East Asia and the International System

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

The module enables you to gain an understanding of the rise of East Asia in the international political economy from the early 20th century until the present. You will critically examine East Asian development from within the context of broader geopolitical rivalries, and seek to explore how these rivaliries have shaped the transformations taking place in the region.

We will begin by historicising the recent transformations in East Asia and contextualising them within the longer purview of world history. We will examine the legacies of both European and Japanese imperialisms, followed by the role of the Cold War and of US hegemony in the region. As part of this historical survey, varying analytical frameworks and debates concerning late development and the rise of capitalism in the region will be examined and contextualised, including neoclassical economics, structural institutionalism, neo-Marxist theories of development such as dependency theory, and debates surrounding international versus comparative political economy.

We will also examine the post-war emergence of 'developmental state' forms in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, and the developmental and geopolitical context of the these states will be contrasted with those of Southeast Asia. The question of the so-called 'rise of China' and its implications for the regional and international political economy will be addressed, and one session will be devoted to the transformations of labour-capital relations in the region. We will also examine the causes and consequences of the East Asian economic and financial crisis, and will be end by exploring whether the centre of power in the international political is shifting from the West to Asia.

Foundations of World Politics

30 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

This module provides you with a critical historical perspective on the modern international system. We shall be reflecting on three key themes, each of which is in its own way central to historicising the world we live in today.

First there is the theme of origins: when did the modern international system originate? Was it in 1492 with the European discoveries which for the first time linked up all the major civilizations? Was it in 1648, when the Peace of Westphalia, according to many, first established a sovereign states-system? Or was it in the 1780s, when the coinciding industrial and French revolutions set in train the forces of industrialisation, nationalism, republicanism and total war? The three dates are symbolic but the choice between them is not: as Barraclough suggests, which one you choose determines what you think the most significant characteristics of modern international relations are, and even your view of what modern world history has been about.

The second theme considers the expansion of this modern system into the historically unprecedented global system of today. We cannot do this comprehensively, but by looking at 19th-century European imperialism as well as the responses of some countries which escaped direct colonial rule we can identify some key dynamics of what might be called the modern international historical process.

Finally, no attempt to understand international relations today can avoid reflection on the enormous crisis of the 20th century with its world wars, revolutions and global ideological conflicts. Historical controversy continues to rage over all of these: can they be understood primarily at the geopolitical level as a series of great power conflicts over hegemonic succession? Were they the inevitable result of contradictions and dynamics inherent in modern capitalist society?

Or is it rather the international unevenness of industrialisation or modernisation which explains the extended period of crisis which so recently ended (or did it)? In the end, we cannot fully understand the present as history if only because the story of the present is still being made. But we can try to think historically about the present, to draw conclusions about the nature of the overall historical process in which we are all caught up. And that is what this module is designed to help you to do.

Global Politics of Disease and Biosecurity

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

The importance of global health issues has traditionally been overlooked in the discipline of international relations. Today, however, globalisation processes are fanning the emergence of a host of pervasive diseases - ranging from infectious diseases, such as HIV/AIDS through to lifestyle diseases including cancer and obesity - that states, international institutions, and non-governmental organisations are urgently trying to come to grips with. The AIDS pandemic alone continues to kill three times more people every day than died as a result of the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001.

You will begin to theorise the ways in which diseases and globalisation are becoming increasingly linked, and analyses the various economic, political, social, legal, and security challenges that diseases pose for contemporary world politics. You will then evaluate the competing mainstream and critical approaches to global governance, paying particular attention to how they conceptualise health issues. Important questions you woll address include: how can global diseases be effectively governed in an international system divided into sovereign states? What are the political processes and economic interests driving the global governance of disease? And what, finally, are the complex ethical issues involved in responding to global health crises?

Human Rights in International Relations

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

On this module you will examine the process of internationalisation of human rights and the main factors that underpin that process, including the nature of the international order, the relationship between human rights and sovereignty of states, and the problematic of intervention and redistribution. You will contrast the use of human rights as instruments of foreign policy with the involvement of international non-governmental organisations. You will examine both the global and the regional legal, and contrast questions of cultural hegemony with those that claim legitimate cultural autonomy.

International Relations Theory

30 credits
Autumn teaching, year 1

This module introduces you to the major theories of international relations. We will investigate the historical context in which these theories emerged, which aspects of international affairs they focus on and how they explain international politics. We will tease out the strengths and weaknesses of these theories and identify their respective conceptions of international relations in theory and practice. The module provides a 'map' of international thought which enables you to identify your own and others positions and to reflect on your theoretical and political implications.

Irregular Warfare

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This module gives you a strong foundation in the conceptual, strategic and ethical issues related to irregular warfare.

