Strategic Studies (MLitt) 2027 entry

Course information may change. Module information and course content, teaching and assessment may change each year and after you have accepted your offer to study at the University of St Andrews. We display the most up-to-date information possible, but this could be from a previous academic year. For the latest module information, see the module catalogue.

• Compulsory

  • Modern War and Strategy: provides students with essential knowledge of strategy and military history from the French Revolutionary Wars to contemporary armed conflicts, using key concepts such as mechanisation to investigate what past and present wars tell us about the utility of force in the modern world.
  • Strategic Thought: provides students with essential knowledge of strategic theory and the history of strategic thought, with particular attention to the interaction between theory and practice, military doctrine and military science, as well as the enduring practical lessons of thinkers such as Machiavelli and Clausewitz.

• Optional

  • Armed Governance: examines the origins, motivations, and dynamics of armed governance. Developing new multi-disciplinary perspectives and frameworks for understanding these governance arrangements.
  • Central Asia in World Order: Analyse nation- and state-building agendas in Central Asia, seeking to address critically some of the now widely held assumptions about the post-Soviet area.
  • Conflicts, Security and Democracy in the Greater Caucasus (30): Examines the Caucasus as one of the world's most fascinating yet least understood regions.
  • Directed Reading in the History of War and Strategy: A directed reading project designed to encourage the development of skills of historical analysis related to the history of war and strategy, through concentrated study of topics chosen by the student in consultation with the tutor.
  • Global Constitutionalism: explores the role of constitutional thinking and draws upon legal theory and international law as well as broader themes.
  • Human Rights, Politics and Power: This module explores what is described as the politics of human rights and its mobilisation in struggles that take place at the individual, local, national, and international levels.
  • International Relations of the Modern Middle East: looks at the formation of the Middle East regional system, its special characteristics, and the impact on it of the global system.
  • Political Economy of Conflict: provides a political economy perspective on conflict in a developing economy. 
  • Political Order and Violence in the Middle East: examines the causes and consequences of political order and violence in the Middle East.
  • Research Methods in International Relations: Required module for all MRes, PhD and MPhil students in the School of International Relations; assist students in understanding the purpose and approaches of IR scholarship, and to assist them in developing and carrying out their research.
  • Security and Development in East Asia: investigates growth and development in East Asian states, and seeks to understand if there is a uniquely Asian approach to security and development that produces distinctive regional patterns.
  • Theories of Friendship and Enmity: addresses a number of classical texts in western political thought on the themes of friendship and enmity.

• Dissertation

  The final element of the MLitt is a 15,000-word dissertation. The dissertation should focus on an area of strategic studies in which you are interested. Each student is supported by a relevant supervisor from the School who will advise on the choice of subject and provide guidance throughout the research process. The completed dissertation must usually be submitted by mid-August.

  If students choose not to complete the dissertation requirement for the MLitt, there are exit awards available that allow suitably qualified candidates to receive a postgraduate diploma (PGDip). By choosing an exit award, you will finish your degree at the end of the second semester of study and receive a PGDip instead of an MLitt.