School of Politics and International Studies

Year Two

In Year two, you have more flexibility in your study and can direct your degree towards the areas that interest you most.

Compulsory modules

Security Studies provides an introduction to the debates on security in international relations, examining  the concept, role and making of security in the contemporary international system. It outlines the main theoretical approaches and conceptualizations used in security studies and analyses a selection of important challenges that have been framed as security threats.

International Organisations and World Order analyses the historical and contemporary work of international organisations. You will explore the work of the UN, IMF, WTO and the international courts, and cover a range of policy areas, such as global security, international law, human rights, and economic management.    

Optional modules

Then you choose one of the following 'Alternative Approaches to International Relations' modules:

• Development and Social Change
• North-South Linkages
• Theories of Human Rights
• Theories of Justice
• Theories of Political Morality

And you choose one of the following 'Global and Regional Practice' modules:

• Governing the European Union
• Making the European Union
• Politics and International Relations of Pacific Asia
• Politics of Contemporary China
• State and Politics in Africa
• United States Politics

You may also take bewteen one and two of the following POLIS modules:

• The Conservative Party from Churchill to Cameron
• The Labour Party from Attlee to Brown
• Spin Doctors and Electioneering
• Development and Social Change
• Gender and Development
• North-South Linkages
• Governing the European Union
• Making the European Union
• Politics and International Relations of Pacific Asia
• Politics of Contemporary China
• State and Politics in Africa
• United States Politics
• Theories of Human Rights
• Theories of Justice
• Theories of Political Morality
• Approaches to Political Science
• Career Planning for POLIS Students

Elective modules

You may also take up to two elective modules depending on your optional module choices.

Year Three

Compulsory module

The only compulsory module in Year three is your Dissertation. This is a piece of written work of 12,000 words, and can be researched on a topic of your own choice. It is designed to allow you to produce an extended piece of written work on a topic of special interest to you.

Optional modules

In addition to the dissertation, you will normally choose two of the following modules:

• British Foreign Policy
• Europe in the World
• American Foreign Policy
• Israel: Politics and Society
• Crisis Diplomacy: Coercion, Sanctions and the Use of Force in International Relations
• Dirty War: Insurgency, the State and Cities
• Political Violence
• Terrorism and Security

You will also choose between one and two of the following modules:

• British Political Parties
• British Foreign Policy
• Rural Development: Theoretical and Policy Issues
• Gender and Development
• Violence and Reconciliation in Eastern Africa
• Britain and the EU
• Environmental Politics and Policy in the EU
• Europe in the World
• Extreme Right Parties in Contemporary Western Europe
• American Foreign Policy
• Israel: Politics and Society
• Crisis Diplomacy: Coercion, Sanctions and the Use of Force in International Relations
• Dirty War: Insurgency, the State and Cities
• Political Violence
• Terrorism and Security
• Critical Theory
• Culture and Community: Theoretical Perspectives
• Feminist Challenges to Political Theory
• Video Games: Politics, Society and Culture

Elective modules

You may choose one non-POLIS elective module depending on your optional module choices.