The Department of International Relations is renowned for its research in international theory, global political economy and war, violence and international security. It offers prospective doctoral students the opportunity to pursue advanced research leading toward MPhil/PhD degrees in the following areas:
Global political economy, including: international finance and international institutions; the study of transnational classes and economic relations; the political economy of resource conflicts; economic globalisation and hegemony; the politics of labour and labour movements/trade unions; multi-national corporations and corporate responsibility; theories and effects of neoliberalism; the transformation of everyday life; global commodity chains; theories of capitalist and non-capitalist development; links between development, political violence and forced displacement.
Global politics of: gender and identity; citizenship; cultures, civilisations and religions; the environment, climate change and development; human rights; social movements, civil society and non-governmental organizations; dissent and resistance; global health issues; food, agriculture and development.
International contemporary history, including: the emergence, development and transformation of the international state system; globalisation; rising Great Powers and changing international orders; imperialism; revolutions and post-communist transitions; the emergence and transformation of political ideologies; historical capitalism.
International theory, including: critical approaches associated with Marxism, world-systems theory and Frankfurt School traditions; 20th-century continental philosophy, especially critical and post-structuralist political thought; normative theories and international ethics; liberal internationalism and cosmopolitanism; philosophy of the subject; non-Western and postcolonial political thought; philosophy of social science; sociology of knowledge.
Regional and international politics of: the Middle East and North Africa; Russia and the Former Soviet Union; South Asia; Central Asia; East Asia and the Pacific; the United States; Central and Eastern Europe; Latin America.
War, violence and international security, including critical approaches to: security and development; geopolitics and grand strategy; war and society; genocide; terrorism, counter-terrorism and political violence; insurgency and counter-insurgency; armed humanitarian intervention; health, disease and security; wartime sexual violence; peace processes and state building; identity, religion and conflict; military adaptation; the international arms trade; resilience, design and new sciences of protection; policing of resistance and dissent.
International Relations faculty also supervise doctoral research in the following interdisciplinary subject areas: social and political thought, contemporary European studies, development studies, gender studies, science and technology policy and management, and media and cultural studies.