Module description
This module aims to provide you with an understanding of the relationship between war and international order. It draws on ideas from the fields of international relations, sociology, political geography, and anthropology to equip you with the conceptual and analytical insights needed to understand this relationship. The course asks a number of questions. What is international order? Where does it come from? Are wars an unavoidable threat to international order or are they sometimes necessary to preserve international order? Has the use of war in the preservation or destruction of international order varied over history? How can we understand the relations between war and revolution, war and security, war and international law, and war and the institutional architecture of international society? How has the use of war altered today, and what challenges does this present to contemporary international order? What does this mean for the future?
Assessment details
Essay 1 (1500 words) - 50%
Essay 2 (1500 words) - 50%
Educational aims & objectives
The course is organised around a broadly thematic structure. The aim of each lecture is to provide students with a deep knowledge and understanding of core concepts relating to international order and war. Each lecture will be supported by a seminar exploring key issues guided by the questions associated with the relevant readings. By the end of the module students should have:
- An understanding of international orders: how they coalesce, stabilize, destabilize, and transform.
- An understanding on how wars contribute to, challenge, or impede the creation and maintenance of international order.
- An understanding of the historical impact of war in relation to structural transformations of the international order.
- Historical knowledge of international orders throughout history.
Learning outcomes
Through this course, students will gain:
- Knowledge of key theoretical approaches about international order and war.
- Critical awareness of current debates about war and key concepts to analyse war and international order.
- An ability to construct sound arguments and conduct theoretically-informed critical analyses of political debates concerning the relationship between war and international order.
- Transferable skills, including critical evaluation, analytical investigation, written and oral presentation and experience of collaboration with others.
Teaching pattern
The course consists of lectures and seminars. Lectures should be used to deepen and broaden your understanding of the subject, which should help you to engage in seminar discussions. Seminars will provide students with the opportunity to explain, and interpret, seminar questions, before an audience of their peers, and to discuss the issues, which are raised in the student’s presentation to the group.