International Political Theory (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

  • Analysis and Interpretation in International Political Theory: introduces methods and interpretive approaches that can be taken in the study of international political theory.
  • Concepts in International Political Theory: explores the work of important political theorists with particular attention to the ways in which their thought is relevant for international and global affairs.

• 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.
  • Conflict in the Middle East: Examines conflict in the modern Middle East looking at the causes, development and consequences of conflict in the region including interstate, civil war, ethnic, religious and terrorism.
  • Conflicts, Security and Democracy in the Greater Caucasus (30): Examines the Caucasus as one of the world's most fascinating yet least understood regions.
  • Contemporary Gulf Politics in a Changing Global Context: Examines contemporary Persian Gulf politics in a broader global context; aims to offer a historically and sociologically informed understanding of contemporary Gulf socio-political development from the early phase of capitalist formation onwards.
  • Counter-Extremism: Ethics, Policy and Practice: explores the most appropriate response to extremism through collaborative enquiry and direct engagement with policymakers and practitioners. The roles of education, civil society efforts to counter extremist speech, deradicalisation initiatives, victims, communities, and companies are explored.
  • Critical Climate Justice: Aims to give students a critical theoretical understanding and practical analysis of the meaning and significance of climate justice within the international system.
  • Feminist Political Economy: introduces students to feminist political economy, covering key concepts and theories, including social reproduction, and case studies. Including the European Union, trade, and global care chains.
  • Global Constitutionalism: explores developments in international politics and law that reveal an increasingly constitutional order.
  • 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.
  • Iran and the World since 1921 (30): This module is intended to take an in-depth look at the development of the modern Iranian state from its inception under Reza Khan in the 1920s to the present day.
  • Leaders, Psychology and Foreign Policy: Examines psychological approaches to the study of political leaders, focusing primarily on social scientific methods and findings.
  • Nationalism and Ethnic Conflict: familiarises students with different approaches that seek to explain how ethnicity and nationhood are created and maintained, how different forms of ethnic conflict and ethnic violence come about, and what possible mechanisms to contain nationalism and ethnic conflict are.
  • Outer Space Security: Examines outer space as a key domain for contemporary global security; applies IR theories and concepts to assess the security dynamics of activities in Earth orbit and beyond.
  • 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.
  • Political Theory of Race and Caste: gives students an opportunity to study forms of social hierarchy and injustice based on race, caste and descent, through reading key texts in political theory that grapple with conditions of racial and caste subordination and that gesture at the possibilities for emancipation from them.
  • Qualitative Research Encounters
  • 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.
  • Terrorism after 1945: provides an overview of the evolution, characteristics, and decline of terrorist movements and campaigns since 1945.
  • The Genealogy of Modern Counterinsurgency: Traces the genealogy of contemporary counterinsurgency warfare; examines historical and recent case studies.
  • The Military in Politics: introduces students to civil-military relations and then analyses how armed forces impact states domestic politics.
  • The Regional Politics and Ordering of Central Asia: Combines IR Theory and Central Asian studies; examines how norms, rules and institutions regulating international relations at the global level are understood, applied and contested in Central Asia.
  • The influence of seapower on history 1805-present: Looks at the theory and practice of maritime and naval warfare from the Napoleonic period to the present day.
  • 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 international political theory 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.