Certificate in Politics and International Studies

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.

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

The purpose of this module is to introduce you to the different theoretical and conceptual approaches to the study of international organisations (IOs), and to explore both the cross-cutting, and organisation-specific, contemporary debates and issues that surround them. The module will begin with a focus on the various approaches to the study of IOs and global governance, some of the theoretical lenses through which we can understand their importance to world politics, and a historical examination of their role in the international security regime governing the use of force. The module will then move to an examination of individual IOs and regimes, including those governing human rights and international criminal accountability, as well as international trade, finance, development. We will conclude with an exploration of, and comparison to, regional organisations, as well as a look at how we might understand the future of regional and global approaches to the governance of migration.

The course shall examine debates in the discipline of politics about the role of “culture” in politics – as practices of meaning-making in politics; as a series of everyday practices and rituals with implicit (or overt) political content; and as cultural products (art, films, etc.) both whose making and content reflects a specific politics. To do so, the course will require three activities outside class: A visit to the British Museum – as the basis of discussing Orientalism, but also Nationalism and empire in the politics of archaeology and artistic accumulation A visit to a diasporic enclave in London – as the basis of a discussion of questions of identity-making, immigration, and the political economy of “cultural” practices (restaurants, specific shops catering to specific communities, etc.)

This module offers an advanced introduction to the politics of global environmental change. It focuses on problems of environmental transformation in the context of international power relations, the expansion of capitalism, and socio-political pressures for radical change.

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.

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.

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 interogate 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 engagment 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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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).

This course, which brings into undergraduate Year 3 an MSc course, is the only such course on this side of the Atlantic and the only other such course outside Columbia. It brings a properly political scientific appreciation of postwar, independence and post-independence thought in Africa as enunciated by leading political figures and public intellectuals.

This course is designed to provide students with a broad introduction to the conceptual, historical, and sociological factors that contribute to democracy and authoritarianism in India. While India is the main focus for building in-depth knowledge and within-country comparisons, the course places Indian cases in comparative frames with a range of countries within and beyond South Asia. Throughout, the emphasis is placed on analyses of political processes rather than a description of events. At the end of the course, students should have a good understanding of academic work on the South Asia and an ability to write well-structured and well-researched papers on selected subjects in the field.

Introduction to Global History provides students with a broad understanding of the development of the modern world system. Beginning with 1492, it traces how the world became increasingly integrated and connected – economically, politically, militarily and socially, and what that means for how the world works today. The module begins by asking what we might mean by ‘global history,’ and then considers global phenomena including empire, slavery, colonialism and revolution, through primary and secondary sources. Through the module, we will show how and where that past interacts with the present.

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, Poststructuralist, Feminism, and Postcolonial Approaches. Topics to be covered will include issues of war and peace, power, global political economy, identities and ideologies, environmental politics, technological change, 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.

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.

The module is organised around debates in four areas: (1) a set of scene setting questions to introduce the material; (2) conceptual frameworks, derived from the scholarly tradition of political economy and world politics, including liberalism, Marxism, gender-based approaches, and racial capitalism; (3) the post-WWII history of governing the capitalist system, including attention to finance, trade, development, and energy and the environment; and (4) contemporary issues transfixing the world economy, including the global ecological crisis, the global financial crisis and its fallout, the politics of trade regulation, socio-economic inequalities, new concerns around technology, the political economy of work, and macro debates on capitalism and its possible futures. Students are asked to think critically about how the politics of the economy is conceived, governed, and experienced, in particular through evaluating dynamics of power.