While looking at in-depth historical case studies of irregular warfare, the course will reveal how varieties of irregular warfare have risen to prominence during the 20th century. You will trace the evolutionary phases of insurgency and counter-insurgency, from the Maoist version of the 'people's war' to the development of a global jihad.

The module will particularly focus on the dilemmas and problems that conventional militaries have faced in trying to adapt to irregular warfare and explore the issue of whether or not the military is the ideal instrument in defeating insurgencies. This module, furthermore, aims to familiarise you to the sub-types of irregular warfare. It is useful (although not essential) to have a basic knowledge of 20th-century history, as this will comprise some of the case-study subject matter discussed on this course, but readings will be provided for all of the cases examined. 

Peace Processes and Post-Conflict Reconstruction

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This module examines peace processes and post-conflict reconstruction within the context of transformations and continuities in international politics. This involves:

• Analysing a number of individual peace processes and post-war reconstruction efforts, in each case examining them in their full local specificity, as well as within the context of international (or global) political, economic and social transformations;
• Undertaking some comparative analysis of these individual peace processes and post-war reconstruction efforts, again within the context of international (or global) change;
• Considering, at a more general level, how and why practices of peacemaking have changed over time, and been structured by broader patterns of politics and society, ie.undertaking an international historical sociology of peacemaking;
• Considering, conversely, how practices and experiences of peacemaking have contributed to the shaping and reshaping of international orders;
• Analysing peace processes and reconstruction through the lens of theoretical debates in peace studies, conflict resolution, international relations and global political economy.

Political Economy of Global Finance

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

The main aim of this module is to help you build a systematic understanding of the political and social foundations of global financial markets, their operations and impacts on the world economy. You focuse on the problem of speculation, examining the various ways in which it has evolved and contributed to the development of finance. The module addresses questions such as: why do financial bubbles emerge? What type of practices sustains them? What are the different forms of speculative finance? This focus on speculation will serve to highlight the specificity of American finance and its role in redefining the political economy of advanced capitalist countries. After a theoretical and historical review, the module discusses various aspects of the process of financialisation and its social consequences. This provides an opportunity for familiarising you with various financial markets such as stock markets, derivative markets, housing markets, consumer credit, etc.

Religions, Cultures and Civilisations in International Relations

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This module explores the implications of the `return' of religions, cultures and civilisations for world politics and for thinking about international relations. Many sociologists and philosophers have interpreted this return as the end of modernity or the de-secularisation of the world. For our purpose, the module will primarily focus on the renewed centrality of cultural, religious and civilisational identities as strategic frames of reference for politics in the post-Cold War world.

Against the background of the growing multicultural nature of contemporary international society resulting from what Hedley Bull has aptly termed the 'revolt against the West', we will try to problematise the implicit and predominant reading of religion in international relations as the ultimate threat to international order and stability, especially in the forms of the identity politics of the `new wars' and the terrorist attacks of religious fundamentalists. We will engage critically with Huntington's thesis of the 'clash of civilisations' by providing a more in depth discussion of the possible meaning and role of civilisations, civilizational identities and civilizational analysis in international relations. Finally, we will discuss the implications of this return for the future of the normative structure and world order of contemporary international society.

Research Methods and Professional Skills (IR)

15 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This module provides you with training in social science research methods (generic as well as specific to their dissertation research) as well as with a set of professional skills that prepare you for a professional career. The module is run as a series of half-day workshops from which you select three workshops to match your specific needs, depending on disciplinary orientation, previous training and experience, future employment plans and personal interests. The workshops will cover a wide range of topics. The social research methods workshops will include interviewing, ethnographic methods, participatory research techniques, and questionnaire design. The professional skills workshops will include, for example, stakeholder engagement, sustainable livelihoods analysis, environmental impact assessment, project planning, and private sector consulting. The professional skills will also help to prepare those students planning to take a work placement over summer. As part of the module, you will also receive a workshop on dissertation planning and design.

Rethinking Imperialism

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This module examines the historical practices and theoretical debates on imperialism. You set out the problems and issues raised in the current revival of the term imperialism in relation to contemporary world politics. You discuss classical conceptions of imperialism drawing on Marx, Weber, Schumpeter, Lenin, Luxemburg, Kautsky, etc whose writings informed the evolution, past and present, of the debate. This establishes the fundamental theoretical parameters of the topic. We study different practices of imperialism in historical context from the early modern colonial empires, via British free trade imperialism, to fascist imperial autarchy. Each session combines historical survey readings with influential contemporaneous and contemporary interpretations of the period we study. This will establish the intellectual resources, empirical and theoretical, towards an assessment of the current debates and forms of neo-imperialism, notably in relation to US policy. What can the history of imperialism and its rich theoretical discourse teach us about the causes, nature, and consequences of neo-imperialism in current world politics?

