INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS

Credit Points

20

Course Coordinator

Dr S Y Kim and Dr M Bain

Pre-requisites

None

Overview

The course provides students with an outline of the structure of the international system and introduces them to certain key concepts such as state, nation, alliance, war etc. The course is in three sections covering concepts, the political power structure and the political aspects of the functioning of the international economy.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Examination (60%), in-course assessment (40%).

Resit: Examination (100%).

Credit Points

20

Course Coordinator

Dr D J Galbreath

Pre-requisites

None.

Overview

The course will be structured around the twinning of case study organizations and concepts. The structure will be 1) intro 2) Theories of IO 3) History IOs 4) IOs as political systems 5) IOs and member-states 6) IOs and Decision-Making 7) IOs and Security 8) IOs and the Global Economy 9) IOs and Human Rights 10) IO case study: EU 11) IO case study: EU 12) IO case study: EU.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures (Mon, Tuesday at 10-11) and 1 one-hour tutorial (to be arranged) per week beginning in week 29.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (60%); in-course assessment (40%).

Resit: 1 two-hour written examination (100%).

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Professor M Pasha

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 2 or above who have passed IR 1001 or IR 1501.

Overview

An introduction to the major perspectives that have evolved in the discipline of International Relations within a framework emphasising the importance of methodological issues to our understanding of the subject. The course will examine: 'rationalist' approaches to theory, including realism and neo-realism; liberal and marxist international political economy; and 'reflectivist; theories, including critical theory, social constructivism, post-modernism, feminism and environmentalism.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures per week and 1 one-hour tutorial per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour examination (60%) and in-course assessment (40%).

Resit: Examination (100%).

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr R Vij

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 2 or above who have passed IR 1001 or IR 1501.

Overview

This course introduces students to the study of the global distribution of wealth and power and how this shapes the conduct of international relations. Beginning with the historical evolution of capitalism as a global system, we will consider in some detail the nature of international institutions (the IMF, World Bank, WTO), and their role in stabilizing global economic and political order. We will examine specific topics including, trade, protectionism, globalization and regionalism with particular attention to their impact on global development, welfare and poverty. In conclusion, we will consider the possibility of alternative imaginings of global political and economic order.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures, 1 one-hour tutorial per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Examination (60%), in-course assessment (40%).

Resit: Examination (100%).

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Professor M Pasha

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 2 or above who have passed IR 1001 or IR 1501.

Overview

An introduction to the major perspectives that have evolved in the discipline of International Relations within a framework emphasising the importance of methodological issues to our understanding of the subject. The course will examine: ‘rationalist’ approaches to theory, including realism and neo-realism; liberal and marxist international political economy; and ‘reflectivist’ theories, including critical theory, social constructivism, post-modernism, feminism and environmentalism.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures per week and 1 two-hour tutorial per fortnight.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Examination (60%), in-course assessment (40%).

Resit: Examination (100%).

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr A Oelsner

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 3.

Notes

This is compulsory for all students studying for the MA Politics and IR, and for those studying Joint Honours IR and another subject.

Overview

Salient concepts of security and conflict will be examined within a broad historical context. This will be complemented by an assessment of the contribution of notable thinkers from classical to contemporary times. Within this framework the utility of practical instruments of international security such as alliance, limited war, deterrence, collective security, and military intervention will be considered, as will selected contemporary national security policies.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures and 1 one-hour tutorial per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 three-hour examination (60%) and in-course assessment (40%).

Resit: Examination (100%) unless the candidate gets to carry forward in-course assessment grades.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr S Y Kim

Pre-requisites

None.

Overview

This course examines the evolution of the international system in East Asia from the late 19th Century until today. It will examine how and why different systems rose and fell in East Asia, and how the foreign policies of major states in the Asia-Pacific region influenced those developments. This course focuses particularly on the interlocking relations among China, Japan, Korea, the United States, and Russia. Throughout the course, the roles played by such different dynamics as power competition, pursuit of economic interest, and intercultural relations will be reviewed.

