POLITICS AND IR SECOND YEAR MODULES

PR2000 – RESEARCHING POLITICS AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: ANALYSIS, DESIGN AND PRACTICE

POL/IR

30 credits – Autumn and Spring terms

Module Description – PR2000 continues to introduce students to the academic study of Politics and International Relations. Following on from PR1000 this module further exposes students to a range of approaches and methods commonly used in the study of Politics and IR, and equips them with the skills to successfully study and analyse a wide range of political phenomena. Throughout the module, students will be encouraged to think about issues in Politics and IR in an informed, critical and rigorous way. The module is designed to encourage students to ask questions about the world around us and think about how we can provide meaningful and robust answers to these questions.  In doing so, the module provides students with skills that will be useful for their entire degree, thoroughly prepares students for their undergraduate dissertation they write in their third year and in addition provide students with important transferrable skills that are highly valued in the job market.

PR2000 focuses on the practical issues of research in Politics and IR: the principles that guide scholars in Politics and IR as they conduct research, the kinds of questions they ask and the variety of decisions that they must make in order to answer them. Analysing these issues will provide a strong platform to judge the merits of different arguments presented in academic literature and help students to be able to distinguish the good from the bad or unconvincing.

Module Leaders – Dr Janina Beiser-McGrath and Dr Cassilde Schwartz

Module Delivery – Weekly lectures and seminars

Assessment – Research report (2000 words) – 50%; – Exam – 50%

PR2001 – POWER AND DEMOCRACY IN THE EU

POL/IR

30 credits – Autumn and Spring terms 

Module Description – This module analyses the contemporary history, politics, and theory of the European Union and its institutions, amid the challenges of the quadruple crisis of economics, migration, Brexit, and the Covid pandemic. The first term will begin with an introduction to the European Union as a political system (weeks 1 and 2) followed by an overview of the European Union's historical development (weeks 3 and 4). The remainder of the first term will then focus on the European Union's political institutions (executive, legislative and judicial). The second term will focus on contestation of the European Union in its first half and on theory in the second half, in order to explain how the EU developed and the challenges that it faces. Sessions in the first half of term 2 comprise interest groups (week 11), European Parliament elections (week 12), EU-UK elections (week 13), the Democratic Deficit and Democratic Recovery (weeks 14 and 15). The final weeks cover the theories that explain European integration before the revision session in week 20.

Module Leader – Dr Giacomo Benedetto

Module Delivery – Weekly lectures and seminars

Assessment – Treaty Analysis (1800 words) – 30%; Reading Portfolio (1800 words) – 30%; Exam (40%)

PR2410 – GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS OF THE UNITED STATES

POL/IR

30 credits – Autumn and Spring terms 

Module Description – This module introduces students to the institutions and politics of the United States. It offers a thorough, entry-level grounding in the empirical and theoretical literature on American politics, and requires students to evaluate that literature critically through seminar discussion and oral presentations, two pieces of assessed coursework, and an unseen examination. Starting by building up students’ basic historical knowledge of the development of American politics, the course covers the Constitution, Congress, the Presidency and federal bureaucracy, separation of powers, federalism and state governments, the Supreme Court, elections, political parties and interest groups. By the end of the course students are prepared to engage knowledgeably with American political news and to tackle advanced courses in American Political Development and/or US Foreign Policy. This course provides a good all-round introduction to one of the world’s most influential democracies.

Module Leader – Dr Ursula Hackett

Module Delivery – Weekly lectures and seminars

Assessment – Essay 1 (1800 words) – 30%; Essay 2 (1800 words) – 30%; Exam – 40%

PR2440 – INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY

IR

30 credits – Autumn and Spring terms

Mandatory – BA International Relations, International Relations as a minor component (e.g. BA Multilingual Studies with International Relations) except for LLB Law with International Relations.

Module Description – This module explores key debates in IR theory, moving a step beyond the paradigms introduced in PR1500: Introduction to International Relations. Each week, you'll be introduced to theories, asked to question assumptions that different theories and theorists make, and think more critically, and from a variety of angles, about concepts that may be considered familiar terrain. The core questions running through the module are: What is the nature of power in the international system? How should we understand the role of identity on the world stage? What ethical principles should guide how we theorise the world? What does security mean in practice: for states, for nations, and for people? By the end of the module, you’ll be able to identify dominant paradigms, as well as influential strains of criticism and potential alternative visions. You'll develop a richer understanding of what theory is, who theory is for, how theories develop and what theories allow us to do, and you'll learn to challenge conventional wisdom about international politics by centring perspectives and under-appreciated global issues outside of the dominant Eurocentric lens. On the module, we'll focus on reading thinkers’ original work, rather than textbook syntheses. You'll be asked to think critically about a variety of theories addressing the same phenomenon. And in addition to the questions above, we'll ask: What does each theory expose and occlude? Does a theory help us predict future events, make causal claims, expose gaps in thinking and/or biases, or facilitate interpretation? In what context did a theory emerge and what problems was it developed to explain? What assumptions does a theory make and how might alternative viewpoints enable critique?

