Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POL2020: Contemporary Theories of World Politics

This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

Whilst the precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover all or some of the following topics:

1. Theorizing international relations
2. National interests
3. Bounded rationality
4. Global economic factors
5. Identities
6. Identities (2)
7. Discourses
8. Colonial legacy
9. Gender
10. IR theories today: a fragmented field
11. Conclusions

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
26.5	123.5

...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 activity	16.5	11 x 1.5 hour lectures
Scheduled Learning and Teaching activity	10	10 x 1 hour tutorials
Guided Independent study	123.5	A variety of private study tasks directed by module leader and seminar tutors. These tasks may include:- Reading and note-taking in preparation for class (60 hours); Preparation for and completion of examination (40 hours); Essay preparation (conducting research, writing the finished product) (23.5 hours)

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).

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.

Core:

Dunne, T., Kurki, M., and Smith, S. (eds.), International Relations Theories: Discipline and Diversity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).

Recommended:

Baldwin, D. (ed) Neorealism and Neoliberalism: The Contemporary Debate (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993).

Brown, C. and Ainley, K., Understanding International Relations (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010).

Carlsnaes, W., Risse, T., and Simmons, B. A. (eds.), Handbook of International Relations (London: Sage, 2002).

Brown, C., Nardin, T., and Rengger, N. J. (eds.), International Relations in Political Thought (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002)

Carr, E. H., The Twenty Years’ Crisis, 1919-1939 (Houndmills: Palgrave, 2001 [1939])

Enloe, C., Bananas, Beaches and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989).

Hasenclever, A., Mayer, P., and Rittberger, V., Theories of International Regimes (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994).

Hollis, M., and Smith, S., Explaining and Understanding International Relations (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1990).

Keohane, R. O., After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984).

Keohane, R. (ed), Neorealism and its Critics (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986).

Morgenthau, H. J., Politics Among Nations: The Struggles for Power and Peace (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1993).

Roach, S., Critical Theory and International Relations: A Reader (Abingdon: Routledge, 2006).

Waltz, K., Theory of International Politics (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1979).

Wendt, A., Social Theory of International Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999).