Course summary

Warwick's International Relations (IR) MA explores key theoretical approaches from Realism to Post-Colonialism while critically analysing the role of states and other actors in international affairs, both historically and in the contemporary world. Course overview This programme will tackle the ‘big’ issues facing global decision-makers such as: war, terrorism, (in)security, environmental degradation, climate change, pandemics, poverty, and inequality. Traditionally, the discipline of International Relations (IR) has been concerned with issues of war and peace, focused on explaining and understanding the behaviour of states in their relationships with each other in the international state-system. However, the end of the Cold War and other currents in IR have exposed the limitations of this approach, highlighting a need for the inclusion of non-traditional concerns, i.e., things that would normally be outside the remit of ‘orthodox’ IR. On this programme, you will learn what theory is and what it means to theorise; the key theoretical approaches in IR from Realism to Postcolonialism; and how to understand and apply these theories to historical and contemporary issues. Ultimately, students are equipped to evaluate theoretical positions in the light of pressing issues in contemporary political life.