COURSE OUTLINE

Since the end of the Cold War, a wider variety of issues and actors have come to the fore in international relations. Shifting away from inter-state relations, the field of International Relations has both been expanded and diversified to include new multilateral institutions such as regional organisations and sub-state actors such as terrorist network and human security. Debates over the future of the international system, global and regional governance, humanitarian intervention and the proliferation of new forms of insecurity. At the same time changes in global power distribution between the US and the rising China has reminded the international community that great power rivalries continue to form a key feature of world politics.

The aim of this module is to introduced students to some of the key issues and themes in IR – such as The Cold War and its Ending(s), The USA and the others in the international system, Global governance - the United Nations, Regionalism - European integration, War and conflict, Security, Terrorism and counterterrorism, Human rights and humanitarian intervention.

COURSE AIMS

The aims of the module are:

To introduce the broad trends in the historical evolution of contemporary international relations;
	To provide an introduction to issues of international security, international organisations, globalization and integration in world politics.
	To demonstrate the relationship between world politics and theories of International Relations;
COURSE OBJECTIVES

By the end of this course students should be able to:

Investigate and understand the breadth and diversity of themes and issues in international relations.
	Understand the global dimensions of politics from a variety of perspectives;
	Use critically concepts when interpreting contemporary issues in world politics;
	Construct reasoned argument, synthesise relevant information and exercise critical judgement;
	Work in a team within a tutorial framework to present their views and opinions about different topics in international politics;
	Use library and media resources to research seminar topics;
	Grasp what constitutes a well-written, well-researched, and well-argued academic piece of written work.