International Relations (Taught)

Our International Relations course recognises the international and the global as spaces of ‘contentious’ politics, that are often structured by inequalities – including, for example, racialised, gendered, and classed inequalities – within, between, and across different societies.

Our course will help you develop a comprehensive knowledge and an advanced understanding of key concepts and theoretical approaches relating to international relations and to critically apply these to a range of contemporary global issues, such as global political economy, development, global governance, security, foreign policy, inequality and livelihoods, in innovative and creative ways.

You will engage with a range of traditional and cutting-edge theoretical and analytical approaches to the study of international relations as global politics, moving beyond a traditional focus on the role of states to examine and evaluate a wide range of non-state actors such as international organisations, transnational social movements, transnational corporations, global civil society as well as local social organisations and political actors.

Key features

• You can exit the course with a Postgraduate Diploma or a Postgraduate Certificate depending on the credits you have successfully achieved.

• Modules are research-led and move beyond a traditional focus of international relations to address key global challenges such as poverty and inequality, development, gender inequality, democracy, work and precarity.

• Through the study of everyday lives and experiences, you will assess the ways in which the global is embedded in the local and develop a sense of global civic responsibility and political possibility.

• Develop and apply values, skills, knowledge and behaviours that will enable you to contribute to the development of a just, peaceful and sustainable world.

• Benefit from research-led teaching delivered by subject experts as well as further opportunities such as study trips, guest speakers and events organised by our research centres.

Apart from the knowledge I obtained at DMU on international relations and global problems, I broadened my perspective on how I think about these challenges and their solutions, helping me to better deal with the multicultural and transnational challenges in my daily work.

Mildred Hauck, student

Modules

Block 1: Culture, Negotiation and Policy Formation

You will engage with the politics of policy making with consideration of political culture and including aspects of diplomacy, legislation, leadership, doctrines, governance, staffing and the role of the media. You will gain an understanding of how government policy formation occurs and the context in which it takes place.

You will have the opportunity to engage directly with policy making practitioners at the local, national and international levels.

Block 2: Theory and Practice of International Relations

You will critically engage with the key approaches and perspectives informing the theorising of international relations  - you will apply theoretically informed thinking in real-life cases in contemporary world politics covering a broad breadth of issue areas: state-/nation-/ region-building processes, inter-state relations and foreign policy, power, order, security, populism and democracy, politics beyond the nation-state, state-society and state-economy relations, social movements, gendered, racialised, and classed processes in global politics.

Block 3: Global Political Economy and Development

In this module, students will examine the political, sociological and cultural underpinnings of the contemporary global economy, in order to understand how it has come about and why it has taken the particular form it has. Drawing on global histories and interrogating eurocentric approaches, global capitalist development will be placed in a historical context, which is marked by unevenness and inequalities. Students will engage with the key theories and concepts from approaches to global political economy, such as power, ideas and institutions, as well as race, class and gender. The module also examines the key features of the contemporary global economy and their evolution under neoliberal globalisation, such as finance, trade, production, social reproduction and development.

Block 4: Global Transformations: Space, Society and Livelihoods

This module takes a bottom-up approach to examine the complexity of global challenges as they are experienced at the local level in everyday lives. Increasing neoliberalisation, austerity, and precarity, both in the Global South and Global North, have been creating ‘other’ everyday lives for the majority of people living in villages, towns, cities or megacities (city-regions). The belief that modernisation and economic growth will improve people’s life-chances in the capitalist market by ensuring a successful integration into the public life of civil society has been challenged by inequities and precarities encountered in everyday living that increasingly connects the local with the global through the circulation of ideas, policies, money, goods and services.  This module aims to provide conceptual tools and case studies to help you untangle and assess the complexity that global challenges pose to local and everyday living and policymaking (and vice versa).

Block 5 and 6: Dissertation

You will complete a project entailing independent study and the use of appropriate research techniques and source materials. It may consist of a critical evaluation of literature, of a reassessment of evidence, of an evaluation of particular approaches or techniques, or of a limited piece of original or applied research. It will build on the foundation provided by the taught modules on the MA programmes for which it is the dissertation module and may involve either the fuller development of subject matter and techniques encountered in the taught programme or the exploration of new areas and techniques appropriate to the overall programme of study.

https://www.dmu.ac.uk/study/courses/postgraduate-courses/international-relations-ma-degree/international-relations-ma.aspx

You will be taught through a combination of interactive lectures and workshops, seminars, student-based enquiry and problem-based learning to ensure you develop a specialist subject knowledge and apply this to the contemporary practices and problems of global politics. You will also benefit from research-led teaching delivered by subject experts as well as further opportunities such as study trips, guest speakers and events organised by our research centres. Students are encouraged to bring themselves and their own experiences to bear in respectful discussion, debate and collaborative activities and projects.

Assessments are varied and are designed to ensure you develop advanced research skills, such as literature review, data analysis, case study analysis and critical evaluation skills, necessary for the completion of the extended research project, as well as practical skills, such as policy formation and negotiation, oral, written and visual communication and problem-solving skills, valuable for future careers in policy and civil service, NGOs and think tanks, international organisations, and the private sector, as well as further postgraduate study in the social sciences. You will be given feedback throughout the programme to develop and improve their skills and understanding and students are encouraged to reflect on their own practice as well as constructive feedback from your peers and tutors to improve your performance and reflexivity.