Peacebuilding and Mediation (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

  • Critical Approaches to Peacebuilding: explores the many meanings of peace. Drawing from both theoretical analyses and applied study of peacebuilding efforts worldwide, the module examines the actors, settings, temporalities, challenges, and opportunities involved in the making of peace.
  • Mediation: Community and Global Praxis: identifies the historical, conceptual, and theoretical underpinnings of conflict resolution practices; analyses diverse forms of mediation, including ‘Track 1’ diplomacy, third-party mediation, and state- and community-led approaches; and evaluates different outcomes of mediation processes.

• 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.
  • 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.
  • Global Constitutionalism: explores the role of constitutional thinking and draws upon legal theory and international law as well as broader themes.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • Political Economy of Conflict: provides a political economy perspective on conflict in a developing economy. 
  • 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 focussing on an area of peacebuilding or mediation 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 MLitt students choose not to complete the dissertation requirement, there are exit awards available that allow suitably qualified candidates to receive a postgraduate diploma. 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.