International relations
Foundations of International Relations (pathway elective)
Module code: 005RE
Level 4
15 credits in spring semester
Teaching method: Workshop
Assessment modes: Essay
On this module, you're introduced to some of the main theories and conceptual frameworks for understanding International Relations (IR). We will consider how IR has been constituted as a distinct scholarly discipline. We'll also think about who and what is served by the different lenses through which scholars analyse international relations.
You'll explore questions such as:
- what role have colonialism and race played in the making of the modern international order, as well as in shaping received ideas about world politics?
- how are global patterns of inequality and violence related to the dynamics of global capitalism?
- why – when the first departments of International Relations were set up – did they not asks these questions, but instead focused on relations between states?
- what is the significance of international institutions like the UN? To what extent do they help make the world more peaceful and cooperative?
- what about the role of identities and how we see the relations between self and other? How do gender relations affect all of this?
- how and why do all these theories matter in the ‘real world’?
Module learning outcomes
- Recognize problems and issues of current world politics
- Understand the effects of globalization
- Use various analytical standard tools of international politics
- Present orally and in written confident analysis of current issues of world politics