International Political Theory (MLitt) 2025 entry

For more details, including weekly contact hours, teaching methods and assessment, please see the module catalogue. The modules are examples from previous academic years and may be subject to change before you start your course.

• 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: introduces students to a range of core concepts in International Political Thought, such as the state, power, law, justice, class, gender, race, empire, democracy, agency, borders, rights, and sovereignty.

• Optional

  • Global Constitutionalism: explores the role of constitutional thinking and draws upon legal theory and international law as well as broader themes.
  • Migration and Political Theory: explores the relationship between political thought and the complex phenomenon of migration, including how migration influences understandings of citizenship, rights, borders, justice, and security.
  • 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.
  • World Politics After the 'Death of God': Between Apocalypse and Hope: explores contributions in post-Nietzschean political philosophy and 20th-century political theology as a way to understand the currency of notions such as tragedy, evil and hope in modern politics.
  • 'Reason of State': Origin, Nature and Career of a Concept: studies the meaning, origins, development and significance of the notion of 'reason of state' in western political thought.
  • Theories of Friendship and Enmity: addresses a number of classical texts in western political thought on the themes of friendship and enmity.
  • Topics in International Political Thought: introduces students to key themes in the international realm through a close engagement with the ideas of a single theorist.
  • 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.
  • Security and Justice Institutions in World Politics: examines the development and efficacy of institutions in the fields of peace, security and justice.
  • Terrorism and Liberal Democracy: addresses conceptual and definitional issues concerning terrorism; the relationship of terrorism to other forms of political violence; the origins, dynamics and development of contemporary terrorism; the efficacy of terrorism as a political weapon; the dilemmas and challenges of liberal democratic state responses to terrorism; and case studies in terrorism and counter-terrorism.

• 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 be submitted by the end of 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.