Module POLM502 for 2019/0
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Postgraduate Module Descriptor
POLM502: International Relations: Power and Institutions
This module descriptor refers to the 2019/0 academic year.
Module Aims
The main aim of the module is to illuminate why the main concepts and theories in International Relations take the form that they do. This involves exploring the emergence of IR theory in its historical context. It ought subsequently to be possible for students to reflect critically on their own theoretical assumptions and how they shape claims about the future of world politics. For example, the rise of China, can be understood as a modern articulation about long standing views about revisionist powers in modern world politics.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to: | |
---|---|
Module-Specific Skills | 1. Demonstrate substantive knowledge of modern IR, the origins of the field, the context in which it developed and the major critical positions adopted towards its development; 2. Identify and discuss the key methodological, conceptual and theoretical debates in IR and demonstrate knowledge in relation to the development of IR as a field of knowledge-production; |
Discipline-Specific Skills | 3. Demonstrate advanced critical, historical and analytical understanding of the development of IR as a field of academic knowledge-production; 4. Exercise informed judgement concerning the practical implications of abstract political principles and ability to locate arguments within an historical context and to understand the relationship between context and theory; |
Personal and Key Skills | 5. Conduct independent research, give well-designed presentations, exercise critical judgment, write cogently and persuasively; and 6. Identify spurious conclusions and distinguish rigorous from merely persuasive argument. |
Module Content
Syllabus Plan
Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:
- The philosophical origins of contemporary IR
- Imperialism and colonialism in an Age of Empires
- Intra-imperial rivalry and a world in crisis: from anarchy to the League
- The Second World War and the origins of ‘realism’
- The management of Cold War bipolarity
- The resilience of institutions and the revival of liberalism
- The renaissance of critique: Feminism and Critical Theory
- The end of the Cold War and the rise of constructivism
- Poststructuralism and the discursive construction of world politics
- Race and world politics revisited
Learning and Teaching
This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | Guided independent study | Placement / study abroad |
---|---|---|
24 | 276 | 0 |
...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:
Category | Hours of study time | Description |
---|---|---|
Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities | 24 hours | 12 x 2 hour per week Seminars: Small group work, presentations, discussion, reflection |
Guided independent study | 200 hours | Reading for and writing essays |
Guided independent study | 76 hours | Reading for seminars |
Online Resources
This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).