Politics and International Relations (with a Foundation Year) BA (Hons)

Year two

• Entrepreneurship and Professionalism 

Entrepreneurship and Professionalism

On this module, students will develop their knowledge and acquire a range of practical skills that can be applied in commercial settings, to prepare them for graduate work. Students will gain insight into the current labour market, with specific focus on job opportunities relating to their field of study. They will develop the graduates attributes that they will use when engaging with employers and customers. These are skills which will stand students in good stead in both self-employed and employed fields.

• EU Politics and Policy 

EU Politics and Policy

The EU plays a crucial role across a wide range of policy areas. However, as recent debates have shown, few people understand how the EU operates. This module will provide students with a comprehensive overview of the origins and development of the EU, its primary structures and its decision-making procedures. The module will start by examining the origins and development of the EU, considering the importance of key treaties, such as Maastricht and Lisbon. It will then explore the role of the various EU institutions – including the Commission, Council, Parliament and Court of Justice – in the policy-making process. It will analyse how the EU makes policy over a range of areas, and finally its relationships with other non-EU countries.

• Political Ideologies 

Political Ideologies

The module considers what political ideologies are, what function they serve to both societies and political science.  It starts by assessing how ideology is an essentially contested term, and can have various scopes of study. The module then looks in some depth at the major political ideologies (e.g. liberalism, conservatism, socialism, anarchism, nationalism, populism, ecologism, feminism, religious fundamentalism) and assesses the relationship between theory and practice of ideologies, but also the relationship between ideologies, using a variety of historical and contemporary examples.

• Political Leadership 

Political Leadership

The module provides a detailed overview of the foundational and more recent theoretical approaches to the study of political leadership, from Plato, Machiavelli and Weber to the more recent analysis of democratic, transformational and collective forms of governance.

• Research Methods in the Social Sciences 

Research Methods in the Social Sciences

This module aims to provide students with a broad knowledge and understanding of research methods in the social sciences, focusing on the main qualitative research methods used in politics and communications, and some data analysis. The module will also equip students with the necessary skills to undertake a small scale piece of research. Students are expected to have a critical awareness of research paradigms and the strengths and limitations of the methods and methodologies commonly used.

• Theory, Practice, and History of Diplomacy  

Theory, Practice, and History of Diplomacy

Diplomacy is the way in which the representatives of states interact with one another. This module provides an outline of how diplomacy emerged. It shows how diplomacy can be traced back to the very earliest phases of human development, long before the emergence of modern states as we know them. It then outlines the development of diplomatic practice through the Medieval world, before looking at how diplomacy evolved in the modern era. It also explores the ways in which diplomacy is carried out in contemporary international affairs, and how diplomacy fits into the big picture of foreign policy. Students will analyse the roles of specific diplomatic institutions, such as foreign ministries and embassies. Finally, the rules that shape diplomatic practice are analysed, as well as the different types of diplomacy, including the increasingly important role of public diplomacy.