IR200      One Unit
International Political Theory

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

Requisites

Pre-requisites:

Students must have completed IR100 before taking this course.

This course offers an introduction to the history of international political theory (IPT). The course deals with debates and themes prompted by classical thinkers and considers their location within the existing IR canon including realism, liberalism, feminist, and postcolonial theory. The course also broadens this purview to consider how ‘classical’ international thought has been adopted, adapted, and critiqued by more recent thinkers, including those situated outside of the ‘west’. Students will be encouraged to consider how international thought sits within global intellectual history, the impact of world political events on IPT, and its enduring relevance. Topics covered will include sovereignty, the state, and war; international government, empire, and decolonisation; gender, race, and class.

10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the Winter Term.
10 hours of lectures and 9 hours of classes in the Autumn Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn and Winter Term.

Students are required to write two essays of a maximum length of 1,500 words each to be set and marked by class teachers. They are also expected to give at least one class presentation. The formative essays will help students develop a deep understanding of key readings on topics likely to appear in the summative e-Exam.

• D. Armitage, Foundations of Modern International Thought;
• E. Keene, International Political Thought: A Historical Introduction;
• S. Burchill, Theories of International Relations;
• R. Shilliam, International Relations and Non-Western Thought;
• I. Kant, Kant’s Political Writings;
• E. H. Carr, The Twenty Years’ Crisis;
• B. K. Sarkar, The Futurism of Young Asia;
• R. Vitalis, White World Order, Black Power Politics: The Birth of American International Relations

Exam (100%), duration: 180 Minutes in the Spring exam period

The exam will be held on-campus as an 'e-Exam'.