This course provides an introduction to the key contemporary issues of international relations and the debates concerned with how we should understand them. The issues include changing world order and the rise of new powers, the future of global institutions, the political impact of the global recession on global order, global security questions including human security and nuclear proliferation, global environmental politics, resource conflicts and the new geopolitics, Islam and world politics, and the prospects for peace and conflict in the Asia-pacific. The course draws on leading specialists on each issue to lead the discussion.

• An understanding of the key issues in international relations
• An understanding of the key debates surrounding these issues
• An appreciation of critical analytical method in examining these questions
• A detailed understanding of one major issue through extended research

Annotated bibliography assignment          1,000 words (1O%)

Short essay                                           2,000 words (20%)

Long essay                                           4,000 words (40%)

Examination                                          3000 words (30%)

 The course requires two contact hours each week and from six to ten hours a week outside the contact hours.

• 10,000 words of assessable written tasks

There are no requisites for this course.

Intending students must have a Bachelor degree in a cognate discipline with a minimum Credit average or equivalent.

none

Students need access to a computer with a Students need access to a computer with a Microsoft Word and access to the internet.