BA Politics

This module provides a general introduction to the study of Comparative Politics, a subfield of political science. Its distinct characteristics are the use of comparative methods to examine political issues and focus on politics within countries (as opposed to International Relations that looks at politics between countries). This module not only covers major concepts and theories in the study of Comparative Politics, but also offers empirical analyses of the government and politics in a select group of countries. The module covers a wide range of issues, including the formation of the nation-state, democratisation, authoritarianism, political culture, political development, comparative political economy, nationalism, class and ethnic politics, politics of religion, and political institutions. The module will also discuss some debates in Comparative Politics that have been important in the policy-making community in recent decades, such as state-building, role of the state in economy, the concept of social capital, and the effort to promote democracy around the world. Although paying attention to countries in Asia, Middle East, and Africa, examples from Western countries will also be referred to in a comparative format.

This module is the second part of the core module in the BA Politics degree and provides a general introduction to the study of Comparative Politics. Comparative Politics is a subfield of political science. Its distinct characteristics are the use of comparative methods to examine political issues and focus on politics within countries (as opposed to International Relations that looks at politics between countries). This module not only covers major concepts and theories in the study of Comparative Politics, but also offers empirical analyses of the government and politics in a select group of countries. The module covers a wide range of issues, including the formation of the nation-state, democratisation, authoritarianism, political culture, political development, comparative political economy, nationalism, class and ethnic politics, politics of religion, and political institutions. The module will also discuss some debates in Comparative Politics that have been important in the policy-making community in recent decades, such as state-building, role of the state in economy, the concept of social capital, and the effort to promote democracy around the world. Although paying attention to countries in Asia, Middle East, and Africa, examples from Western countries will also be referred to in a comparative format.

This is a core module in both the BA Politics and BA International Relations degrees and provides a general introduction to methods of political analysis. The module provides the foundation for further study of Politics and International Relations, covering such areas as philosophy of social science, scientific methods, theoretical and methodological debates and skills key to critical reading, writing and analysis. Substantive areas of coverage include debates over structure and agency, politics and policy, historical methods, qualitative and quantitative approaches to the study of politics and international relations, measurement, inference and interpretation, the use of evidence in argumentation, narrative and language. The module is designed to complement other foundational modules in the Department of Politics and International Studies.

The module provides the foundation for further study of Politics and International Relations, covering such areas as philosophy of social science, scientific methods, theoretical and methodological debates and skills key to critical reading, writing and analysis. Substantive areas of coverage include debates over structure and agency, politics and policy, historical methods, qualitative and quantitative approaches to the study of politics and international relations, measurement, inference and interpretation, the use of evidence in argumentation, narrative and language.

This is the first of two, linked modules. They provide an introduction to the foundational concepts of political theory and the study of politics. Students will be closely reading and analysing classic and contemporary texts in political thought.
Across the two modules, students will read texts by key thinkers such as Plato, Hobbes, Rousseau, Carole Pateman, Karl Marx, Franz Fanon, Charles Mills, Angela Davis and Gandhi. Through them, we will study the history of political thought, as well as discuss problems of the present moment.

This is the second of two linked modules that provides an introduction to the foundational concepts of political theory and the study of politics. Students will be closely reading and analysing classic and more contemporary texts in political thought.
Across the two modules, students will read texts by key thinkers such as Plato, Hobbes, Rousseau, Carole Pateman, Karl Marx, Franz Fanon, Charles Mills, Angela Davis and Gandhi. Through them, we will study the history of political thought, as well as discuss problems of the present moment.

Introduction to Global History provides students with a broad understanding of the development of the modern world system. Beginning with 1492, it traces how the world became increasingly integrated and connected – economically, politically, militarily and socially. The course begins by asking what we might mean by ‘global history,’ and then considers global phenomena including empire, slavery, colonialism and revolution, through primary and secondary sources. We take a global look at the twentieth century, moving through the world wars, decolonization, the movements of 1968 and the contemporary rise of China in a globalized and capitalist age. In short, the course seeks to “narrate the world’s past in an age of globality” (Geyer and Bright), and to show how and where that past interacts with the present.

