MA in International Relations

Course

In London

Price on request

Description

  • Type

    Course

  • Location

    London

  • Duration

    1 Year

  • Start date

    Different dates available

This MA addresses the fast-changing 'international' terrain including the 2008 economic crisis, EU fragmentation, questions of migration and human rights around the world. It gives you the opportunity to explore the character of the contemporary world in an interdisciplinary manner, drawing upon a strong theoretical basis as well as an empirical grounding. The programme offers great diversity in fields of study: international relations, post-colonial theory, human rights, international political economy, war, genocide and post-conflict societies. areas of study – Europe, China, Japan, India, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East. methodology – empirical analysis and data collection, textual and discourse analysis, hermeneutic and philosophical enquiry. It also offers diverse subjects of study: migration. human rights. memory and justice. war and post-conflict. global political economy. IR theories. political theory. psychoanalysis. identity politics. gender, sexuality and the body in non-Western societies.. The MA is especially relevant if you are considering further study at PhD level, or if you want to work in areas where an understanding of international relations is essential (journalism, diplomacy, NGOs, international organisations, for example). It offers valuable training and analytical skills for those working in non-governmental organisations, international institutions and corporations, diplomatic services, government offices, media industry and teaching.

Facilities

Location

Start date

London
See map
New Cross, SE14 6NW

Start date

Different dates availableEnrolment now open

About this course

You should have (or expect to be awarded) an undergraduate degree of at least upper second class standard in a relevant/related subject. You might also be considered for some programmes if you aren’t a graduate or your degree is in an unrelated field, but have relevant experience and can show that you have the ability to work at postgraduate level. International qualifications We accept a wide range of international qualifications.

Questions & Answers

Add your question

Our advisors and other users will be able to reply to you

Who would you like to address this question to?

Fill in your details to get a reply

We will only publish your name and question

Reviews

Subjects

  • Government
  • Global
  • Drawing
  • Perspective
  • Philosophy
  • Political Philosophy
  • Political Theory
  • Conflict
  • Human Rights
  • International Relations
  • Politics
  • IT
  • International