Structure

2 one-hour lectures and 1 one-hour tutorial per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 three-hour examination (60%) and in-course assessment (40%).

Resit: examination (100%) unless the candidate gets to carry forward in-course assessment grades.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr R Vij

Pre-requisites

None.

Notes

This is a level 3 International Relations course.

Overview

This course introduces students to alternative ways of understanding Japan's central role in stabilizing global order at the beginning of the 21st century. Starting with a consideration of critical approaches to the production and representation of 'Japan' as an object of study within international relations, the course focuses on a theoretical and historical investigation of three sets of inter-related themes, modernity and capitalism, nationalism and the state, and culture and identity, by way of examining the deeper sources of Japan's changing role in global social life. The course material is inter-disciplinary; including readings from political science, economic history, anthropology, sociology, cultural, and film studies, and covers aspects of Japan's relations with North-America, Asia, the Middle-East, and Europe.

Structure

1 two-hour lecture and 1 one-hour tutorial every week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 three-hour written examination (60%); in-course assessment (40%).

Resit: Examination (100%) unless candidate opts to carry forward in-course assessment marks.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr A Teti

Pre-requisites

N/A

Overview

The course examines the politics of the contemporary Middle East. The course aims to provide the students with an in-depth understanding of the politics of the region by looking at systems of governance, foreign policy-making, conflict, political economy, and the politics of identity (including religion, ideology and gender).

Structure

1 lecture and 1 tutorial per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Examination (60%) and in course assessment (40%).

Resit: To be confirmed.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr S Y Kim

Pre-requisites

None.

Overview

This course examines several major crises in international history in the twentieth century. It focuses on international crises and diplomacy, and assesses the qualities of diplomacy and statecraft during these crucial junctures of international history. The module focuses upon the constraints imposed by the international domestic situation.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture and 1 one-hour tutorial.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 three-hour examination (60%) and in-course assessment (40%).

Resit (for Honours students only): Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6-8 may be awarded compensatory level 1 credit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of less than 6 will be required to submit themselves for re-assessment and should contact the Course Co-ordinator for further details.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr M Bain

Pre-requisites

None.

Overview

This course examines aspects of contemporary Modern Day Latin America. This includes amongst others the role of the United States. The special case of Cuba, globalisation, guerrilla warfare, the drugs trade and the return to democratisation in the region are examined with appropriate case studies being given. Throughout the course the ideas of development and dependency will be given appropriate attention. This gives students an understanding of a wide range of issues that have affected Latin America's recent past and how they still affect the continent today.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture and 1 one-hour tutorial.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 three-hour examination (60%) and one essay (40%).

Resit (for Honours students only): Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6-8 may be awarded compensatory level 1 credit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of less than 6 will be required to submit themselves for re-assessment and should contact the Course Co-ordinator for further details.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr P McCaffery

Pre-requisites

None

Notes

This is a level 4 International Relations option.

Overview

This course focuses not on the conduct of war as an instrument of policy but on the cultural background and consequences of warfare. It examines ideologies of nationalism and militarism as well as the processes whereby soldiers are motivated to fight. The social effects of war on civilian populations is also considered, along with the shaping of civilian perceptions through official propaganda and journalists' reports. So too are the subsequent commemorations of the fallen, and the significance of commemorative practices for the maintenance of a sense of collective identity among survivors and later generations.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture/discussion and 1 one-hour seminar per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 three-hour written examination (60%) and in-course assessment (40%).

Resit (for Honours students only): Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6-8 may be awarded compensatory level 1 credit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of less than 6 will be required to submit themselves for re-assessment and should contact the Course Co-ordinator for further details.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr J Galbreath

Pre-requisites

This is a Level 4 International Relations option.

Overview

The Course aims to introduce students to the study of Foreign Policy Analaysis (FPA) in the conduct of International Relations. The obejctive is to impart to students the necessary analytical skills required to appreciate competing demands and influences placed upon politicians, diplomats and civil servants as they seek to shape and implement foreign policy in an international system often described as anarchic. In turn, the course also looks at the impact of the international system on the foreign policy of states.

