International Relations Theory (903M1)

30 credits, Level 7 (Masters)

Autumn teaching

Theories...huh...yeah. What are they good for? Absolutely nothing!

But listen, theories form the basis for analysing world politics. Without theories, we cannot gain an understanding about the multitude of events, actors and issues that make up world politics. To enhance your understanding about them, you are taken on a journey to explore Intrenational Relation (IR)’s major theories. This includes:

• investigations into the historical context in which they emerged
• interrogations of the aspects of IR theories focus on and how they explain international politics.

We will tease out their strengths and weaknesses and identify their respective conceptions of world politics in theory and practice.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 300 hours of work. This breaks down into about 33 hours of contact time and about 267 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.