Diplomacy and International Relations

The aim of this module is to introduce students to the evolution and change in diplomatic practice in the contemporary digital age through a range of cases and issues from across world. The main objectives are:

A) To equip students with theoretical approaches, concepts and debates enabling the critical interrogation of diplomacy in the digital age; its promises and its drawbacks; and its relationship with power, knowledge production, networks, gender, voice, and communication; while also critically appraising the relationship between digital diplomacy and democracy. In so doing, it aims to uncover the role of both state and non-state actors (individuals, activists, journalists, influencers, diasporas, charities, corporations, minorities) in digital diplomacy demonstrating that widening engagement means widening the agenda.

B) To showcase skills and various ways of being a diplomat in the contemporary digital age, through introducing and unpacking the real-life applications of such skills and ways, integrating practitioner contributions where possible; as well as through examining various and often overlooked pathways of practicing diplomacy (such as public diplomacy, paradiplomacy, protodiplomacy, NGO and advocacy diplomacy).

The aim of this module is for students to understand the conceptual tools of Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA), acquire specific knowledge relevant to an understanding of the foreign policies of key state actors in the global arena, and develop awareness of the issues and policy contexts that shape these policies.

More information to follow.

The aim of this module is to understand the main features, concepts and practices of international negotiations. It provides an overview of the most important elements of negotiation and offers an application to a number of case studies.

The aim of this module is to interrogate various permutations of violence, from physical to structural and symbolic, in several political contexts stretching a spectrum  from open war and conflict to the everyday. It aims to do so through the explicitly transdisciplinary objective of bringing scholarly and practitioner debates in security, conflict and peace-building studies to bear on debates in development and sustainability, and vice versa.

In doing so, throughout the module, students will be encouraged to think through and analyse contemporary global problematics, policy problems and cases across disciplinary divides; and through a critical re-thinking and examination of the development-security-sustainability nexus via a unique lens of political violence. The module aims to achieve the latter via explorations of several competing or complementary conceptions of violence drawn from Political Thought and Political Philosophy from both Western traditions and those in the Global South. These are then put to use to explicate contemporary problems and cases in the nexus of development-security-sustainability.

The aim of this module is to understand the role that sport plays in political and diplomatic issues at a national and international level. Using contemporary examples from developed, transitioning, developing, and fuel-based economies, the module will explore how sport can be used to positive (e.g., facilitating socio-economic plans) or negative (e.g., whitewashing human rights violations) ends. In doing so, the module aims to promote a critical, evidence-based understanding of the interplay between sport, politics, and diplomacy.

The aims of this module are to:

• Equip students with the necessary academic skills to understand the role corporate governance plays in generating financial and economic development.
• Equip students with a working knowledge of governance and corporate governance frameworks; be able to critically assess alternatives.

What roles do actors such as cities, multinational corporations, campaign organisations, scientific and technological networks, private foundations, religious organisations, the media, terrorist organisations, private military companies and others play in the worlds economy, society, politics, and governance? This course looks at these actors to assess the extent to which they shape international politics compared to states, who are traditionally the emphasis when studying global affairs.

The module examines different types of non-state actor. For each we will look at examples and case studies to understand their role and power in global affairs. By doing so we will examine four sets of questions: about the capabilities that non-state actors have or seek; about the varying degrees and forms of power they wield; about their legitimacy as actors in global affairs; and about what their behaviour and evolution can tell us about how global affairs is changing.

The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and the Changing World Order aims to introduce students to the way the rise of the BRICS at the turn of the 21st century has come to challenge the Western-led order in world politics. The module will focus on each of the five BRICS countries and investigate how the evolution of their domestic and foreign policies has influenced their rise in world politics.

An emphasis will be put on foreign policy and diplomacy, together with the tools, capabilities or resources employed by the BRICS in order to project their power in world politics. Simultaneously, the module will engage with different interpretations of power in world politics, drawing on various theories of international relations. This allows the module to probe into the role of the rise of the BRICS in influencing power shifts in world politics. In broader terms the module evaluates various policy consequences of emerging power shifts and the (potential) responses of the BRICS and the West.

The aims of this module are to give the student the opportunity to study a subject, business problem or research question in depth and to research the issues surrounding the subject or background to the problem.
The module will equip the student with the relevant skills, knowledge and understanding to embark on their individual research project and they will be guided through the three options available to them to complete their dissertation:

• A desk based research project that could be set by an organisation or could be a subject of the student's choice
• A project that involves collection of primary data from within an organisation or based on lab and/or field experiments
• A full professional placement within an organisation during which time they will complete a project as part of their role in agreement with the organisation (subject to a suitable placement position being obtained)

Students will achieve a high level of understanding in the subject area and produce a written thesis or project report which will discuss this research in depth and with rigour. 

The aims of this module are to:

• To introduce, compare and contrast traditional and critical approaches to post-conflict peace-building;
• To undertake empirical case studies ¿ in lectures and via readings and class discussion as a means of illustrating and critically interrogating competing theories, concepts and debates on intervention, success and failure of contemporary peace-building.
• Introduce and interrogate recent trends in the practice of peace-building, and assess their political and ethical implications.

The aims of this module are to:

• enable students to become familiar with a comprehensive range of research methods and techniques relevant to the investigation of international development practices as well as social change and social justice policies and mobilizations;
• generate insight and understanding of how different methodologies dialogue with different epistemological perspectives, aligned to specific research paradigms or philosophies.

The aims of this module are to:

• Provide students with an opportunity to be exposed to project-based teamwork in diverse settings (understood in this context as involving a range of multidisciplinary, multicultural and demographic elements in differing configurations), aiming to strengthen their cooperative and collaborative working skills and competence, while raising awareness and appreciation of diversity itself.
• Provide students with hands on experience of identifying, framing and resolving practice oriented and real-world based challenges and problems, using creativity, critical enquiry and appropriate tools to achieve valuable and relevant solutions.
• Support the development of students' ability to engage in critical enquiry and individual reflection, as well as to apply individual strengths and skills, building on their own educational backgrounds.
• Provide students with opportunities for networking with stakeholders, organisations and corporations, aiming to enhance the competence and skills needed to connect to relevant parties and build up future professional opportunities.

This module has two main aims. The first is to expose students to concrete development challenges experienced by different stakeholders (policy makers, communities and industry representatives, etc) in developing countries. The second is to experiment with the ways through which the immersion into the field can inform the identification of development challenges and the formulation of research questions and action plans in the area of development.
Note that there are additional fees and costs involved in taking this module.

The aims of this module are to give the student the opportunity to study a subject, business problem or research question in depth and to research the issues surrounding the subject or background to the problem.
The module will equip the student with the relevant skills, knowledge and understanding to embark on their individual research project and they will be guided through the three options available to them to complete their dissertation:

• A desk based research project that could be set by an organisation or could be a subject of the student's choice
• A project that involves collection of primary data from within an organisation or based on lab and/or field experiments
• A full professional placement within an organisation during which time they will complete a project as part of their role in agreement with the organisation (subject to a suitable placement position being obtained)

Students will achieve a high level of understanding in the subject area and produce a written thesis or project report which will discuss this research in depth and with rigour.