MA International Relations (Standard)

How can we come to understand the complex events of world politics and make sense of what we hear on the news?  How might we change the world for the better?  This course helps students to develop the thinking tools to interpret and analyse global political events and processes.  It introduces and explores a selection of key theories used in studying International Relations.  The course explores themes of cooperation and conflict in international relations, the prospects for progressive change and the question of whose voices and experiences are omitted from the dominant stories told about world politics.  Students will explore these thinking tools, investigating the way they shape our understandings of world politics, developing and refining their critical thinking skills along the way. 

This course aims to provide a critical introduction to key theories of international relations.  It introduces and examines a selection of popular theories used in studying International Relations. The course equips students with the thinking tools to help them interpret world political events and processes, to think normatively about the prospects for change in international relations, and to uncover whose voices and experiences may have often been ignored.  The course provides an important preparation for the POLI70412 Critical Approaches to International Politics, which takes place in semester 2 of the MA programme.    

This course will:

• Introduce students to a range of theoretical approaches in International Politics
• Familiarise students with critiques of dominant ways of conceptualising international politics
• Help students to identify the epistemological, ontological, and normative dimensions of the range of theories considered.
• Enable students to reflect critically upon ways of theorising international politics.

• Demonstrate a coherent and accurate knowledge of the key theories covered on the course.
• Develop a clear grasp of the overall purpose of international relations theories, including how they operate as thinking tools to interpret world politics.
• To critically analyse a range of theories of international politics in relation to one another, evaluating their different positionings and the role of power in shaping knowledge in international relations.  
• To use international relations theories competently as tools to analyse international political events and processes.
• To develop, articulate and sustain and independently conceived position on the theoretical debates explored on the course.
• To discern and critically appraise the arguments made in a variety of theoretical texts, drawing from library and online resources.
• Clear competency in independent research of academic literature and peer reviewed journals, necessary for further postgraduate study or work in policy development.
• To interpret and analyse international political events in written form, drawing from appropriate theoretical tools and empirical data sources. 

The course will consist of weekly, synchronous two-hour, in-person seminar sessions.  This is supplemented by materials posted on the virtual learning environment for asynchronous learning (Blackboard/Canvas) and weekly office hours, provided by all members of the course team.  There is a significant expectation of independent study from students, with 2-3 specified readings to prepare for the seminar session. 

1000 word Theory Think Piece (30%)

2000 word Essay (70%) 

Richard Devetak and Jacqui True (Eds.) (2022) Theories of International Relations (6th edition), Bloomsbury Academic: London (earlier editions also okay)

Tim Dunne, Milja Kurki and Steve Smith (Eds.) (2020) International Relations Theories: Discipline and Diversity (5th edition), Oxford: Oxford University Press (3rd/4th editions also okay)

Jenny Edkins and Maja Zehfuss (Eds.) (2019) Global Politics: A New Introduction, London: Routledge, 2009 (1st and 2ndeditions also okay)

Aoileann Ní Mhurchú, and Reiko Shindo (Eds.) (2016) Critical Imaginations in International Relations, London: Routledge  

Richard Devetak, Jim George, and Sarah Percy (Eds.) (2017) An Introduction to International Relations. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press

Christian Reus-Smit and Duncan Snidal (Eds) (2008) The Oxford Handbook of International Relations, Oxford: Oxford University Press 

Timetable