Introduction to Global History 2 provides students with a broad understanding of the development of the contemporary world system, tracing moments of global crisis and instability, as well as activist responses to them, in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, and seeing how each reverberates in global politics today. The module covers topics as broad as women's emancipation, fascism, decolonisation, and the energy crisis through primary and secondary sources. This is one of two Introduction to Global History modules, organised broadly chronologically. The first one runs roughly to the 1920s. This second module looks at the last century of global history.

This module is a core module in the BA International Relations and provides a general introduction to the discipline of International Relations and to major themes in world politics. Major theories and approaches to world politics are covered, including Realism, Liberalism, Constructivism, Marxism, Feminism, and Postcolonial Approaches. Topics to be covered will include issues of war and peace, power, global political economy, public health, environmental politics, justice and human rights, empire, and the crisis of liberal international order. The course pays particular attention to the relationship between the discipline of International Relations as a field of knowledge and its application and/or relevance to the experience and interests of actors in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

This module is a core module in the BA International Relations and provides a general introduction to the discipline of International Relations and to major themes in world politics. Major theories and approaches to world politics are covered, including Realism, Liberalism, Constructivism, Marxism, Poststructuralist, Feminism, and Postcolonial Approaches. Topics to be covered will include issues of war and peace, power, global political economy, identities and ideologies, environmental politics, technological change, justice and human rights, empire, and the crisis of liberal international order. The course pays particular attention to the relationship between the discipline of International Relations as a field of knowledge and its application and/or relevance to the experience and interests of actors in Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Introduction to Political Economy moves through four stages. First, we ease our way in through some big scene setting questions. Second, different conceptual tools are explored for you to use and reuse, including liberalism, Marxism, gender analysis, and racial politics. Third, we examine how capitalism was built over the past half century, a story of bankers, bureaucrats, and barons who often made a mess of it. Fourth, all these insights are mobilised for dissecting hot current issues, such as the climate crisis (literally hot), the global financial crisis and its fallout, the politics of trade competition, socio-economic inequalities, consumerism, technology, the politics of work, and macro conversations on the future of capitalism. Bonus features include: a field trip to the City of London, one of the world's financial hubs; and social drinks (let’s extract SOAS resources for ourselves like true capitalists).

The module is organised around debates in four areas: (1) a set of scene setting questions to introduce the material; (2) conceptual frameworks, derived from the scholarly tradition of political economy and world politics, including liberalism, Marxism, gender-based approaches, and racial capitalism; (3) the post-WWII history of governing the capitalist system, including attention to finance, trade, development, and energy and the environment; and (4) contemporary issues transfixing the world economy, including the global ecological crisis, the global financial crisis and its fallout, the politics of trade regulation, socio-economic inequalities, new concerns around technology, the political economy of work, and macro debates on capitalism and its possible futures. Students are asked to think critically about how the politics of the economy is conceived, governed, and experienced, in particular through evaluating dynamics of power.

This module is designed to provide a general introduction to problems, approaches and debates in social science methods. The aim is to make undergraduate students familiar with different methodological languages and approaches and foster a critical understanding of them.

Designed as an advanced entrée into political economy, this module is organised into two sections. In the opening three weeks, we introduce the subject of political economy and explore major conceptual frameworks, including liberalism, Marxism, gender analysis, and racial politics. In the second section, these insights are mobilised for dissecting hot current issues, including: the climate crisis; the global financial crisis and its fallout; the politics of trade competition; socio-economic inequalities; the political economy of land and property; the AI revolution; and the new era of geoeconomic competition. Across all these topics, you are asked to think critically about how the politics of the international economy is conceived, governed, and experienced, in particular through evaluating dynamics of power. Without fear or hindrance (leave them at the door as they are not needed), you are encouraged to see and paint the kaleidoscopic colours of political economy.

This module provides UG students with an advanced introduction to key issues in postcolonial theory. The module covers fundamental concepts in postcolonial theory, such as orientalism, the subaltern, self-determination, agency, and resistance. It also looks at the intersection of postcolonial theory with Marxism, feminism, and queer theory. More recent approaches to settler colonialism and the decolonization of knowledge are also addressed in this module. On successful completion of this module a student will be able to engage with key debates in postcolonial theory and assess the usefulness of postcolonial theory for understanding contemporary global politics.

