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PO-203
Anarchy and Order: Theories in International Relations
This is a core International Relations (IR) module. Its aim is to show how global politics is all around us and illustrate which ideas have shaped the current discipline of International Relations. The module explores key theories and approaches in the discipline of International Relations. Through check-up lectures, the module applies the theories analysed to key issues in international politics including: the rise of China, humanitarian intervention and the role of power. The module encourages students to evaluate and multiple forms of power, and the nature of the discipline itself. It is also a story about a powerful academic discipline and its many issues.
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POL1002
International Relations in a Changing World
Ever wondered how and why major global decisions are made, why organisations like the UN matter, or what drives global change, conflict, and cooperation? This module offers an engaging introduction to the study of international relations, helping you understand how global politics shapes the world around you.
You will explore how states, international institutions, and individuals interact on the world stage, and how these relationships influence everything from war and peace to climate change, migration, and human rights. You¿ll be introduced to key concepts such as sovereignty, power, and global governance, and examine major global challenges, including gender and global inequality, colonial legacies, and climate change.
You will also gain a foundational understanding of the main IR theories¿the frameworks scholars use to interpret global events¿and practice applying them to real-world examples. Whether you¿re curious about how wars begin, why climate change is so difficult to address, or how global organisations operate, this module will help you make sense of it all.
Alongside the subject content, you¿ll develop essential academic skills in critical reading, writing, and argumentation. These will support your studies in politics, international relations, and beyond, preparing you for more advanced modules in future years.
Accessible, engaging, and thought-provoking, International Relations in a Changing World encourages you to view global politics in new ways and to ask the questions that matter for our shared future.
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POL2010
The Global South in International Relations: Diplomacy, Development, and Resistance
How do states and communities in the Global South shape international politics, and how are they shaped by it? This module invites you to explore this question by critically examining how actors across Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East negotiate, challenge, and reimagine the global order. You will move beyond Western-centric narratives to understand the evolving and contested role of the Global South in diplomacy, development, and resistance.
You¿ll engage with key debates around critical, postcolonial, and decolonial theories, global inequality, and South¿South cooperation. Through historical and contemporary case studies, including anti-colonial struggles and revolutions, the Non-Aligned Movement, BRICS, South-South development banks, and other regional organisations, you¿ll analyse how ideas, power, and practices travel across borders and how Global South actors negotiate agency and dependency in shaping international norms, institutions, and global politics.
This module will also challenge you to rethink the foundations of International Relations itself. You will question concepts like sovereignty, power, and global governance from alternative perspectives, and reflect on whose voices and experiences are included ¿ or excluded ¿ in global debates.
By applying theory to historical and contemporary examples, you will sharpen your analytical skills, engage with diverse perspectives, and learn to critically understand international politics from the viewpoint of the Global South. Whether your interests lie in activism, policymaking, or academic research, this module is designed to be thought-provoking and empowering, equipping you to critically assess, debate, and interpret global politics through alternative lenses
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POLM02
Methodology in the Social Sciences
I'm no prophet. My job is making windows where there were once walls.
Michel Foucault
This module gives you the tools to think like a social researcher. The syllabus starts by building an understanding of the various underlying ontological and epistemological ideas that animate the world of social research. Getting to grips with these ideas allows you to speak and think in terms that professional social researchers use every day. The tools, frameworks, practices and experiences provided in Methodology in the Social Sciences are designed to induct you into the practice of making sense of society through research as an MA or MSc student.
Our principal focus across the module is applied social research methodology. You¿ll explore how good research questions are built and refined in practice¿through sessions led by experienced researchers from academic staff research groups in Swansea University¿s School of Social Sciences. The module will help you to see research from the inside¿understanding the thinking behind it, and the debates that shape it. This will elevate your critical engagement with the work of other scholars and set you on the path to finding your voice as a social researcher.
By the end of the module, you will have developed an original research question based on your research interests and developed your approach to this question in the form of a structured research proposal. You will have presented your ideas to teaching staff and peers, and received feedback that will help you refine your research plans. The research proposal assignment is designed to support your dissertation work. Many students choose to use their research proposal as the jumping off point for their MA Dissertation project, and the topics chosen for the exercise are used to help assign Dissertation Supervisors with relevant research interests[HE
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POLM03
Understanding Global Politics: Theories and Approaches in International Relations
Approaches to International Relations gives you the tools to understand and challenge how global politics is studied and practiced. You will explore the big theories of the field and discover how each explains power, security, conflict, cooperation, and inequality in different ways. You won¿t just study these ideas in the abstract. You¿ll apply them to urgent global issues, such as why wars break out, how climate change drives new forms of diplomacy, what shapes global poverty, how gender matters in world politics, and how leaders make decisions in crises, from the Cuban Missile Crisis to nuclear proliferation. Along the way, you¿ll tackle some of the discipline¿s biggest debates: the role of states versus non-state actors, the influence of norms and ideas, and how to study a world shaped by both globalisation and deep inequality.
Through lectures and seminars, you¿ll debate, test your arguments, and develop your own critical perspective. By the end, you¿ll be able to use theory to analyse contemporary global challenges and to reflect on who gets what, when, and how in international politics¿and what this means for whose voices are amplified or marginalised. The skills you build will prepare you for careers in policy, diplomacy, NGOs, or further postgraduate research[D.
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POLM17
Dissertation
Throughout your MA course, you¿ve been developing towards this point ¿ the dissertation. You are emerging scholars with fresh insights and depths of knowledge, and this is the time to put these to work and produce an original contribution to the field that you can be proud of.
Over the late spring and Summer, with the extensive support of a supervisor expert in your area (and building on your existing methodology modules), you¿ll scope out, design, and conduct an independent project of study on a topic of your choosing, pursuing the questions that motivate your interest in the subject. You might be poring over declassified intelligence agency archives looking for evidence of complicity in mass violence, charting the everyday politics of energy and logistics that (quite literally) keeps the lights on, or answering the big questions about where we¿re going in an increasingly precarious twenty-first century ¿ this is a chance for you to truly spread your wings and research what interests you.
Between this extended project, and the accompanying presentation of your findings, this represents the culmination of your studies, building on all the modules you¿ve studied and skills you¿ve gathered. This is a great opportunity to develop detailed knowledge of a particular field, hone competencies that will make you a skilled researcher and policy advocate in the real world, give you skills managing a major research project.
