Politics and International Relations

This module, taught across two 20 credit modules in two semesters, centres around issues of contemporary importance to global politics, and will be refreshed accordingly to reflect the rapidly changing nature of such issues. These will reflect the rise of new powers, equality, conflict and crisis. Issues could include, for example, the Syrian crisis, Brexit or climate change. This co-taught module draws on the expertise and research interests of those within the department, providing students with the opportunity to engage in discussion and debate on salient issues and to reflect on the relevance of International Relations theories for understanding, explaining and engaging with them. 

The key aim of this module is to provide students with a strong theoretical foundation from which they can analyse international politics. Consequently, it has three main objectives. First, it is intended to introduce students to the necessity of abstract and theoretical thinking in order to grasp the key patterns and dynamics of international politics, in order to better comprehend changes in day-to-day political life. Second, it aims to make students more aware of the fact that political language and analysis frequently disclose underlying assumptions and biases. Third, war, cooperation, global governance in numerous area (e.g. environment, economics, finance, health) all require distinct theories to capture their essence. Thus, students will also familiarize themselves with the limitations, and benefits, experienced across various theoretical approaches. 

Money and the financial system are essential features of modern economies. The module explores the political economy of money and finance. Students will critically examine the different theories of money, its origins, its value and its role in modern capitalist economies, with an emphasis on both comparative and historical approaches. They will also investigate the evolution of monetary and financial institutions and the recurrence of financial crises, and assess the current international developments in the financial system globally and on a cross-country comparative perspective. The aim of the module is for students to gain a deep understanding of the centrality money and finance in historical and contemporary political economy processes. 

This module seeks to develop students’ understanding of approaches to research and research design. It provides an overview of both qualitative and quantitative approaches and supports students in developing their own capacities to design research projects, drawing on appropriate methods of data collection and analysis, which allow them to answer research questions. In doing so, it also aims to equip students with the necessary skills to evaluate critically the research of others.

The future has always enraptured us as well as filling us with apprehension. It offers hope and possibility yet conjures up images of the unknown and uncertain, when compared to the more comforting embrace of the past, which, itself, was once an imagined, possibly feared, equally hopeful future.

This module looks at global politics through historical and contemporary discussions of what the world might look like in the future. It draws upon literary and cultural sources as well as political and governmental ones and in addition to using well-known dystopian works such as Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World (1932) and George Orwell’s 1984 (1949), or utopian ones such as Edward Bellamy’s Looking Backward (1888), this will look at less familiar works such as Richard Nevinson’s Exodus A.D. (1934)? How well do these visions predict the future as well as critiquing their presents?

Looking to contemporary matters why, despite Stephen Pinker’s view in The Better Angels of Our Nature (2011) that we are living in the safest and most prosperous times in human history, is there such nostalgia, especially in western societies, for a imagined ‘golden age.’ As well as exploring these matters of the present the module looks ahead, via cultural products in film and literature and official and independent reports and scholarship, to futures that include dystopias such as environmental collapse as well as utopian ones that see a world positively transformed by automation to pose the question as to whether human beings, via political action whether at local, regional or international levels, have it in their grasp to create a ‘better’ world.

Students will choose either the Dissertation module or the Work Placement module:

Dissertation

This module is an opportunity for students to undertake a research-led inquiry on a topic relevant to international politics. Students are given considerable freedom to identify the topic and scope of their enquiry but will be supported by a dedicated dissertation supervisor, available for one-to-one guidance at all stages of the process.

Work Placement

This module allows students to take up a placement in a voluntary sector body or other appropriate organisation either in the UK or overseas, contingent upon approval by the Programme Leader before the placement can commence and subject to adherence to university Work-Based Learning and Placement Procedures. The aim is that you will make a positive and personally rewarding contribution to the community whilst also reflecting critically upon your experience and developing skills which will enhance your employability and personal development.

• Security Studies - 20 credits
• Gender and National Security - 20 credits
• Utopias and Dystopias: Political Pasts, Presents and Futures - 20 credits
• Applied Work Placement in Politics and International Relations or Dissertation - 60 credits