GLOBAL UG3

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What you learn about on modules in this stream: This stream examines politics and international relations across regions beyond Europe and North America. It highlights modules that engage with the histories, institutions, and contemporary dynamics of Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East. Students explore how diverse political systems, cultures, and regional organisations shape global affairs, challenging Eurocentric perspectives and broadening their understanding of world politics. This stream is designed for students interested in diplomacy, negotiation, and international engagement. It draws together modules that examine global governance, foreign policy and international law

Career ambitions: working in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, for international organisations such as the UN, WTO, or IMF, as a lobbyist in Brussels or at the UN, or for international organisations such as Amnesty and Oxfam.

AUTUMN TERM MODULES IN THIS STREAM

PR3430 – DEFENCE AND SECURITY GOVERNANCE

15 credits – Autumn term

Module Description – The international security environment has undergone a number of radical changes since the collapse of the Soviet Union. The post-Cold War era has raised questions about how to tackle a host of new security challenges, which include dealing with and preventing state failure, international terrorism and crime, and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. It has also witnessed a changing balance of power, including the rise of China, Russian revisionism and growing US disengagement from European security. These phenomena have fostered increasing levels of cooperation between states at the regional level (for example through ASEAN, the AU, CSDP, ECOWAS, MERCOSUR, NATO, the OAS, and UNASUR). They have also led to a growing influence of non-state actors, such as NGOs and Private Military Companies (PMCs), on security policy agenda-setting and a reliance on these actors in policy implementation. Hence, the objectives of the module are to explore the increasingly multi-level nature of defence and security policy and the implications of this fragmentation for the delivery of effective, accountable and legitimate defence and security policy. It will analyse the ‘vertical’ fragmentation of defence and security policy to regional institutions. The module also examines the extent to which it is possible to speak of a ‘horizontal’ distribution of competencies in defence and security by analysing the role of NGOs and PMCs in the provision of defence and security. In doing so, it also explores the challenges associated with civil-military cooperation (CIMIC). The module approaches these issues by critically examining the insights provided by the literature on strategic and security studies, as well as a broader range of literature drawn from political science, organisation studies and management studies.

Module Leader – Professor Tom Dyson

Module Delivery – weekly lectures and seminars

Assessment – Portfolio assessment of learning outcomes (1500 words) – 40%; Exam (2400 words) – 60%

What you can do to prepare for this module – The following articles will give you a good sense of some of the empirical and theoretical terrain covered: Haftel, Yoram Z, and Stephanie C Hofmann. “Institutional Authority and Security Cooperation Within Regional Economic Organizations.” Journal of Peace Research 54, no. 4 (2017): 484–98. Link; Krahmann, Elke. "Conceptualizing Security Governance". Cooperation and Conflict, 38, no. 1 (2003), 5–26 Link

PR3600 – FOUNDATIONS OF MIDDLE EAST POLITICS

POL/IR

15 credits – Autumn term

Module Description – The Middle East continues to be at the centre of global affairs. This final-year half-unit module aims to equip future political scientists and IR experts with the necessary knowledge and analytical skills to discuss Middle East affairs with greater nuance—not as a region isolated from and exceptional to the modern world, but as one deeply connected with it. This module will survey key events in Middle Eastern history, from the rise of Islam to the Arab Spring, from the breakdown of the Ottoman Empire to the fall of Assad’s regime in Syria, and the world in the aftermath of October 7, 2023. Along the way, it will encourage students to pause and engage with broader questions of development, including military authoritarianism, neoliberalisation, sectarianism, religious extremism, civil conflict, human and civil rights, gender, and elite politics, among others. Rather than focusing on simplistic and definitive answers, the module will inspire students to ask critical questions and think deeply about the region.

Module Delivery – Weekly lectures and seminars

Assessment – Essay 1 (1750 words) – 50%, Essay 2 (1750 words) – 50%

What you can do to prepare for this module – If you took PR2460, read through your lecture notes for the weeks on the Middle East (i.e., weeks 5, 8, 9, 16–18, and 20). You might also watch Networks Are Everywhere with Albert-László Barabási (available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c867FlzxZ9Y) or read: Marc Lynch, What is the Middle East? The Theory and Practice of Regions, Cambridge University Press, 2025 (available to download here: https://www.cambridge.org/core/elements/what-is-the-middle-east/EF3F0EE4C1C84E371748892D1C24754D).

PR3620 – US FOREIGN POLICY: HISTORY, IDEAS, AND CASES

15 credits – Autumn term

Module Description – This module focuses on the foreign policy of the United States of America. It outlines the theoretical frameworks for understanding US foreign policy as well as the founding principles and ideas that underpin the US approach to international politics. This analysis goes back to the founding fathers and America’s initial rise to power (up until the end of World War II) to explore the key themes that shape US foreign policy today, before looking at the development of US foreign policy right up to the current President. The module concludes with a look at the argument on US decline and what US foreign policy may look like in the future.

Module Leader – Professor Michelle Bentley

Module Delivery – Weekly lectures and seminars

Assessment – Essay 1 (1750 words) – 50%; Essay 2 (1750 words) – 50%

What you can do to prepare for this module – Read Michael Cox and Doug Stokes (2018) US Foreign Policy, 3nd Edition, Oxford: Oxford University Press.