International Relations as a discipline has historically given little importance to religion as an explanatory category in modern international politics. In the wake of the 9/11 attacks and with the advent of the 'war on terror' there were increasing efforts to address this gap - however this reintroduction of religion by way of counterterrorism leads only to a very limited engagement with religion (one disproportionately focused on Islamic terrorism). Where other types of religious political movements and actors are analysed, religion is often either reduced to simply an identity category or seen as a displacement for other, more Worldly, concerns - it is rarely taken seriously on its own terms. This course seeks to provide a more holistic approach to the role of religion in contemporary world politics. The course will engage with a number of religious traditions from across the World in order to interrogate questions of secularism, violence, religious nationalism, civil society, soft power initiatives, and conflict resolution. What role does religion play in addressing the major crises of the present day? The course will also address methodological questions raised by the engagement with diverse religious traditions, as well as the uses of religion as an analytical category more broadly. We will ask whether the significance of religion can be easily fit into existing IR models or whether taking religion seriously requires a more radical departure.

This module introduces students to the phenomenon of war and demonstrates its ubiquity across time and space in human affairs, and develops an account of war as a constitutive force in the production of world politics past, present and future.

Partition and independence in 1947 are critical events underlying the modern history of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Kashmir.  This module examines the histories of nationalist and imperial politics that are held to account for the partition of British India. Throughout the sessions there will be reflections on the continuing importance of the divisions caused by partition occupying the states in the present day. Students will become familiar with the historiography of colonialism and nationalism, and gain an understanding of cultural, political issues involved in the politics of governing different groups, the politics of identity, its various sources and dimensions as well as international geopolitics. The module assumes a basic knowledge of the history of South Asia, which can be acquired with additional reading.

This module examines the history of apartheid in twentieth-century South Africa, widely regarded as the historical experience that represents one of the world's most extreme forms of racial oppression. By using a combination of primary and secondary sources, the module traces the social, economic and intellectual origins of apartheid. The module further examines the nature of state policy and is especially concerned to investigate the lived experiences of black South Africans under apartheid rule. We conclude with an examination of the forces that led to the end of apartheid, the nature of post-apartheid society, and the legacy of apartheid in the world. 

Starting with the end of the eighteenth century, the Ottoman Empire, both in its Balkan and Middle Eastern territories, has been a hotbed for revolutionary activity. The Greek Revolution of the 1820s gave birth to the first ethno-religious nation state that the world saw, while the contemporaneous Wahhabi rebellion announced to the world the emergence of a new, puritanical brand of Islam. Manifold and roving resistance movements in the second half of the nineteenth century merged into a formidable revolutionary force both in Iran's and the Ottoman Empire's respective Constitutional Revolutions, whereas the Mahdist uprising in the 1880s Sudan gave way to subsequent anticolonial resistance movements and action in the region. This module takes these explosive moments as its point of entry to understand the complexities of revolutionary change in the region. Using primary sources, such as contemporary press coverage, consular correspondence, and other archival material, as well as visual and material sources, this module delves into the historical intricacies of a revolution (successful or otherwise) as way to look into and understand the world we live in today.

The purpose of this course is to examine the effects of political factors on economic development in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. It aims to familiarise students with various theories of economic development, specifically the role of the state and government intervention, and then to guide students in tracing these theories against the empirical evidence from a range of examples from states in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. It will thereby enable students to acquire a nuanced and empirically grounded perspective on the reasons for wide variations in economic development.

The module introduces students to key concepts, definitions, frameworks, and approaches prevalent in the study of nationalism. It will guide students to develop an understanding of the historical origins of nationalism, the common features that underpin a variety of nationalisms, and the different contexts that continue to shape specific understandings of nationalisms. The first three weeks introduce concepts, theories, and approaches to the study of nationalism. The next three weeks focus on the pivotal role played by empires, and colonial rulers in the formation of national identities, their adaptations in the post-colonial contexts, and the mobilizations for self-determination and secessions. The remaining 4 weeks focus on everyday symbols and practices of nationalism, the rise of populist and right-wing nationalisms, majoritarian nationalisms, and assess the contemporary debates and identify trajectories for future developments.

This module will introduce students to contemporary political theory through a focus on key concepts. These include liberty, rights, justice, democracy, representation, power, hegemony and secularism.

This module introduces electoral and party politics in modern democracies. It will involve the discussion of a wide range of theoretical approaches to the study of parties and elections and assess their applicability to non-western cases.

