Content, progress and pedagogy of the module

Objectives 

The objective of this module is: 

• to provide students with knowledge of advanced theories on international politics and conflict. 
• to enable students to apply distinct theoretical and methodological approaches of the field to the study of contemporary cases regarding international politics and conflict, for instance international law, international negotiations, conflict resolution, international political economy, and security politics.  
• to enable students to analyze how different state and non-state actors influence political and diplomatic relations, conflicts and decision-making processes in the international realm including new digital forms of interaction. 

Content  

The module is an advanced, interdisciplinary module that presupposes knowledge of basic IR theories. The module takes its point of departure in the development and transitions of international relations by means of concrete case-studies and theoretical approaches from the literature on i.e., international law, international politics, global relations, and conflict studies. The focus will be on current debates and events, covering a variety of geographical settings and online and offline problem areas. The module includes project-writing; the topic of the project must be related to one or several of the modules of the semester.

Learning objectives

Knowledge

• theories and practices within the field of international politics and conflict, for instance international law, international institutions, global relations, international political economy, international negotiations, and conflict resolution 
• current issues and academic debates within the field of international politics and conflict studies. 

Skills

• can identify and delimit a research problem
• can apply theories to analyze relevant cases
• can apply qualitative and/or quantitative methods to answer a relevant research problem within the field of international relations
• can reflect critically on and argue for choice of theory, research design and data selection in project writing 

Competences

• can collaborate on project writing in an interdisciplinary team
• can delimit and analyze complex international problems and clearly communicate findings to a target audience through project work
• can reflect upon the consequences of new forms of digital communication in relation to the subject field

Type of instruction

The module consists of lectures, exercises, group work and supervision, and it may include a simulation game with position papers. 

Exam

Exams