Course programme

What you'll study Core modules You take the following core modules: Module title Credits. Theories of International Relations Theories of International Relations 30 credits This module provides a survey of the classical, critical and newly emerging theories of international relations, namely: realism/neorealism, liberalism/neoliberalism, Marxism, constructivism, post-modernism, feminism, post-colonialism, the aesthetic turn in IR and theories of justice. You will approach each of these theories through the concept of power, seeking to explain the radical shifts that have occurred both in our understanding of power as well as the role that it plays in international politics in the last century. The module combines its examination of theory with debates on contemporary case-studies that serve to showcase the link between theory and practice. 30 credits. MA in International Relations Dissertation MA in International Relations Dissertation 60 credits The Politics Master's Dissertation is an extended piece of written work of ten thousand words on a research topic of your choice (but subject to approval). It is compulsory for all MA and MRes students who have passed al written papers and is undertaken after the Summer term (i.e. during the 'vacation' period). The dissertation comprises a critical review of the literature and/or original analysis of documentary and/or other evidence on a chosen topic within the fields of your programme. Your work for the dissertation will be supervised by a member of staff with particular expertise of interest in the area chosen for study. The dissertation counts as one full module unit. 60 credits. Option modules Students can also choose to make up their remaining 90 credits from the following list of options: Module title Credits. An(Other) China: Postcolonial Theory, Postmodern Concerns An(Other) China: Postcolonial Theory, Postmodern Concerns 30 credits This subject is built around glimpses of, and insights into, the lives of ordinary Chinese people and the rules and rituals that govern their existence. You will discuss the ways everyday life was governed under socialism and the ways that control is now breaking down with the emergence of a consumer culture, enabling a close scrutiny of the politics of everyday life. Picking up on themes as diverse and quirky as Mao badge fetishists, hoodlum slang, and the role of the tattoo, the subject examines the way a range of people not only live but resist dominant social discourse. We will employ an array of critical thinking from Western social theorists and it is this that is highlighted through themes such as ‘commodities and collection’, ‘authorship and biography’, questions of power, violence and excess as well as themes of fore-thrownment, sacrifice and desire. You will gain a grounding not only in the politics of everyday life in China but also in Western theoretical engagements with the everyday. This module will give you an insight into different values systems and political forms and in taking up the issue of politics in a culturally different way gaining an understanding of the heuristic value of certain schools of social, cultural and political theory 30 credits. Visualising Asia: Body, Gender, Politics Visualising Asia: Body, Gender, Politics 30 credits From western antiquity until modern times, the body in the west has been aestheticised, vilified, eroticised and pathologised. It is in and through the body that both self and society have been fashioned and disciplined. It is at the heart of the emergence of sexuality as a modern discourse, and a constituent feature of the politics of identity, formed around race, gender and sex. For all the different debates the body has generated, they have always been framed within the mind/body, and nature/culture distinctions, which have been at the core of western thinking since the eighteenth century. 30 credits. Politics of Human Rights Politics of Human Rights 15 credits This MA level module explores the contemporary politics of human rights. Drawing on political philosophy, legal theory and international relations approaches, the module will examine the complex issues raised by human rights, and some of the difficulties and challenges in applying human rights in the contemporary world – the violence and human rights violations committed by state and non-state actors, wars and conflicts around the world, and the current global refugee crisis. It will also explore some of the important critiques of human rights from Marxist and postcolonial perspectives. Students will be introduced to the major theoretical frameworks for understanding state compliance with human rights obligations using both historical and comparative approaches to the topic. We will focus on particular case examples and general cross-national comparisons in the effort to understand why states commit violations. The module will explore the influence of political and economic conditions such as regime type, conflict, economic development in the protection or violation of human rights, the impact of human agency and decisions and the role of states, international legal instruments and NGOs in the promotion of human rights. Finally, it will examine questions of intervention, the development of accountability mechanisms and the management of the blame for human rights violations. 15 credits. Memory and Justice in Post-Conflict Societies Memory and Justice in Post-Conflict Societies 30 credits This module focuses on how societies emerging from different types of conflict (such as war, genocide, ethnic violence and grave human rights abuses) engage in the process of coming to terms with their past. It examines official mechanisms of ‘transitional justice’ such as trials and truth commissions, as well as cultural forms of remembrance and local community practices. By exploring the complex relationship between conflict, memory and justice in various cross-cultural settings, it seeks to provide an understanding of the ways in which such processes can promote or hinder reconciliation and the rebuilding of social and inter-communal ties. The module will also assess the role of external factors (particularly through the creation of international war crimes tribunals) in terms of how they have affected such internal processes of facing the past. Various case studies, including Germany, Japan, Serbia, South Africa, and Rwanda will inform the theoretical discussions and provide a comparative perspective. 30 credits. Politics of Knowledge: Debates in Human Science Politics of Knowledge: Debates in Human Science 15 credits This module aims to raise questions about whether the concepts and categories through which we usually study the ’international' or ’global' are adequate to the task. It critically examines categories of the social sciences and humanities that are usually simply presupposed and ’applied', and which, despite their Western or European origins, are assumed to be ’universal'. It does this by closely examining some of the most important theoretical writings of the post-WWII period, focusing upon books and debates which had repercussions far beyond their immediate disciplinary boundaries, including books by Kuhn, MacIntyre, Foucault, Said, and others. Students explore the claim(s) that far from being objective and universal, our knowledge is shaped by culture, history and politics. In seminars we ask, can different ’conceptual schemes', ’paradigms' or ’traditions' be compared to see which one is better, or are they incommensurable? Do theories and explanations triumph over rival theories because they are ’better'- or for other reasons? Does knowledge serve to unmask power, or is it always caught up with and complicit with power? This module requires students not simply to advance their knowledge of politics, but to explore the politics of knowledge, and to do so, in particular, by enquiring into whether the categories and concepts of the social sciences are genuinely international and universal, or merely modern/Western and parochial. 