PGDip International Studies and Diplomacy

This module teaches applied diplomatic skills through a series of group practical exercises and role-playing in carefully designed international scenarios which draw actively on SOAS' expertise on Asia and Africa. Training is jointly undertaken by serving and former diplomats, recognised experts and CISD faculty. These series of experienced guest speakers and practical exercises will give students direct experiences of the complexity involved in international diplomacy in this period. This module is designed to provide the analytical and presentational skills for students interested in careers in formal or informal diplomacy, policy analysis, strategic communications and crisis management. It will consist of skills lectures and workshops by specialists and practitioners and of interactive practical exercises in which skills are put to use. The sessions involving practitioners in the field of formal and non-governmental diplomacy aim to provide a professional context for both the academic and practical knowledge gained elsewhere within this module.

This module will explore the the instruments and strategies of diplomacy and asks what role power plays in diplomacy. It will consider the significance of multilaterialism in diplomacy and how this has changed since the end of the Cold War.

This module provides a grounding in the Sociology and Politics of development, which is complementary to the module Political Economy of Development in the MSc Development Studies, exploring theoretical ideas and debates about development, with a historical perspective.

This course looks at the interaction between China's economic transformation and world development since the late 1970s until the present time. The emphasis is on critically analyzing and assessing this interaction from alternative historical and theoretical perspectives.

The MSc Global Energy and Climate Policy addresses precisely these issues, treating climate and energy policy as inextricably linked. Cases drawn from both the Global North and South will form the basis of your studies as you examine how policy is made, advocated and implemented – or sometimes prevented – around the world.

This module will give students an understanding of the UN and the UN system within the appropriate context of international organisations will complement the student’s knowledge and understanding of International Studies and Diplomacy.

This course provides an advanced introduction to global advocacy. The aim of the module is to teach the theories and skills that allow an individual to be a more effective in achieving their advocacy objectives.

This module will give students an excellent foundational knowledge of public policy theory, including public choice and its criticisms, agenda setting and advocacy, policy change and stability, decision making, policy implementation, bureaucracies, and new public management.

This module offers an introduction to law on armed conflict, including collective security, the use of force, international humanitarian law and counter-terrorism. These are studied alongside legal reforms in response to contemporary understandings of the relationship between war and gender.

This subject will provide a comprehensive overview of the emerging discipline of international criminal law. The discipline will be approached historically, theoretically, and critically. First, the course will examine the historical origins of the fundamental principle of international criminal law – individual criminal responsibility – and trace the evolution of the international criminal tribunals that apply that principle. Second, the course will explain the core theoretical assumptions of the subject, focusing in particular on the rationales for punishment (retribution, creating a historical record, promoting peace and reconciliation, etc.) and for the creation and operation of international criminal tribunals. Third, the course will take a critical look at the discipline’s core theoretical assumptions, asking whether alternatives to international trials might better achieve the discipline’s stated goals.

International Political Communication

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.

The Module presents a critical analysis of Artificial Intelligence with a particular emphasis on its implication for human security. It connects current research into the ethics of AI, to comparative philosophies including the socio-economic theories of the Frankfurt School and their emphasis on the perils of modern forms of production for human existence and the threat of “perfectionism” in capitalist societies. In addition, the course will consider the “techno-politics” of Paul Virilio and the critical approaches of Iranian philosophers such as Jamal Al-e Ahmad.

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).

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 is designed to provide a critical introduction to international relations theory and contemporary world politics for students with no prior background in international relations. Students will acquire a solid grounding in international relations theory and how to apply it to understand and analyse key developments in world politics from 1945 to the present, including the Cold War, decolonization, globalization, development, and the War on Terror, amongst others.

The Risk and Policy Analysis course teaches a core set of skills required of public, private and non-profit sector policy professionals, including: analysing, assessing and managing risks, understanding cost-benefit analysis, analysing stakeholders, scenario mapping, writing policy analysis, assessing policy impacts, and strategically communicating (policy) positions. Cases analysed are drawn from a wide range of policy fields and the skills profile taught is transferable across sectors in policy, diplomatic and corporate settings. The training is conducted through lectures and tutorials run in cooperation with external practitioners representing government, NGOs, think tank, risk advisory and business backgrounds.

This course takes account of the division within the economics discipline. It presents students with both, the ‘mainstream’ and the ‘political economy’ or ‘heterodox’ view of international economic relations, explaining their roots in the history of thought and their relevance to current thinking on international economic relations. The course sets out with a few basic lectures on the thinking of prominent economists on two fundamental aspects of economic interaction: Economic exchanges at one point in time (markets), and production relations over time (economic growth). The remainder of the course will be dedicated to a discussion on how economists construe international economic relations, in terms of trade in goods and services, and in terms of international financial transactions. Students will be introduced to the main tenets of standard international trade and monetary theory, as well as to critical perspectives on these approaches.

The module provides important introductory material for students who do not have a background in international law and wish to take other international law units at SOAS.

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.