Global International Relations
| Code | School | Level | Credits | Semesters |
| INTS4106 | School of International Studies | 4 | 20 | Spring China |
- Code
- INTS4106
- School
- School of International Studies
- Level
- 4
- Credits
- 20
- Semesters
- Spring China
Summary
This module develops student understanding of Global International Relations. While the discipline of International Relations (IR) as we know it has its roots in Western Europe and North America, IR has become an increasingly popular subject at universities all over the world. Particularly, rising powers like China are showing increasing interest in the study of and theorizing about international relations. Nevertheless, contributions from outside IR’s Western core hardly ever make it to the discipline’s major journals, university presses, and syllabi. This module asks why this is so, how different (or similar) IR teaching and theorizing are in different places, and what would change if the discipline would open up to new voices. The module fosters a sustained engagement with non-Western political views, voices, and perspectives in order to consider what would a post-Western IR look like. In the process, it aims to uncover what would a genuinely global IR look like, one that included a diversity of voices, histories, and worldviews? The module thus provides an alternative framework for thinking about international politics that is more accurately ‘international.’
Please note: This module is assessed at the end of Spring semester. First sit/ Re-sit exams are scheduled normally in the summer and can take the same form as the missing/ failed component of the assessment (exam, essay etc.) or other form, as decided by the School.
Target Students
Compulsory for students on the Masters in International relations and International Business and open to student on PG programmes offered by the School of International Studies. The module is open to PG students from other Schools at UNNC and exchange students on demand.
Classes
- One 2-hour lecture each week for 10 weeks
Assessment
- 75% Coursework 1: 3000 word essay
- 25% Coursework 2: Group Project and 1000 word report
Assessed by end of spring semester
Educational Aims
The main aims of the module are:-To strengthen and expand students’ understanding of global approaches to the explanation and understanding of world affairs;-To encourage a holistic understanding of knowledge practices, politics and the stakes of theorizing within and beyond the discipline of International Relations;-To develop an effective, interdisciplinary and practice-oriented critical toolbox and analytical skills for the study of contemporary world politics;-To engage with the globalization of International Relations as well as its promises and limitations;-To develop research skills which facilitate the understanding of different cognitive worldviews within their intellectual, historical, and sociological contexts and to apply them to empirical case studies taken from different parts of the world;Learning Outcomes
At the end of the module the student will have acquired:
Knowledge
• Current debates in the discipline of IR
• Knowledge in areas beyond mainstream IR theory
•
Academic skills
• Students will learn how to research and compile information and data on specific case studies
• Students will learn how to write a coherent and critical essay
• Students will learn how to select and synthesise information from a range of primary and secondary sources
• Students will learn how to identify and compare key arguments from those materials
• Students will learn how to demonstrate appropriate footnoting and bibliographical skills
Transferable skills
• capability for independent and self-initiated study
• competence to understand and analyse relatively complex relationships
• ability to express ideas in a coherent and logical manner
• development of good investigative and information retrieval skills
• literacy and efficiency in using computers, the internet and other IT resources for composition, research and presentation
• ability to present and communicate effectively
• working together in teams to reach a common goal
• problem solving
Conveners
- Dr Grant Dawson