15 credits. Psychopolitics Psychopolitics 15 credits The workings of power, authority and freedom have implications as much for our subjective, or psychic, organisation as they do for institutions and programmes of government. Psychoanalytic theory looks to the unconscious motivations of human behaviour and the strange, often perverse effects these can have on social relations. Ideas of leadership, cultural identity or personal choice, for example, involve identifications that often distort one’s sense of self and delimit its autonomy. Secret desires for subjugation to the powerful or the willful denial of suffering (in oneself or in others) are central themes of psychoanalysis. ‘Psychopolitics’ thus comprises the fantasies, obsessions, obscene desires and precarious repressions that structure political reality and supply it objects for intimate investment. This module explores how we study politics from a psychoanalytical perspective. It focuses primarily on key texts by Freud and Lacan – as well as by other thinkers – to develop a vocabulary of psychopolitical analysis to apply to the study of contemporary events. 15 credits. Middle Eastern and Islamic Thought: Political Philosophy in a Comparative Perspective Middle Eastern and Islamic Thought: Political Philosophy in a Comparative Perspective 15 credits The module offers an introduction to contemporary political philosophy in the Middle Eastern and Islamic world, from early engagements with colonial powers to more recent developments. A survey into the political thought of some of the most relevant thinkers will allow students to problematise classical categorisations of Muslim intellectual life as either reformist or reactionary, modernist or anti-modern, secular or religious, nationalist or universalist. The course discusses Islamic reformism in the 19th and early 20th century, the radicalisation of Islamic Political Thought in recent decades and more secular engagements with both turath (Islamic tradition) and modernity. A thematic discussion in the second part of the course will then give students an opportunity to think about fundamental categories in international politics from a comparative perspective, with focus on critical debates such as human rights, democracy, Islamic citizenship, gender and the tension between state and dawlah. The course aims to fully disclose the internal complexity and dynamism of contemporary Arab and Islamic thinking, highlighting its practical relevance for present-day issues in world politics. 15 credits. MA in International Relations Workplacement MA in International Relations Workplacement 30 credits This module gives students the chance to work with a host organisation over the Spring term. In the past, students have worked in a wide variety of placements, largely derived from a pool that has been developed by the Politics department over recent years. The department works hard to ensure a good link between students’ interest and their placement. In recent years, students have worked at a wide range of organisations, from small development NGO’s to international consultancies. This enables students to gain invaluable experience and allows them to develop their CVs at a critical time. 30 credits. Development for the 21st Century Development for the 21st Century 30 credits This module considers some of the most important topics in contemporary development studies, including: Is development another name for “modernity”?. What are the differing (and sometimes opposing) definitions of development?. Development and the politics of knowledge. The developmental state. Development and global civil society: NGOs, celebrities and the power of philanthropy. Sustainability and democracy. Entrepreneurs from below. Ecological concerns. Gender questions. Post development and de-growth. 30 credits. Decolonising Politics: Actions and Ideas from the Global South Decolonising Politics: Actions and Ideas from the Global South 30 credits The core aim of this course is to provide an understanding of the processes, actors and ideas that are shaping radical politics in the so-called Global South. We will trace the murky contours that separate politics from lawlessness, political ideas and ideals from empty rhetorical gestures, international cooperation from imperialism, and political activism from violence. It is designed to encourage you to think critically and creatively about the study of politics and political ideas, and to provide the intellectual foundations that enable you to develop your own research agenda. 30 credits. Counter-Mapping London: The Politics of Space Counter-Mapping London: The Politics of Space 30 credits There is nothing new to the concept that space is infused and structured according to dominant forms of power in society - be they nationalism, neo-liberalism, the state, or patriarchy - and that such articulations have corresponding representational forms in maps, charts, surveys, and censuses. Far from being the neutral scientific endeavour it is often claimed to be, cartography has always tended to reinforce and replicate dominant spatial logics, erasing indigenous claims to land, ostracising minorities from the political landscape, and setting racial, gender and class hierarchies (quite literally) in stone, brick and asphalt. Increasingly, however, we are seeing a growing number of both artists and social movements coming to an awareness that our representations of space carry with them an intendant politics. Intent on redressing this imbalance, counter-mapping is the still somewhat speculative practice of harnessing dominant representational strategies in an effort to invert, subvert, and make clear what has been erased in an effort to seek political change. From feminist re-mappings of the city according to safe and dangerous places, to indigenous narratives of ancestral wanderings; from students co-opting google maps to avoid police tactics of ‘kettling’, to artist Janet Cardiff’s memory walks; from local anarchist groups revealing locations of CCTV cameras in Camberwell Green, to W.G. Sebald’s literary re-mapping of East Anglia; this module not only studies emerging forms of counter-mapping, but encourages students to engage in their own practice of re-mapping, re-walking, and re-appropriating the cityscape. 30 credits. Gender and Politics Gender and Politics 15 credits This module considers both theoretical and empirical analysis of gender and politics: the course begins with a discussion of a range of political thinkers who have helped develop our understanding of gender including Judith Butler, Catherine MacKinnon, RW Connell, Patricia Hill Collins and Jack Halberstam. The second half of the course will focus on substantive issues which allow us to consider the various discursive, juridical and classificatory ways in which gender impacts upon our everyday lives as well as the geopolitical sphere. The module draws upon examples from various world regions and time periods to assess: debates concerning equal rights, the organisation of social movements and the construction of various femininities and masculinities. Gender theory has provided a radical and challenging critique of mainstream political ideology and the module will consider the multiple ways in which gender equality activists seek to resist biological determinism. By examining the conceptual and empirical impact of gender upon the study of politics this module introduces students to the complex ways in which gender relations permeate both formal institutions and societal relations. 15 credits. Students may choose up to 30 credits of approved options from other departments at Goldsmiths. Assessment Assessment consists of coursework, extended essays, reports, presentations, practice based projects or essays/logs, group projects, reflective essays, and seen and unseen written examinations. Download the programme specification for the 2018-19 intake. If you would like an earlier version of the programme specification, please contact the Quality Office. Please note that due to staff research commitments not all of these modules may be available every year.

MA in International Relations

Price on request