This programme will tackle the ‘big’ issues facing global decision-makers such as: war, terrorism, (in)security, environmental degradation, climate change, pandemics, poverty, and inequality, among others.
Traditionally, the discipline of International Relations (IR) has been concerned with issues of war and peace, focused on explaining and understanding the behaviour of states in their relationships with each other in the international state-system. However, the end of the Cold War and other currents in IR have exposed the limitations of this approach, highlighting a need for the inclusion of non-traditional concerns, i.e., things that would normally be outside the remit of ‘orthodox’ IR.
On this programme, you will learn what theory is and what it means to theorise; the key theoretical approaches in IR from Realism to Postcolonialism; and how to understand and apply these theories to historical and contemporary issues. Ultimately, students are equipped to evaluate theoretical positions in the light of pressing issues in contemporary political life.
Core modules
Theories and Issues in International Relations
This module provides an introduction to International Relations (IR) theory; to the key ideas and approaches that scholars working in the discipline use to understand and explain issues and practices of international politics. The module aims to familiarise students with the key theoretical approaches in IR and to make theory accessible and understandable. This is done via both an analysis of the key theoretical approaches to IR and by examining their insights and limitations through the study of key issues and themes in international relations, and by considering relevant case studies.
International Relations theorising draws from a wide diversity of intellectual sources and its scope is not limited by the narrow confines of the empirics of interstate behaviour. Firstly, IR theories draw from disciplines other than Politics, including philosophy, sociology and economics. Secondly, some of the theoretical literature is explicitly critical about the adequacy of particular theoretical approaches and seeks to deconstruct the role of theory and the theorist in IR, rather than just elaborate and apply existing theories; the module transcends theory through engaging with metatheoretical and philosophical questions. IR theory is not confined to academia. Policymakers and practitioners of world politics are also informed by and reproduce particular theoretical understandings of the way the world works even if they do not specifically recognise or present them as such. Finally, through welcoming a diversity of (unorthodox) perspectives, it becomes possible to even argue that we are all theorists and that we all theorise.
Optional modules
Optional modules can vary from year to year. Example optional modules may include:
- Examining Rising World Powers
- International Relations and Security of the Middle East
- The Global Politics of Nuclear Weapons
