attention to countries in Asia, Middle East, and Africa, a select group of Western countries will also be studied in a comparative format.

This module is a core module in the BA International Relations and provides a general introduction to the discipline of International Relations and to major themes in world politics. Major theories and approaches to world politics are covered, including Realism, Liberalism, Constructivism, Marxism, Feminism, and Postcolonial Approaches. Topics to be covered will include issues of war and peace, power, global political economy, public health, environmental politics, justice and human rights, empire, and the crisis of liberal international order. The course pays particular attention to the relationship between the discipline of International Relations as a field of knowledge and its application and/or relevance to the experience and interests of actors in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Introduction to Political Economy moves through four stages. First, we ease our way in through some big scene setting questions. Second, different conceptual tools are explored for you to use and reuse, including liberalism, Marxism, gender analysis, and racial politics. Third, we examine how capitalism was built over the past half century, a story of bankers, bureaucrats, and barons who often made a mess of it. Fourth, all these insights are mobilised for dissecting hot current issues, such as the climate crisis (literally hot), the global financial crisis and its fallout, the politics of trade competition, socio-economic inequalities, consumerism, technology, the politics of work, and macro conversations on the future of capitalism. Bonus features include: a field trip to the City of London, one of the world's financial hubs; a film screening; and social drinks (let’s extract SOAS resources for ourselves like true capitalists).

This module serves as an introduction to the politics of Egypt, the Arab East (Mashriq) including the Gulf and the Arabian Peninsula, Israel, Turkey and Iran. On a country-by-country basis, it gives an overview of the major political issues, forces and developments in the region since the end of the First World War, providing an analysis of the wider political contexts in which they occurred.

This module focuses on the domestic politics of sub-Saharan Africa since Independence and particularly the question of the state. Because of the sheer number and diversity of African states the module is structured thematically but the readings allow students to follow up regions and countries of particular interest.

This module will impart a solid grounding in the dynamic evolution of the Chinese state and Chinese nationalism, China's self-identified problems of weakness and underdevelopment, the difficult choices made by political elites over the course of three quite different regimes of the 20th and 21st century. Throughout the academic year, this module will stress how this legacy offers both the opportunity and constraint for the present politics of China.

This course is designed to provide students with a theoretically informed and comparative introduction to key issues in the contemporary international relations of East Asia. East Asia is defined as the states of the Northeast Asia (in particular, China, Korea, Japan and Taiwan), and the two main external actors, the United States and Soviet Union/Russia who played a key role influencing the region’s international relations. East Asia presents fascinating case studies in the study of international relations by bringing together the world’s three largest economies (US, China, Japan), three of the UN Security Council’s permanent members (US, Russia, China) and two divided nations (China/Taiwan and the two Korea).

International Relations of South Asia will give students a broad and comprehensive introduction to this subject. Beginning with conventional IR theory disciplinary frames, it will explore inter-state relations in the South Asian region including the history of conflict between India and Pakistan, the nature of Indian dominance/hegemony over the South Asian region, the place of Afghanistan in conceptualisations of ‘South Asia’, as well as the security perspectives of smaller states in the region including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka. Other topics in the course will examine non-conventional security issues including questions of economic and environmental security posed by the sharing of international rivers and climate change, as well as the human security issues provoked by ethnic and other forms of conflict in the region.

International Relations of the Middle East

This course examines the international politics of sub-Saharan Africa since Independence organised around four main themes. The first concentrates on the emergence of African states, the nature and analysis of that statehood and the degrees of conflict and cooperation between African states. The second theme looks at the insertion of African states into the international order, including the economic order and their participation in international politics. The third theme assesses the period after the end of the Cold War and concentrates on three main sub themes: firstly the nature of conflict within Africa and the emergence of a greater degree of outside intervention in that conflict; secondly the attempt, also largely by outside agencies, to effect long-term fundamental change within African societies; thirdly the ways in which African states have changed regional organisations to meet a new international environment. The last theme raises the question whether new developments in global politics (e.g. the growth of China) are fundamentally changing the international position of African states.

This module introduces electoral and party politics in modern democracies. It will involve the discussion of a wide range of theoretical approaches to the study of parties and elections and assess their applicability to non-western cases.

The amended module focuses on major concepts, theories, methodologies and academic approaches to the study of nationalism, national identity and nationhood. It begins with an examination of the historical contexts and socioeconomic conditions under which nationalism emerged in the West and subsequently spread across the globe. By familiarising students with the key concepts, theories and approaches to the study of nationalism, the module aims at enabling students to understand the processes which appear to make nationalism a powerful mobilizing and homogenising force and also point to its contingent, shifting and fluid nature. The module focuses on understanding the political contestations underlying the notion of nationalism in various regional contexts

This second year undergraduate class will focus on the variety of ways in which performance is enacted in politics, broadly construed. It will augment more conventional approaches to politics by demonstrating the ways in which performance either attempts to soften and legitimise or conversely challenge and subvert institutions, interests, and power.

The purpose of this course is to examine the effects of political factors on economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. It aims to familiarise students with various theories of economic development, specifically the role of the state and government intervention, and then to guide students in tracing these theories against the empirical evidence from a range of examples from states in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. It will thereby enable students to acquire a nuanced and empirically grounded perspective on the reasons for wide variations in economic development.

This module introduces students to the phenomenon of war and demonstrates its ubiquity across time and space in human affairs, and develops an account of war as a constitutive force in the production of world politics past, present and future.

International Relations as a discipline has historically given little importance to religion as an explanatory category in modern international politics. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks and with the advent of the 'war on terror' there were increasing efforts to address this gap - however this reintroduction of religion by way of counterterrorism leads only to a very limited engagement with religion (one disproportionately focused on Islamic terrorism). Where other types of religious political movements and actors are analysed, religion is often either reduced to simply an identity category or seen as a displacement for other, more Worldly, concerns - it is rarely taken seriously on its own terms. This course seeks to provide a more holistic approach to the role of religion in contemporary world politics. The course will engage with a number of religious traditions from across the World in order to interrogate questions of secularism, violence, religious nationalism, civil society, soft power initiatives, and conflict resolution. What role does religion play in addressing the major crises of the present day? The course will also address methodological questions raised by the engagement with diverse religious traditions, as well as the uses of religion as an analytical category more broadly. We will ask whether the significance of religion can be easily fit into existing IR models or whether taking religion seriously requires a more radical departure.

What is the future of NATO and the Bretton Woods System? Is the United Nations a universal organisation? Do international courts successfully uphold international law? These are just a few of the questions addressed in this module, which broadly surveys the major concepts, theories, and debates within the field of International Relations (IR) and cognate disciplines to study the role of international institutions in world politics. The module highlights the multidimensional complexities of the evolving international system and encourages students to critically reflect upon the capacities and limitations of nation-states, transnational professionals and non-state actors to cooperate and solve international and transnational political problems. The module is divided across five themes that cover history and theory, global order, actors, regionalism, and current debates on the role of international institutions in world politics. By the completion of this module, students will possess a deeper understanding of the changes and continuities in the contemporary international system and the political and security dynamics that shape it.