Module Leader – Dr Lyn Johnstone

Module Delivery – Weekly lectures and seminars

Assessment – Reading diary (1800 words) – 30%; Essay (1800 words) – 30%; Exam – 40%

PR2460 – POLITICS OUTSIDE THE WEST

POL/IR

30 credits – Autumn and Spring terms

Module Description – This module is a key bridge between the first year modules in comparative politics and international relations and the third year modules on the politics of Africa, China, Latin America, the Middle East, and South Asia, as well as revolutions. It is designed to equip students with a critical understanding of the most important features of the history of international development which build the foundations of our modern world: the transition from empires to states, colonialism, de-colonisation, and the subsequent post-colonial political issues facing the Global South. This means that students do not necessarily learn about politics “outside the West”, as if it is a phenomenon separate from the West, but, instead, develop their ideas of politics and international relations from the vantage point of the Global South, including its prominent political thinkers.

Module Leader – Dr Ibrahim Halawi and Dr Will Jones

Module Delivery – Weekly lectures and seminars; formative assessments: class discussions (verbal), interactive quizzes, and peer-review. 

Assessment – Essay 1 (1800 words) – 30%; Research Project (1800 words) – 30%; Exam – 40%

What you can do to prepare for this module – If you took PR1500 in your first year, revisit your notes for the weeks that cover Global South topics. Read Vijay Prashad’s The Darker Nations: A History of the Third World and Eduardo Galeano’s Open Veins of Latin America. If you like documentaries, watch Concerning Violence.  

PR2480 – DEMOCRACY IN BRITAIN

POL

30 credits – Autumn and Spring terms

Module Description – Democracy in Britain explores the theory and practice of modern British politics. It is designed primarily to familiarise students with the ways in which British democracy has evolved, how it operates today and some of the challenges that confront it. Students taking the module will gain knowledge of the ‘nuts and bolts’ of the political system. You will learn about how and why the system operates in the way it does, the quality of contemporary democratic governance and key features of political behaviour in Britain. Students studying PR2480 will be encouraged throughout the module to be mindful of the relationship between theory and evidence. The first half of the module will focus on the character, development and institutions of Britain’s ‘traditional’ democratic system. The second half will focus on dynamic elements of British democracy, including political parties and party competition, political and especially voting behaviour, and attitudes towards democracy.

Module Leaders – Professor Nicholas Allen

Module Delivery – Weekly lectures and seminars

Assessment – Essay 1 (1800 words) – 30%; Essay 2 (1800 words) – 30%; Exam – 40%

What you can do to prepare for this module – Two non-academic books you might like to read are Anthony King, Who Governs Britain? (Pelican Books, 2015) and David Marquand, Britain Since 1918: The Strange Career Of British Democracy (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2008).

PR2490 – CONTEMPORARY POLITICAL THEORY

POL

30 credits – Autumn and Spring terms

Module Description – This module concerns the theories underlying discussion of political problems and issues today.  The Autumn Term surveys recent political theorising in the Anglo-American tradition by looking at some key concepts and theories. These include the value of democracy (compared to other systems of political rule); what justifies civil disobedience in a democracy?; what we mean by freedom (non-interference or a more substantial ideal of autonomy)?; what human rights are and whether they represent a Western, ethnocentric ideal?; proponents and critics of socio-economic equality; social justice (focusing on John Rawls’s hugely influential theory); whether states have the moral right to exclude immigrants?; multiculturalism and special rights for cultural minorities, reparations for historic injustices such as slavery; and what duties citizens in rich states have to the global poor. The Spring term explores questions concerning identity, difference, and power, through the works of Michel Foucault, Tzvetan Todorov, Jean-Paul Sartre, Judith Butler, Achille Mbembe, and Edouard Glissant. It uses these thinkers to examine the constitution of forms of otherness and the politics of their subordination and exclusion.  It will ask whether the virtues so closely associated with contemporary liberal theory and politics, such as tolerance, equality, individual rights, democratic accountability, and justice, are adequate these forms of exclusionary politics that remain common in modern society.  In doing so, it will examine how these issues play out in recent theorizations of race, gender, sexuality, and more.

Module Leaders – Dr Jonathan Seglow and Professor Nathan Widder

Module Delivery – Weekly lectures and seminars

Assessment – Essay 1 (1800 words) – 30%; Essay 2 (1800 words) – 30%; Exam – 40%

What you can do to prepare for this module – For the Autumn term, take a look at Andrew Shorten’s book, Contemporary Political Theory or Adam Swift’s book, Political Philosophy, both available online via the library.  The Justice Everywhere blog is also interesting. For the Spring term, two short pieces that address many of the issues to be covered are the Introduction to William E. Connolly’s Identity\Difference: Democratic Negotiations of Political Paradox and Foucault’s Introduction to the English translation of Herculine Barbin: Being the Recently Discovered Memoirs of a Nineteenth-Century French Hermaphrodite.

