Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POL2115: British Foreign Policy

This module descriptor refers to the 2022/3 academic year.

Module Aims

The purpose of the module is to help students understand British foreign policy making in practice and from the perspective of those participating in making and debating it.

The design of the module is informed by the convenor’s experiences of working in and advising the UK government as well as appearing before the Foreign Affairs Committee in parliament. After surveying the geopolitical and historical contexts of British foreign policy, we will take a regional approach to consider Britain’s place in and relationship with different parts of the world. We will look at questions of aid and third-party intervention as well as traditional foreign policy in the narrowly-defined national interest. We will consider economic as well as political relations and take a decentred approach which considers paradiplomacy and the role of non-state actors including British businesses and civil society, as well as the overseas territories and the City of London.

We will close by considering future scenarios for the UK after Empire and under Brexit. It is a requirement that the positions taken in parliament – Right and Left, Isolationist and Liberal Internationalist, Atlanticist and Europeanist – are played as roles by students acting as members of the committee. We will study the current composition of the committee at the time of learning and students will take name badges to play the role of the chair or member during the simulation part of the seminar. Evidence givers will reflect further diversity including named foreign citizens and professional, academic and activist voices that are not represented in parliament. Simulations will therefore be as plural and diverse as is Britain.

By the end of the module, students will have increased their knowledge of the sources and contexts of foreign policy making in Britain and their understanding of how policy is debated and shaped in practice.

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. Demonstrate knowledge of the historical and geopolitical context of British foreign policy, and the ability to situate this knowledge critically with respect to British foreign policy ideas and behaviours; 2. Demonstrate understanding of regions, issues and cases of British foreign policy in practice.
Discipline-Specific Skills	3. Demonstrate understanding of how parliamentary committees work, and the ability to utilise this knowledge in the role of a parliamentary committee chair, member or expert witness; 4. Critically analyse primary and secondary source material; 5. Construct well-structured and rigorous arguments in speech and writing.
Personal and Key Skills	6. Communicate effectively in speech and writing; 7. Work independently and in collaboration with peers to achieve common goals, including in the context of simulations of parliament and committee work.

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:

Geopolitical contexts and foreign policy theory: Britain in the world, the world in Britain
Historical contexts, 1707-1989: Empire and After
Britain in Europe: the EU, Brexit and beyond
The UK and US: what ‘special relationship’?
Britain and the rising powers – Russia and China: opportunity or threat?
London as a world city: cosmopolis, Londongrad or Londonistan?
The unfinished Empire? The commonwealth, overseas territories and postcolonies
Is Britain still a military power? The arms trade and the nuclear deterrent
Aid, intervention and small states: do British values and interests coincide?
Scenarios for the future: Global Britain, ‘Brown Britain’ or Broken Britain?

This syllabus is illustrative and cannot be guaranteed year-on-year. Most seminars will include simulations of parliamentary select committee hearings.

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
22	128	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	22	11 x 2 hours seminars
Guided independent study	63	General reading and preparation (4-5 hours per seminar); Familiarisation with Foreign Affairs Committee (reading reports and viewing evidence sessions, 5-10 hours); Email and visits to lecturer in office hours (2-3 hours).
Guided independent study	40	Reading, writing and consultation with peers and lecturer for essay
Guided independent study	25	Reading, writing and consultation with peers and lecturer for draft written evidence and oral presentation

Online Resources

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

House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, https://www.parliament.uk/business/committees/committees-a-z/commons-select/foreign-affairs-committee/
International Affairs, https://academic.oup.com/ia
RUSI, https://rusi.org/publications
Henry Jackson Society, https://henryjacksonsociety.org/
Foreign Policy Centre, https://fpc.org.uk/publications/
ELE – vle.exeter.ac.uk/

How this Module is Assessed

In the tables below, you will see reference to 'ILO's. An ILO is an Intended Learning Outcome - see Aims and Learning Outcomes for details of the ILOs for this module.

Formative Assessment

A formative assessment is designed to give you feedback on your understanding of the module content but it will not count towards your mark for the module.

Form of assessment	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Draft written evidence	600-800 words	1-6	Written on ELE

Summative Assessment

A summative assessment counts towards your mark for the module. The table below tells you what percentage of your mark will come from which type of assessment.

Coursework	Written exams	Practical exams
67	0	33

...and this table provides further details on the summative assessments for this module.

Form of assessment	% of credit	Size of the assessment (eg length / duration)	ILOs assessed	Feedback method
Oral evidence	33	5-minute opening statement followed by answers to questions from committee members	1-7	Written by email, following seminar
Research essay	67	2,000 words	1-2, 4-6	Written by BART

Re-assessment

Re-assessment takes place when the summative assessment has not been completed by the original deadline, and the student has been allowed to refer or defer it to a later date (this only happens following certain criteria and is always subject to exam board approval). For obvious reasons, re-assessments cannot be the same as the original assessment and so these alternatives are set. In cases where the form of assessment is the same, the content will nevertheless be different.

Original form of assessment	Form of re-assessment	ILOs re-assessed	Timescale for re-assessment
Oral evidence	Written evidence (1,000 words)	1-6	August/September reassessment period
Research essay	Research essay (2,000 words)	1-2, 4-6	August/September reassessment period

Re-assessment notes

Students with ILPs excusing them from oral presentations should discuss with lecturer. They will be required to present in private. Alternate assessments without oral presentation will not assess ILO 7. Students who do not wish to make an oral presentation are advised not to choose the module.

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.

Losing an Empire, Finding a Role: British Foreign Policy Since 1945, By David Sanders, David Patrick Houghton (2^nd edition, 2017)
Brexit in History: Sovereignty or a European Union?, By Beatrice Heuser (2019)
Interpreting British Foreign Policy, a special issue of the British Journal of Politics and International Relations, Vol. 15, No.2, (2013)
British Foreign Policy: Crises, Conflicts and Future Challenges, By Jamie Gaskarth (2013)
Anglo Nostalgia: the politics of emotion in a fractured West, By Edoardo Campanella and Marta Dassu (2019)