Course summary

With globalisation, sustainability, terrorism and foreign intervention now major forces in the world, this course prepares you to meet important global challenges. While the 21st century presents us with instability and insecurity, it also offers plenty of opportunities for development and innovation. Studying international relations will help you to make sense of current issues and create innovative solutions for a better future. You'll explore both historic and contemporary issues from a broad range of perspectives, giving you an insight into the complexities and contradictions of global politics, and begin to understand the relationships between institutions of international governance. Through real-world case studies drawn from the fields of international law, human rights, security, economics and development, diplomacy, war and conflict resolution, you'll learn to apply international relations theory to practice and develop the skills and processes necessary to plan for change – from building research proposals to policy briefs. You'll quickly gain confidence in thinking critically and analytically – able to understand the world around you and develop creative solutions that could change it for the better. Integrated Foundation option This integrated foundation year has been specially designed to give you the introductory knowledge and business skills needed to confidently progress to degree-level study. It's structured around discipline knowledge, with extra modules that introduce you to the transferable skills you'll need at degree level and beyond – giving you a solid grounding in both management principles and business skills. Once you've successfully completed your Foundation year, you'll be able to progress to any of our business, social sciences, humanities or media undergraduate courses. Building on this foundation, you’ll develop specialist knowledge in your chosen course.