Sex and Death in Global Politics

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

Sex and Death in Global Politics  explores the multiple connections between gender and violence in contemporary international politics in historical and theoretical perspective. War and other forms of collective violence seem to be everywhere in world affairs, but it has often been commented that the many manifestations of gender are less visible. At times aspects of gender violence (such as war rape) seem to enter into the realm of academic International
Relations, whilst other questions (such as the inclusion of homosexuals in the military) have relevance for public policy and national culture. But many other issues (such as media representations of gender violence, the continuum between 'peace' and 'war' violence, or the connection between armies and prostitution) are more commonly discussed within sociology, political theory and history. This module will examine a broad range of such questions from an inter-disciplinary angle, with a particular stress on theoretical perspectives and academicpolitical controversies.

Topics will include:

gender in war and society; the intersection of race, class, and gender in collective violence; military masculinity; women at war and the question of the 'feminine' in the perpetration of violence; wartime sexual violence; genocide and 'gendercide'; sex industries and violence; homosexuality and military culture (including queer theory perspectives and recent debates about 'pink-washing' and 'homonationalism'); feminism, anti-feminism and gender studies in the academy; gender and the ethics of war; and gender violence in popular culture.

Terror, Security and the State in Global Politics

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This module offers an advanced level introduction to terrorism, state terror and security in global political context. Attending to case studies, academic literatures and primary sources the curriculum is divided into two sections. The first, 'Studying Terror: Conceptual Issues', offers a thematic exploration of terrorism and state terror, considering their historical development in modern societies; relation to other forms of organised violence; some of the animating ideas historically associated with the use of terror for political purposes; the phenomenon of `suicide terrorism' and the ideas, organisations and practices used by states in their efforts to counter terrorism. The second section, 'Cases and Contexts', situates terrorism and state terror within the changing context of state power, international and global politics, exploring the historical and contemporary relations between them.

The Middle East in Global Order

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

The Middle East is almost constantly in the news. From Israel and the West Bank to Iraq and Saudi Arabia, the region is at once a byword for political instability, and a recurring site of Western political and military interventions. This module explores some of the political, economic and cultural dynamics that lie behind the crisis-ridden headlines. You examine the emergence of the Middle East from the ruins of the Ottoman Empire and the specificities of the modern state-formation processes in the Middle East. You study the interplay of the international and domestic factors in the Middle Eastern states and societies looking at their political economies and patterns of development. You critically investigate the problems of authoritarianism and democratic change in the Middle East. The module also engages in more in depth analysis of some important contemporary phenomena in the Middle East such as political Islam, The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Iraq War, and the 'Arab Spring'.

We start by examining some key methodological and theoretical debates in the study of the Middle East. We then move on to consider the processes of modern state formation and the legacies of (neo)colonialism and imperialism. We then consider the impacts of neo-liberalism on Middle Eastern polities and economies, international (geo)political economy of the region with special reference to oil, and the theme of human development including gender issues in the Middle East. We then examine some key political forms and forces, including the authoritarian 'rentier' state, processes of democratisation and liberalisation, and political Islam. The final part of the course concentrates on three particularly important issues in contemporary Middle East: the causes and consequences of the Iranian Revolution and the 'Arab Spring', Arab-Israeli conflicts, and the Iraq War.

The Political Economy of Development

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

The module examines the political economy of development, focusing on how changes at the international level affect developing countries' national-level strategies for interaction with and integration into the global economy. You will focus on the performance of the world economy as a whole, and on international systems for production, trade, finance, including the principles and rules upon which interaction on a world scale is based. You will consider how countries and firms are integrated into the world system and the barriers and opportunities they face in upgrading and moving up the global income ladder. You will examine how labour has been affected by, and affects, the process of globalisation, and in contrast to most thinking in international political economy, address these issues from the perspective of the low and middle-income countries.

You will gain an understanding of how less developed countries (LDC) have been, and are being integrated into the world system, consider how the nature of the world system influences the form of integration, and discuss alternative forms of integration that lead to more favourable developmental outcomes for LDC's.

The Political Economy of International Security

30 credits
Spring teaching, year 1

This module will explore the relationship between the global political economy and the politics of international security, with emphasis on theoretical and conceptual analysis of issue areas lying at this intersection. You will engage with the main theoretical approaches to the political economy of security, exploring how these approaches conceptualise the manner in which the economy functions, its relationship to political practices, the role of the state, and the nature of world order. With this foundation in place, students will then examine many of the key issues at the intersection of political economy and global security, from traditional geopolitical issues of energy security and arms production to emerging challenges of cybersecurity, private security governance and the security-development nexus.