This module focuses on the domestic politics of sub-Saharan Africa since Independence and particularly the question of the state. Because of the sheer number and diversity of African states the module is structured thematically but the readings allow students to follow up regions and countries of particular interest.

This module is designed to provide students with a broad introduction to the conceptual, historical, and sociological factors that contribute to democracy and authoritarianism in India. Throughout, the emphasis is placed on analyses of political processes rather than a description of events. At the end of the module, students should have a good understanding of academic work on Indian politics and an ability to write well-structured and well-researched papers on selected subjects in the field.

This module will impart a solid grounding in the dynamic evolution of the Chinese state and Chinese nationalism, China's self-identified problems of weakness and underdevelopment, the difficult choices made by political elites over the course of three quite different regimes of the 20th and 21st century. Throughout, this module will stress how this legacy offers both the opportunity and constraint for the present politics of China.

Building on the grounding in the dynamic evolution of the Chinese state and Chinese nationalism, established in Government and Politics of China I, this module will consider the contemporary reform era. Starting with an intensive discussion of the structure of the party-state, the contrast between urban and rural China, and then considering important questions of public policy: the environment, public health, the ongoing problem of corruption, and current prospects for the intensification or easing of authoritarianism.

This module provides an overview of the dynamics that shape state-society relations in the modern Middle East and North Africa since the late Ottoman period. It is a ten-week introduction that is followed by a second module that deepens this exploration using further in-depth country cases. Over the course of both modules, we will compare ruling regimes, economic programmes, ideological struggles, group identity categories, and modes of collective action and expression in relation to key developments across the region in the modern period. The module is organised thematically whilst maintaining a chronological integrity that follows the sequence of historical developments in the region.

This module follows on from Government and Politics of the Middle East I in providing an introduction to the dynamics that shape state-society relations in the modern Middle East and North Africa since the late Ottoman period. In this second ten-week module, students will examine processes relating to the second half of the twentieth century and lasting until the present day, and will deepen their knowledge with more in-depth country cases. Over the course of both modules, we will compare ruling regimes, economic programmes, ideological struggles, group identity categories, and modes of collective action and expression in relation to key developments across the region in the modern period. Both modules are organised thematically whilst maintaining a chronological integrity that follows the sequence of historical developments in the region.

This interdisciplinary course provides an in-depth introduction to the international politics of western Asia and, to a lesser extent, North Africa. The course thus investigates both the factors involved in the making of international politics in the area, and the way we can comprehend them. To that end, it introduces students to the discourse of “Orientalism”, theories of international relations such as (neo)realism and social constructivism and other approaches that are relevant to an in-depth enquiry into the complex interactions within the region. Beyond this conceptual focus, themes such as Islam, gender, democracy, civil society, globalisation, fundamentalism, terrorism, revolution etc. are also covered in close juxtaposition to the post-colonial development of the regional state system.

This interdisciplinary course provides an in-depth introduction to the international relations of the Middle East with a particular emphasis on the foreign policies of major states. It links the study of international relations as a subject matter with the inter-state conflict (e.g. the Persian Gulf Wars, the conflict in Israel/Palestine etc.), foreign policy of major regional states (Iran, Turkey, Iraq etc.) and “global” politics. The course thus investigates both the factors involved in the making of international politics in the area, and the way we can comprehend them.

This module introduces students to politics in Southeast Asia in order to familiarize them with the broad contours of political change in the region, academic debates explaining these changes and ways of thinking about current and future political trends. The course covers mainland South East Asia, including Burma/Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

This module introduces students to politics in Southeast Asia in order to familiarize them with the broad contours of political change in the region, academic debates explaining these changes and ways of thinking about current and future political trends. The course covers maritime and island South East Asia, including Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, Timor Leste, and the Philippines.

This course introduces third year students in Politics degrees to diverse debates in gender and politics. Developed through a thematic, transnational approach, the module invites students to engage with majority world thinking on thematic questions and situate these intellectual debates within contemporary gender concerns

The course shall examine debates in the discipline of politics about the role of “culture” in politics – as practices of meaning-making in politics; as a series of everyday practices and rituals with implicit (or overt) political content; and as cultural products (art, films, etc.) both whose making and content reflects a specific politics. To do so, the course will require two activities outside class: A visit to a diasporic enclave in London – as the basis of a discussion of questions of identity-making, immigration, and the political economy of “cultural” practices (restaurants, specific shops catering to specific communities, etc.). And a selection of a film, or art piece, or theatrical production – to discuss what politics goes into the production of such artwork; the ways in which the overt and implicit politics that such artwork espouses can be critically understood and explained. The course will also examine the role of meaning-making and semiotics in social movements and political mobilisation, in the production of hegemony, and critically assess outdated and problematic “national culture” paradigms.

