International Relations, Security and Development

This stimulating course will interrogate the various theories, concepts, and issues in international politics.

Theories such as realism and liberalism have offered reliable frameworks for great thinkers to make sense of world affairs for centuries while more recent theories such as social constructivism, poststructuralism, postcolonialism and feminism have expanded what we know about the world especially by offering alternative ways of knowing and practicing international politics.

Issues such as globalisation, interdependence, war and diplomacy, global health crises such as the Covid-19 Pandemic, terrorism, peace and conflict, security, development, migration, climate change and environmental degradation, poverty and starvation, and humanitarian intervention have impacted on human affairs.

In addition to the conceptual and issue-based dimensions discussed above, this course has a practical dimension where students will engage in classroom activities including role-play which will allow you to apply some of the theories to both ‘real-life’ and hypothetical scenarios. This course is taught with both further education (undergraduate and postgraduate) and career pursuits across relevant sectors (such as governmental, and non-governmental organisations) in mind.

Key Information

Level: Introductory to intermediate
Teaching: 60 hours
Expected independent study: 90 hours
Optional assessment: 2-hour examination

Typical credit: 3-4 credits (US) 7.5 ECTS points (EU) - please check with your home institution.

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This course can also be combined with our Exploring British Culture week - find out more.

Syllabus

Module Overview

This course will examine the core debates, concepts, and thoughts in international politics such anarchy, war, peace, balance of power, interdependence, and interconnectedness among others. In a very supportive setting, the lectures will interrogate key theories such as realism, liberalism, and social constructivism as well as theories such as Marxism, poststructuralism, feminism and postcolonialism without ignoring assumptions surrounding what theory is and what it means to theorise. With this strong conceptual grounding, the course will then interrogate key issues such as: security, climate change and environmental degradation, globalisation, causes of war and what we can do about them, global health threats and pandemics such as Covid-19, historical and contemporary terrorism and violent extremism, gender and development, peace, conflict and humanitarian intervention, and poverty.

Aims and Learning Outcomes

Course Aims

The International Relations and Development Course will help you to navigate a diversity of questions from the most basic ones such as the role of social media in terrorism and violent extremism; to what extent our world is globalised; your role in climate change and environmental degradation, etc; to more complex questions such as why and how wars happen and if the world is moving towards a ‘nuclear Armageddon’. The course adopts a very engaging approach which makes theories and concepts accessible to most students, and it will encourage learners to apply these to various complex and everyday issues. In doing so, students will be encouraged to develop critical analytical and evaluative skills that they can apply in both everyday situations and in diverse learning environments.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course you should be able to:

Describe what international politics is and differentiate between international, world and global politics.
Enumerate the key assumptions which distinguish contemporary theories of international politics and development from each other and from other sorts of theory.
Analyse the various issues in international relations and development, through the various perspectives and theories.
Evaluate the contribution of different theories of international relations.
Develop a robust and convincing perspective about how various concepts and ideas shape our conceptions of the world and how these inform policy.

Teaching and Assessment

Course Structure

For this course, there will be 4 hours of teaching on most weekdays, comprised of lectures and small group teaching. The structure will be:

3 hours of lectures.
A 1 hour seminar in small groups.

Students will also be given time each day for independent study. Towards the end of the third week, students will also be provided with time for revision.

Due to the intensive nature of the Warwick Summer School, students are expected to attend all timetabled teaching activity, to engage with the teaching material and to spend an average of 2-3 hours per day in self-guided study.

Students registered for Warwick Summer School must attain a minimum of 75% authorised attendance of the timetabled teaching activity. If students fall short of this threshold, they will not be awarded a certificate of completion and they will not be able to sit the exam/submit final assessment. 

Authorised attendance includes any sickness absence during the course of the programme that has been properly notified and recorded. An attendance register will be taken at the beginning of teaching session so students need to ensure they arrive on time in order to be marked as attended.

Course Assessment

The module will be assessed via a 2-hour examination. It should be noted that the exam is not compulsory. Everyone who completes the course – whether or not they sit the exam - will receive a certificate of attendance.

Students who choose to sit the final exam will receive a transcript of results. The transcript of results will state the name of the student, the course studied, the exam mark and the grade. Transcripts are automatically sent to students via email by the middle of September.  You should keep this safe in case you need it for credit transfer approval or for future reference. If you would like us to email a copy of your transcript directly to someone at your University who deals with credit transfer please let us know.

The Summer School does not offer re-takes of examinations, whatever your result in the original examination. 

Entry Requirements Your Teachers Reading List

Please note changes to the syllabus and teaching team may be made over the coming months before exact set of topics are finalised.

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