Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POL2020: Contemporary Theories of World Politics

This module descriptor refers to the 2024/5 academic year.

Overview

NQF Level 5
Credits 15 ECTS Value 7.5
Term(s) and duration

This module ran during term 2 (11 weeks)

Academic staff

Dr Alex Prichard ()

Pre-requisites

None

Co-requisites

None

Available via distance learning

No

This module provides an in-depth, critical, and historical examination of classic and contemporary theoretical approaches to world politics. The study of conceptual frameworks in International Relations (IR) is crucial because it allows us to move beyond mere description of, and unreflective feelings about, international events, providing instead genuine analyses, explanations, and understandings. Theory has therefore always been the centre of gravity of IR as a discipline, providing points of collaboration and contestation between scholars about what can be known in IR, and how. As Mearsheimer and Walt put it (2013), theory is no less than “the lodestone in the field of IR [and] theorists are the field’s most famous and prestigious scholars”.

To explore IR theories the module explains how the various theoretical approaches are related to one another, not only conceptually but also historically, stressing for each of them the importance of the socio-political context in which they emerged, from the 1920s to the 2010s. Historically, socially and intellectually situating theories, which are mental constructs, is a central aspect of this module.

Module created

01/10/2010

Last revised

10/03/2022