Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POC1021: Key Concepts in Politics and International Relations

This module descriptor refers to the 2020/1 academic year.

Please note that this module is only delivered on the Penryn Campus.

Module Aims

This module aims to provide you with a solid foundation in the basic concepts and theories that are useful for making sense of contemporary debates and challenges in international politics. In addition, it highlights the role of the state and the major actors involved in shaping cross-national borders. To this end, the module brings together diverse methodological approaches, current and historical events and critical study skills. By the end of the course, you will have acquired the necessary tools that enable you to critically weigh common academic and policy arguments about global affairs.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here – you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills1. Demonstrate a basic understanding of the actors, approaches, issues and institutions in IR
2. Explain the connections between global problems and the theories used by political scientists to understand their causes, effects, and possible solutions
Discipline-Specific Skills3. Compare and contrast major schools of thought in IR
4. Use these concepts, vocabulary, and theories to analyse issues facing political leaders and societies.
Personal and Key Skills5. Communicate arguments effectively
6. Develop good research and indexing praxis
7. Identify, locate, evaluate, and responsibly use and share information relevant to the discussions at hand

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

Stephen McGlinchey, Rosie Walters and Christian Scheinpflug. 2007. International Relations Theory.

Berenskoetter, Felix, ed. (2016). Concepts in World Politics. London: Sage.

Agnew, John. (1994). “The Territorial Trap: The Geographical Assumptions of International Relations Theory’, Review of International Relations 1(1): 53–80.

Butler, Judith. (2003). ‘Violence, Mourning, Politics’, Studies in Gender and Sexuality 4(1): 9–37.

Buzan, Barry, Ole Wæver, and Jaap de Wilde. (1998). Security: A New Framework for Analysis. London: Lynne Rienner.

Chowdhry, Geeta and Sheila Nair, eds. (2002) Power, Postcolonialism and International Relations: Reading Race, Gender and Class. New York: Routledge.

Enloe, Cynthia. (1989). Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics. London: Pandora.

Cynthia Weber (2010, 3rd Ed). Textbook International Relations Theory: A Critical Introduction.

Fanon, Frantz. (1967). Black Skin, White Masks. New York: Grove Press.

Harvey, David. (2001). Spaces of Capital: Towards a Critical Geography. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press

Huntington, Henry P. (2013). ‘A Question of Scale: Local versus Pan-Arctic Impacts from Sea-Ice Change’, in Media and the Politics of Arctic Climate Change: When the Ice Breaks, edited by Miyase Christensen, Annika E. Nilsson and Nina Wormbs, 114–127. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan

Kaldor, Mary. (2010). ‘Humanitarian Intervention: Toward a Cosmopolitan Approach’, in The Cosmopolitanism Reader, edited by Garrett W. Brown and David Held, 334–350. Cambridge: Polity Press.

MacKenzie, Megan. (2010). ‘Securitization and de-Securitization: Female Soldiers and the Reconstruction of Women in Post-Conflict Sierra Leone’, in Gender and International Security: Feminist Perspectives, edited by Laura Sjoberg, 151–167. London: Routledge

Pankhurst, Donna. (2008). ‘Introduction: Gendered War and Peace’, in Gendered Peace: Women’s Struggles for Post-War Justice and Reconciliation, edited by Donna Pankhurst, 1–30. New York: Routledge

Rawls, John. (1971). A Theory of Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press

Weber, Cynthia. (2014). ‘Why is there no queer international theory?’, European Journal of International Relations 21(1): 27–51.

Wendt, Alexander. (1992) ‘Anarchy is What States Make of It: The Social Construction of Power Politics’, International Organization 46(2): 391–425.