MSc International Politics

This module introduces postgraduate students to the field of international theory, from contemplating how and why we might use theory to explain and understand post-/neo-colonial world order, to exploring key concepts and theoretical traditions in the discipline of International Relations. The module situates the narrower, US-centric field of ‘IR Theory’ within broader traditions of global social and political thought, and encourages students to think critically about its roots and functions as an intellectual project. Students are introduced to a range of key paradigms, from the traditional mainstream (realism, liberalism, constructivism) to the critical (postcolonialism, feminism, Marxism, poststructuralism).

This dissertation enables the students to work on a research topic in relation to their chosen major. They will learn how to approach the topic they have chosen from an academic angle, under the supervision of a member of staff. The dissertation is normally written over the summer period and submitted in September.

This module is designed to provide a general introduction to problems, approaches and debates in social science methodologies (broadly understood). The aim is to make MSc students familiar with prominent methodological angles and language(s), to provide both a solid grounding in the key issues and a critical understanding of them.

This module examines international migration and diaspora politics as transnational processes in world politics. Cross-border mobility and diasporic political projects are key features of the contemporary international environment, yet they remain undertheorized in International Relations. How do migration and diaspora politics inform or challenge our understandings of the state, national identity, sovereignty, and the nature of the international system? What is the relationship between international migration and key areas of concern for International Relations scholars such as economic development, diplomacy, international security and global normative contestation? A range of theoretical approaches and empirical examples will be covered.

The aim of this course is to provide students with a critical introduction to the subfield of foreign policy analysis (FPA). From its origins in the classic work of Snyder, Bruck and Sapin, foreign policy analysis has been shaped by a set of premises that have determined the ways in which the field has developed. Specifically, foreign policy has often been equated with decision-making, and studied on the basis of individualist, positivist and liberal assumptions as the external projection of processes internal to the nation-state. The vast bulk of conceptual, theoretical and empirical work has focused on the United States. Over time, these assumptions have been increasingly questioned - although it must be said without seriously denting the overall shape of the field. The course introduces students to the core assumptions, models, and debates that have structured the field, while also opening it up to critical interrogation, considering if and how it might be ‘decolonised’ as a field of study, and exploring its applicability to global case studies.

This course will investigate the evolving nature of security governance and risks in the 21st century, with particular attention to emerging threats in the realms of nuclear weapons, non-state terrorism, climate change, energy, and food security, as well as emerging forms of security governance in the domains of surveillance and policing.

The course focuses on the contestations in the history, institutions and politics of the global human rights regime, in general terms and in relation to specific rights issues, and considers its future prospects. We begin with a look at the contested history of human rights and ask why arguments about their origins are so persistent and the implications of dominant accounts of origins for contemporary politics of human rights. We then look at the sociology of human rights, using this approach to ask where the politics of human rights are located, and how and with what consequences the human rights ‘movement’ reproduces its moral authority. We then look at both international human rights norms and the institutions that embody them, including the relationship between rights, humanitarianism and international justice. Then, in the long middle section of the course, we examine a series of core rights issues in more depth, ranging from economic and social rights – including what relation, if any, human rights have to neoliberalism; women’s rights, children’s rights, and gender-based violence; LGBT* rights; states' routine suspension of rights in the name of security ('emergencies') - the new ‘normal’ of the ‘Global War on Terror' that has intensified amid the global pandemic; and the struggle for rights in exile (including, but not limited to, asylum) and, relatedly, the inexorable rise of the carceral state.

Since the age of European colonial rule in the Middle East came to an end around the Second World War, nominally independent nation-states in the region have tried to negotiate the opportunities and challenges of the Cold War, regional conflict and co-operation, underdevelopment, and more recently, globalisation. This module takes up the study of this rich politics through two different approaches, the first thematic, the second through the study of inter-state politics. After examining the methodological issues involved in the study of the Middle East and becoming familiar with the regions role during the Cold War and thereafter, we will examine important themes and debates in international politics of the Middle East, including war and militarism, ethnicity, development and globalisation, migration and ideological movements. In the latter part of the module, through a more conventional examination of inter-state politics of the Middle East, we will focus on conflict and cooperation between the Arab states in the region and their non-Arab neighbours, Israel, Iran and Turkey.

This module will examine the international political economy through a framework that goes beyond traditions of state-centrism and disciplinary boundaries between politics and economics. The course will study theoretical approaches to and contemporary issues within IPE. Students will explore the theories of leading analysts in the historical development of IPE, such as liberalism, marxism, feminism and postcolonialism. Contemporary themes and issues are addressed, including economic crises, global trade, production, financialisation and development. Students will be encouraged to think critically about these issues through the study of power relationships, hierarchies, violence and exploitation.

This course is designed to provide students with a theoretically informed and comparative introduction to key issues in the contemporary international politics 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).