Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POL3264: International Relations in Global History

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

Module Aims

This module aims to broaden students’ understanding of international relations in global history, with a particular focus on the different ways of doing and thinking about relations across different times and places. It also encourages students to think critically about the ontology of IR and the epistemology of the discipline by exploring the international and its constituent parts in different temporal and spatial settings. Its research-led content introduces students to interdisciplinary approaches across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, to better appreciate the mutually-constitutive influence of complex systems on actors and processes in international relations. Finally, its range of assessment methods and in-class exercises aim to foster multimedia delivery and research skills, thereby equipping students with the skills to communicate and critically engage across multiple deliberative spaces.

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 Skills	1. critically appreciate the practices and key actors of international relations across time; 2. demonstrate a critical understanding of alternative ways of doing international relations across time and space.
Discipline-Specific Skills	3. critically reflect on the breadth of history traditionally covered by the discipline; 4. demonstrate a critical understanding of the international in relation to other social spaces; 5. display awareness of a range of conceptual frameworks to understand the complex and changing interaction between and across polities; 6. demonstrate an ability to problematize settled truths and assumptions about actors, processes, and narratives; 7. demonstrate awareness of contingency in historical socio-political processes.
Personal and Key Skills	8. study independently and manage time and assessment deadlines effectively; 9. communicate effectively in speech and writing; 10. demonstrate proficiency in the use of the internet, online journal databases, and other IT resources for the purposes of tutorial and assessment preparation; 11. demonstrate effective applied writing.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

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

What is history in IR?
Actors and relations in IR
Beginnings: the emergence of the international
The international & ecosystems
States, empires, & international systems
Actors beyond the state, such as pirates
Warfare in global history
The ‘rise of the West’ & the non-western international
Capitalism

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
20	130	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 Activity	20	10 x 2-hour seminars
Guided Independent study	50	Private study reading and preparing for seminars
Guided Independent study	80	Preparation for coursework (essay) and take-home exam including researching and collating relevant sources; planning the structure and argument; writing up the essay

Online Resources

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