International Relations BA (Hons)

This module will introduce you to the study of security in International Relations. It will examine conflicts and contemporary security threats like terrorism, crimes against humanity, genocide, and war as well as other threats to security, involving questions of global health and climate change. It will discuss potential pathways to settle these conflicts peacefully and find solutions to these global threats.

Compulsory

The module focuses on foreign policy analysis through theories and practice. The module assesses the ways in which national political systems experience and cope with challenges arising from their involvement in international affairs. Insights will be applied to foreign policy in general and to particular foreign policies in depth including the United States; China; Russia; the European Union; and Britain.

Compulsory

This module examines the power shifts in the international system and their implications for global order as the centre of gravity in global politics increasingly shifts away from the United States and Europe to so-called emerging powers such China, India, Brazil and South Africa.

Compulsory

In this module, you will aim to develop a vital understanding of key ethical problems in contemporary international politics as well as the most recent and traditional moral frameworks for thinking about how to approach and evaluate potential ways to resolve these issues.

Compulsory

This module explores the human relationship with the natural world, examining the ways in which an emerging Western worldview has affected humanity's impact on its surroundings. It covers topics from the dominant views of nature emanating out of the Scientific Revolution of the Renaissance to the birth of the modern environmental movement and organisations like Greenpeace and the nascent political ideology of Ecologism.

Compulsory

This module focuses on the rise of Far-Right political parties in West European countries. The focus will be on the different explanations put forwards for their success or failure to acquire electoral support, their influence on the behaviour of mainstream political parties and politics in general in the case study countries.

Compulsory

This module² provides you with an opportunity to reflect upon and gain experience for an approved placement undertaken during your programme. A placement should usually be at least 26 weeks or equivalent; however, each placement will be considered on its own merits, having regard to the ability to achieve the learning outcomes.

Optional

This module² provides you with an opportunity to reflect upon and gain experience for an approved international study/work placement undertaken during your programme. A work/study placement should usually be at least 26 weeks or equivalent; however, each placement will be considered on its own merits, having regard to the ability to achieve the learning outcomes.

Optional

This module is designed to enable you to develop, enhance and put into practice the research and analytical skills acquired in your previous years of study in order to pursue an in-depth analysis of a subject of your own choosing within the context of your programme of study. This can take the form of an extended piece of writing, or a media project such as a documentary film.

Optional

The aim of the module is to examine in detail a number of major themes and developments in post-1945 US foreign policy. These are examined both for their intrinsic importance and interest, and for the light they throw on the foreign policy making process in the US system and on the development of the international system.

Optional

This module sets out to explore China’s domestic political institutions and political culture; deconstruct the country’s regional and global foreign relations; and define the military and non-military security challenges for the regional and global systems. It explores the challenges at home and overseas facing the leadership in Beijing and the way that China engages with the international community including the U.S., Japan, Southeast Asia and, perhaps most controversially, Africa.

Optional

This module introduces you to the region of South Asia and, in particular, to the dynamics of conflict, violence and cooperation in the region and their wider implications for global politics. South Asia consists of eight countries, namely India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nepal, Bhutan and Afghanistan.

Optional

The module will examine the recent evolution of the traditional criminal organisations in comparative perspective (Sicilian mafia, American Cosa Nostra, Japanese Yakuza and Chinese Triads), the growth of the new wave of organised criminal groups (with a focus on the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Africa and the South American Cartels), the nature of criminality behind the human trade and piracy, the emergence of youth gangs and the evolution of organised crime in the UK.

Optional

This module aims to introduce you to the contemporary history, politics and international relations of the Middle East since 1948. Topics include the process of European decolonisation since the 1940s, the rise of Zionism and national independence movements, the emergence of the Palestinian question, the revival of political Islam, the Western Wars against Iraq in 1991 and 2003, and the Arab Spring Revolutions of 2010-11.

Optional

This module aims to introduce you to the political challenges facing the countries of Central and Eastern Europe since the end of Communism, especially the unresolved clash between liberal democratic and ethnic nationalist norms. You will be introduced to key debates in both theories of nationalism and theories of democratisation as well as particular events and case study countries.

Optional

This module will examine the ways in which ethnic minorities have stood up to corrupt, racist power structures across the Americas.  It will pay particular attention to the ways in which suppressed people have empowered themselves and fought to resist white supremacy and the socio-cultural systems that support it. 

Optional