Structure

1 two-hour seminar.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 two-hour written examination (60^); in-course assessment (40%).

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr A Widfeldt

Pre-requisites

Available only to Level 4 students.

Overview

Students prepare and present, under the supervision of a member of staff, a dissertation on a topic approved by Politics and International Relations.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Dissertation, 10,000-12,000 words in length (100%).

Resit (for Honours students only): Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6-8 may be awarded compensatory level 1 credit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of less than 6 will be required to submit themselves for re-assessment and should contact the Course Co-ordinator for further details.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr A Oelsner

Pre-requisites

Available only to students in Programme Year 4.

Overview

The course focuses on the concept of peace and its meaning for International Relations (IR). Traditionally, the study of IR concentrated on issues and concepts such as war, power, and competition between states. In recent years, and in the context of greater research diversification in IR, the concepts of peace and stable peace also gained more space within the discipline. This course approaches the issue of international peace, reviewing different theoretical perspectives the more traditional ones as well as more recent developments, discussing the existence of different types of peace, and studying various international strategies for its maintenance and for improving its quality.

Structure

1 one-hour lecture and 1 one-hour tutorial per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: 1 three-hour examination (60%) and in-course assessment (40%).

Resit (for Honours students only): Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6-8 may be awarded compensatory level 1 credit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of less than 6 will be required to submit themselves for re-assessment and should contact the Course Co-ordinator for further details.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Dr A Teti

Pre-requisites

None

Notes

This course will not run in 2007/08.

Overview

This course examines the political economy of the contemporary Middle East, covering amongst others several topical issues at domestic, regional, and international levels, from the problems of development (eg (neo)colonisliasm), to the political economy of oil, to the connection between water scarcity and security. The course systematically analyses the link between economic choices (eg liberalisation) and their and political consequences (eg democratisation, radicalism).

Structure

1 lecture and 1 tutorial per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Examination (60%), in-course assessment (40%).

Resit (for Honours students only): Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6-8 may be awarded compensatory level 1 credit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of less than 6 will be required to submit themselves for re-assessment and should contact the Course Co-ordinator for further details.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Professors T Salmon and T Carty

Pre-requisites

None

Notes

This course will not run in 2007/08.

Overview

This module will examine the role of international security organisations in world politics. The conceptual origins, nature, and evolution of such organisations will provide the framework for analysis of contemporary issues. The histories, records and, where relevant, current strategies, of the League of Nations, United Nations, NATO, OSCE and the EU(CFSP/ESDP) will be scrutinised, as will concepts such as peace-keeping, peace-making, peace-enforcement, and preventative diplomacy.

Structure

1 lecture and 1 tutorial per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Examination (60%), in-course assessement (40%).

Resit (for Honours students only): Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6-8 may be awarded compensatory level 1 credit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of less than 6 will be required to submit themselves for re-assessment and should contact the Course Co-ordinator for further details.

Credit Points

30

Course Coordinator

Professor M K Pasha

Pre-requisites

Open only to students in Programme Year 4.

Overview

This course explores the structure and logic of modernity as it informs Islamic political movements in contemporary international relations. As both constitutive of modernity and challenging its particularised enunciation in the Islamic Cultural Zones, these movements raise basic questions concerning secularisation, forms of religious commitment, relation between politics and faith, and the nature of sovereignty. Students in this course will explore the main theoretical currents surrounding modernity; the Islamic critique of (Western) modernity; the location, heterogeneity and character of contemporary Iaslamic political discourse and political practice; and the limits of political Islam as an alternative construction of social and political order. Finally, the course will also examine the phenomena of transnational and diasporic Islam and their challenge to liberal understandings of political community, citizenship, rights, tolerance and cosmopolitanism.

Structure

2 hour lecture and 1 hour tutorial per week.

Assessment

1st Attempt: Examination (60%) and in-course assessment (40%).

Resit (for Honours students only): Candidates achieving a CAS mark of 6-8 may be awarded compensatory level 1 credit. Candidates achieving a CAS mark of less than 6 will be required to submit themselves for re-assessment and should contact the Course Co-ordinator for further details.