PR2500 – INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY

IR

30 credits – Autumn and Spring terms

Module Description – This module examines the relationship between states and markets, power and wealth, in International Political Economy (IPE). It introduces students to the key concepts and theoretical debates in IPE. It tackles issues such as the globalisation of trade, finance, and production, the continued problems of development and democratic governance in the world economy, and emerging questions surrounding global flows, networks and spaces. Students are taken through the history of regimes, crises, and competing theories of political economy from the nineteenth century to the present day. Throughout the module the emphasis is on how political institutions operate in international politics to regulate the creation of wealth, and who benefits from these arrangements.

Module Leaders – Dr Thomas Stubbs and Dr Ibrahim Halawi

Module Delivery – Weekly lectures and seminars.

Assessment – Essay (1800 words) – 30%; Portfolio (1800 words) – 30%; Exam – 40%

PR2550 – WAR AND SECURITY IN WORLD POLITICS

IR

30 credits – Autumn and Spring terms

Module descriptor: This module explores how international security is defined, practiced, and contested across time. It begins with the foundational questions of what “security” and “war” are, examining how these terms have been interpreted and have structured international politics in different ways. The module traces the development of strategic thought, engaging with classical theorists such as Clausewitz and Sun Tzu and examining debates around the so-called ‘Western’ way of war. The module situates warfare within its broader political and ethical context, asking how violence relates to politics, morality, and power. The module then considers how changing technologies and norms have reshaped the character of conflict, from debates over weapons considered taboo to the strategic logic of nuclear deterrence, as well as the emergence of new technologies such as cyber operations and drone warfare. At the same time, it expands the scope of security beyond the battlefield, examining how issues such as genocide, terrorism, gender, and race challenge conventional understandings of threat and protection. The final part of the module reflects on the widening security agenda in the twenty-first century, considering human security, climate change, and global health, and questioning what should count as a security issue in an increasingly interconnected and unequal world.

Module Leader – Professor Michelle Bentley

Module Delivery – Weekly lectures and seminars

Assessment – Essay 1 (1800 words) – 30%; Essay 2 (1800 words) – 30%; Exam – 40%

What you can do to prepare for this module – Read (i) Paul D. Williams and Matt McDonald (2023) Security Studies: An Introduction, 4th Edition, London: Routledge.

PR2560 – MODERN POLITICAL THOUGHT

POL

30 credits – Autumn and Spring terms

Module Description – This module introduces students to major political thinkers from the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries, including the works of Machiavelli, Hobbes, Locke, Rousseau, Wollstonecraft, Smith, Mill, Marx, Nietzsche, and Douglass. The module aims to introduce students to the themes, argumentative strategies, and critical interpretations of these thinkers, and to help them develop the skills to critically assess these interpretations against the texts themselves. It also aims to show how study of these thinkers illuminates contemporary discussion of freedom, pluralism, sovereignty, and legitimacy, even where no reference is made to them. In contrast to PR249 – Contemporary Political Theory, this module is organised around thinkers, not by theme and so you will explore each thinker in more depth and with closer attention to the original material. The module only goes up to the start of the 20th Century and does not cover more contemporary thinkers. 

Module Leaders – Dr Michael Bacon and Dr Nat Rutherford

Module Delivery – Weekly lectures and seminars

Assessment – Essay 1 (1800 words) – 30%; Essay 2 (1800 words) – 30%; Exam – 40%

What you can do to prepare for this module – listen to the Talking Politics: History of Ideas podcasts available here: Link

PR2600 – INTRODUCTION TO POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

POL/IR

30 credits – Autumn and Spring terms

Module Description – The purpose of this module is to provide students with a broad overview of how citizens, politicians and the media interact across Western democracies during both electoral and governing periods. The first part of the module will focus on the production and consumption of political news, while the second part will address campaigns and their effects as well as focusing on contemporary debates in political communication, including ethical issues. While the module will cover key aspects of political communication in the United Kingdom, the focus will be mostly comparative across countries. Seminars are centred on practical activities that allow students to apply the knowledge presented in the module to contemporary real-world examples of political communication in action. Examples include analysis of political speeches, advertisements, candidate debates, campaign strategies, and news coverage of political issues.

Module Leaders – Professor Ben O’Loughlin and Dr Kat Gupta

Module Delivery – Weekly lectures and activity-based seminars

Assessment – Essay 1 (1800 words) – 30%; Essay 2 (1800 words) – 30%; Exam (2400 words) – 40%

What you can do to prepare for this module – For ten minutes each day, spend a few weeks following how a political party, celebrity, journalist or activist uses social media to promote a message or cause. Be prepared to talk for a few minutes about what you see, why they present things the way they do, and whether you think citizens/users ‘buy in’ to what they say.