IR490 Half Unit
The Strategy of Conflict in International Relations
This information is for the 2025/26 session.
Course Convenor
Dr Anna Getmansky
Availability
This course is available on the MSc in International Affairs (LSE and Peking University), MSc in International Relations, MSc in International Relations (LSE and Sciences Po), MSc in International Relations (Research) and MSc in Theory and History of International Relations. This course is not available as an outside option to students on other programmes. This course uses controlled access as part of the course selection process.
How to apply: All students must include a brief written statement of no more than 200 words explaining why they wish to take the course and how it will benefit their academic/career goals.
Places on capped courses cannot be guaranteed.
Deadline for application: The deadline for applications is 12:00 noon on Friday 26 September 2025.
You can expect to be informed of the outcome of your application by 12:00 noon on Monday 29 September 2025.
For questions about the academic content of a Department of International Relations course, students should contact the teacher responsible as listed in the hyperlinked course guide.
For questions about your programme regulations, please contact your programme convenor/director or your Academic Mentor.
For questions about the process of applying to a Department of International Relations course, if not already clear from the information provided, please contact ir.msc@lse.ac.uk.
Students are advised to check the MSc Course Availability Spreadsheet.xlsx for information on the remaining availability of EU4, DV4, GV4, IR4, PP4 and SO4 courses after 12:00 noon Monday 29 September.
All students are required to obtain permission from the Teacher Responsible by completing the Student Statement box on the online application form linked to course selection on LSE for You. Admission is not guaranteed.
Course content
This course introduces students to recent literature on conflict onset, management, and resolution, with particular focus on rational-choice theories and simple game-theoretic concepts. In addition, students will have opportunities to apply this knowledge to specific cases of international conflict and compare academic and non-academic accounts of conflicts.
While lectures and reading material focus on theories and examples of conflicts, during seminar discussions students will apply this knowledge to particular conflicts. Class activities will focus on work in small groups, and simulation of decision making in conflicts.
The main goal of the course is to experience how IR theories and concepts can be applied to decision-making in somewhat realistic scenarios.
Teaching
15 hours of seminars and 10 hours of lectures in the Winter Term.
This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Winter Term.
Formative assessment
Students will provide an 800-word outline of their assessed essay by the end of Week 7. The formative essay outline will help students prepare for the summative assessment by enabling early engagement with their topic and providing an opportunity to receive feedback to guide their final submission.
Indicative reading
- Christopher Blattman. Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace. Viking (2022).
- Thomas Schelling. Arms and Influence (Yale University Press 2008)
- Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, Alastair Smith, Randolph Siverson, and James Morrow, The Logic of Political Survival (MIT 2003)
- Nuclear War: A Scenario (Penguin Random House 2024)
- Sarah Kreps. Taxing Wars: The American Way of War Finance and the Decline of Democracy (Oxford University Press 2018).
Assessment
Essay (100%, 4000 words)
Students will select their 4000-word essay topic and essay question from a list provided by the course convenor in the WT.
Key facts
Department: International Relations
Course Study Period: Winter Term
Unit value: Half unit
FHEQ Level: Level 7
CEFR Level: Null
Total students 2024/25: 30
Average class size 2024/25: 15
Controlled access 2024/25: NoCourse selection videos
Some departments have produced short videos to introduce their courses. Please refer to the course selection videos index page for further information.