PR3633 – ETHNIC POLITICS AND ETHNIC CONFLICT

POL/IR

15 credits – Autumn term

Module Description – Ethnic identities can play an important role in politics and political violence. For example, ethnic identity can play a role in voting decisions, governments can target citizens with repression because of their ethnicity and in civil wars, armed groups can mobilise support and recruit fighters with ethnic appeals. This module examines the role that ethnic identities can play in political life, contestation and conflict. The first part of the module will focus on the origins of ethnic identities and their political salience, examining for example the role of colonialism. The second part will focus on ethnic discrimination and racism, ethnic logics to political representation and voting and the ethnically biased distribution of state resources. The third part will focus on the role of ethnicity in political violence. Here we will learn about police violence and the role that ethnic identities can play in civil conflicts. This module takes a comparative perspective and considers different states around the world, such as for example the UK, Ghana, Kenya, Zambia and the US.

Module Leader – Dr Janina Beiser-McGrath

Module Delivery – Weekly seminars

Assessment – Response paper (1000 words) – 30%; Essay (2500 words) – 70%

What you can do to prepare for this module – Please read Bonilla-Silva, Eduardo. 1997. Rethinking Racism: Toward a Structural Interpretation. American Sociological Review 62(3): 465-480; Soss, Joe and Vesla Weaver. 2017. Police Are Our Government: Politics, Political Science, and the Policing of Race–Class Subjugated Communities. Annual Review of Political Science 20:565-91; Posner, Daniel N. 2004. The Political Salience of Cultural Difference: Why Chewas and Tumbukas Are Allies in Zambia and Adversaries in Malawi. American Political Science Review 98(4):529-545.

SPRING TERM MODULES IN THIS STREAM

PR3108 – LATIN AMERICAN POLITICS

POL/IR

15 credits – Spring term

Module Description – Latin America is a natural laboratory of political and economic conditions. From military dictatorship to communist revolutions, to one-party rule and electoral democracies, the region’s political regimes have undergone profound transformations during the 20th and 21st centuries. Today, Latin America’s democratic gains are both hard-won and fragile, as countries confront myriad challenges, including corruption, protest, and instability. This course will use the Latin American experience to explore how democracies thrive, stagnate, collapse, or change shape. This module introduces the major themes of contemporary Latin American politics and, consequently, democracy and political development. While the module stresses politics and democracy, its objective is to show the linkages between politics, on the one hand, and economic, social, cultural forces, on the other. We will learn about Latin American political institutions – executives and legislatures, courts, and political parties – in order to understand the historical and contemporary struggle for democracy. We will also discuss economic challenges; political inclusion along the lines of race, gender, and class; informality; security challenges; and social unrest and protest. Readings from the reading list will be both theoretical and empirical; some will cover the region and others will focus on specific countries to illustrate broader trends. The module does not assume any prior knowledge of the region.

Module Leader – Prof Jennifer Piscopo

Module Delivery – Weekly seminars

Assessment – Country report (1000 words) – 30%; Essay (2500 words) – 70%

PR3957 – POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT OF AFRICA

POL/IR

15 credits – Spring term

Module Description – This module examines theoretically and empirically the evolution of politics and statehood in sub-Saharan Africa since the 1960s. It examines the material institutions, resources and capacities of states, alongside ideas of political authority and the imagination of statehood. In particular, the module explores how states have been realised through a web of relationships, including Africans’ relations to the colonial state and its legacies, and the way relations between state elites and societies have evolved since independence. Many theoretical approaches have evolved to address issues in African politics - we’ll critically examine some of these. The module has a strong interdisciplinary element that introduces students to novels, art, and film produced by African authors, artists and directors (as well as music in some instances). Students will develop an understanding of how African literature, art, and film can enhance the way we think about politics and government. Part of the module assessment will involve the design of an academic poster where students will be encouraged to develop their interests in any aspect of African politics, literature, culture, art, and music relating to a given theme.

Module Leader – Dr Lyn Johnstone

Module Delivery – weekly lectures and seminars

Assessment – Essay (1750 words) – 50%; Academic Poster – 50%

What you can do to prepare for this module – Please read Chinua Achebe’s A Man of the People (Penguin Modern Classics). This is a short political novel by one of the most famous authors from the African continent. We’ll discuss the novel, alongside the political issues it raises, during the module.

PR3965 – POLITICS OF SOUTH ASIA

POL/IR

15 credits – Spring term

Module Description – The politics of South Asia – India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh – are central to understanding some of the themes at the core of modern politics: poverty and development, security and warfare, migration and transnationalism, decolonisation and postcolonialism, the international economy and globalisation. This module deals with the social and political development of these countries since independence from British rule in 1947. We will analyse issues including caste politics, the role of religious violence and the place of women in politics and society. Sources will come from a range of disciplines – politics and IR, history, sociology, anthropology, novels and films. We will study regional cooperation and conflict including the troubled relationship between India and Pakistan over Kashmir and their nuclear status. By the end of the module you will have a specialised understanding of the major social, economic and political developments in the region.

Module Leader – Dr Antara Datta

Module Delivery – Weekly lectures and seminars

Assessment – Essay 1 (1750 words) – 50%; Essay 2 (1750 words) – 50%

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