Brunel University London, MA, International Relations

Your studies are built around a foundation of compulsory modules with a range of optional modules to choose from within the subject. To complete your MA, you will undertake a substantial piece of written research in a topic of your choice under the guidance of a dissertation supervisor.

Optional modules are indicative and available subject to numbers.

This course can be studied 1 year full-time, 15 months full-time with placement, 2 years part-time or 2.5 years part-time with placement, starting in September.

Compulsory

• Evolution of International Relations

To provide students with a systematic and critical understanding of the main theoretical and epistemological developments in the subject of International Relations through the application of IR theory to a range of constitutive problems in the subject area. Students who successfully complete this module will be able to authoritatively engage in the main theoretical debates within the field of International Relations. .

• Dissertation and Research Skills in International Relations

The dissertation is the element of assessment that demonstrates Masters level academic competence in the field of International Relations and of professional potential. It requires the student to apply knowledge and analytical skills developed in the course as a whole to a specific research area/problem of personal and subject interest.

Optional

• International Security

The module aims to introduce students to major theoretical concepts and approaches within the field of Security Studies. It will also enables students to apply and critically evaluate the utility of these concepts and models for understanding security.

• International Political Economy

The first aim of this module is to ensure that students achieve a comprehensive understanding of the main concepts, debates and theories in the study of international political economy (IPE). The module will also familiarise students with several of the principal issues in the global economy that are covered in the IPE literature.

• China and Contemporary Geopolitics

In this module students will critically examine China's changing role in the international system and analyse China's relations with regional actors. To promote a better understanding of China's position with regard to major international actors.

• The United States in World Affairs, 1945-2001

In this module students will analyse the historiography of US diplomatic, political, economic and military interactions with the world. and examine and assess key documents providing evidence of these interactions. It will also give students the opportnity to explore the key domestic and international issues that shaped the activities of the U.S. as a projector of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ global power in the ‘American half-century’.

• Middle East Security

This module introduces students to the key security issues in Middle East (borders, energy and water resources, terrorism, ethnic minorities, and regime stability). Students will examine the contemporary regional security developments in Middle East and gain a general understanding and hands on experience on security and threat analysis methods and production.

• Democracy and Intervention

The aim of this module is to provide students with a systematic, critical, theoretical and empirical knowledge of the debates and issues pertaining to the military interventionism of liberal states, particularly the UK and the USA. The module also focuses on the post-Cold War period but in light of a wider historical context.

• The Migrant and the Law

This module aims to provide a critical and theoretical overview of the central features of migration and refugee law and policy. You will assess the legal and political processes behind the construction of ‘the migrant’ and ‘the refugee’ as ‘others’ in relation to ‘the state’. You will also examine formulation, implementation and enforcement of refugee and migration law and policy at the international, regional and state level.