International Relations MRes

Modules

All MRes students take six compulsory modules over the course of the programme.

MRes students will research and write a 15,000-word dissertation as their final assessment piece.

The modules in this programme have varying methods of delivery and assessment. For more details of each module, including weekly contact hours, teaching methods and assessment, please see the latest module catalogue which is for the 2018–2019 academic year; some elements may be subject to change for 2019 entry.

Semester 1

In the first semester, you will take the following compulsory modules:

• Being a Social Scientist: explores the fundamental skills required by all social scientists, including how to design and produce a research dissertation, and addresses issues of professional development.
• Quantitative Research in Social Science: provides a user-friendly introduction to the fundamental concepts of quantitative analysis, covering underlying principles, terminology, research design, sampling strategies, uncertainty and missing data, computerised data management and univariate and multivariate approaches to data analysis.
• Research Methods in International Relations: assists students in understanding the purpose and approaches of international relations scholarship, and assists them in developing and carrying out their research.

You will also choose one additional module from the core modules available in the existing MLitt programmes. These include:

• Analysis and Interpretation in International Political Theory: introduces methods and interpretive approaches that can be taken in the study of international political theory.
• Central Asia in World Order: analyses the nation and state-building agendas of Central Asia in the post-Soviet era.
• Core in Middle East, Caucasus and Central Asian Security Studies: focuses on major themes in the study of international security and applies them to the study of the Middle East, Caucasus and Central Asia.
• Critical Security Studies: examines the challenge to traditional conceptions of security presented by the emergence of critical security studies since the end of the Cold War.
• International Security: provides a general overview of international security affairs using a variety of conceptual perspectives, ranging from orthodox realist and liberal approaches to more recent critical theories.
• Issues in Peace and Conflict: focuses on important issues and significant debates in security studies.
• Modern War and Strategy: provides students with essential knowledge of strategy and military history as well as the necessary skills and techniques for independent further study of topics and questions in strategic studies.
• Peace and Conflict Theory: analyses how and why the principal theoretical frameworks and practices employed to comprehend conflict, violence and peacebuilding have evolved over the last decades, situating this analysis within a series of key case studies.
• Strategic Thought: provides students with essential knowledge of strategic thought and the history of strategic thought as well as an overview of the academic field of strategic studies.
• Texts in International Political Theory: explores the work of important political theorists with particular attention to the ways in which their thought is relevant for international and global affairs.

Semester 2

In the second semester, you will take the following compulsory modules:

• Philosophy and Methodology of the Social Sciences: introduces you to the basic theoretical approaches in the social sciences, encouraging you to make connections between the methodological and epistemological issues involved in conducting social scientific research.
• Qualitative Methods in Social Research: offers both a theoretical and practical introduction to the collection, analysis and writing of qualitative social science research, covering positionality, ethics, archives, participant observation, participatory approaches, semi-structured interviewing and the use of NVIVO and computer-aided qualitative data analysis.

Dissertation

The final element of the MRes is a 15,000-word dissertation. The dissertation should focus on an area of international politics in which you are interested, ideally related to the area of research in which you intend to specialise for the PhD. Each student is supported by a relevant supervisor from the School who will advise on the choice of subject and provide guidance throughout the research process. The completed dissertation must be submitted by the end of August.