The climate crisis is clearly one of the primary existential threats facing the human species. But how we understand the roots of the climate crisis, its current and future impacts on world politics, and its possible solutions, is inherently contested terrain. Nothing less than the future of life on earth, and competing conceptions of the ‘good life’ and how we should organize our societies, is at stake. This course will investigate the global politics of the climate crisis, starting with scientific debates regarding the possible severity of climate change (how bad could it get?), and then moving through questions about climate governance, the political economy of climate change, the energy and food system transitions, migration, geoengineering, possible global futures, and activism. We can hardly hope to exhaust such a complex topic in the span of 10 weeks. Instead, we will cover some key topics and hear from a wide range of perspectives. The goal will be to give students a basic grounding in the science, politics, and economics of climate change; to enable them to critically engage with a multiple perspectives on the key causes and possible solutions to the climate crisis; and to help them think through its implications for their own lives and futures.

This module introduces final year undergraduate students to a range of key issues in contemporary world politics, centered on conflict, rights, and justice – and to what extent developments in these issues reflect, or even drive, changes in the ‘liberal’ international order. The module considers the role of war and violence in contemporary international politics, and asks what, if anything, we should make of claims of the historical decline of inter-state war and, more recently, civil wars. We also look at international efforts to manage both the occurrence and conduct of armed conflict through international law and norms, and ask why civilians nonetheless are increasingly vulnerable. We’ll also look at the focus on terrorism that long has dominated international management of global ‘peace and security’, and, more recently, to the ‘rise’ of nationalism in world politics; through both, we consider the interconnected implications for armed resistance to oppression, and demands for collective rights. In the rest of the term, we’ll look at the implications of the expansion of ‘hybrid war’ – surveillance, drone (and increasingly automated) warfare and cyber warfare; the contested politics of human rights, civil liberties, and asylum (‘protection’); the increased international focus on women, children, and sexual violence in conflict; and controversies over international justice for war crimes and mass atrocities.

In this module we will examine forms of global governance across a range of issue areas – including security, human rights, migration, and humanitarianism. Students will be asked to critically examine how power and hierarchy is being made and remade through the idea of global governance.

This module traces the history and politics of Palestine and the Zionist movement, within a regional and international context, from the late nineteenth century to the present. It examines Palestinian and Israeli understandings of the past and present through primary sources, scholarship, and cultural production. The module seeks to understand how and at what costs Israeli and Palestinian political institutions and nationalisms have been constructed and analyzes British and US involvement in the conflict. Key themes to be introduced and explored include imperialism, settler colonialism, nationalism, Orientalism, violence, anticolonialism, and revolution, all as understood by a variety of actors involved in the region.

This module provides a scholarly introduction to the politics of global migration, drawing on examples and case studies from around the world.

This module critically explores the international politics of 'security'. Its starting point is the recognition that the meaning of security - including whose security we are (or should be) talking about and what threatens this security - cannot be taken for granted. This has not only generated heated debates among scholars, but also shifted attention towards how political actors talk about 'security' and justify actions in its name. Positioned within this critical strand, this module addresses the contested nature of 'security' and provides students with the conceptual tools to see and analyse various empirical sites and practices of 'securitization'.

This is a unique undergraduate module focusing on Taiwan’s domestic politics. After an overview of Taiwan’s experience of authoritarian rule and democratic transition, the module has three main themes: Taiwan’s electoral and party politics, contested gender politics, and social movements.

The main purpose of this module is to examine the interaction between political factors on economic and social development with reference to the experience of the most dynamic upper middle-income economies (some of which recently became high income economies) of the South, namely South Korea, Brazil, China and Chile. They are termed “miracle” economies for their long period of sustained growth that brought them to upper middle-income status and beyond.
From this module, students will gain an insight into how the differing combinations of political and economic factors produce different dynamic “pathways” of development and how those pathways have altered in response to globalization. The literature will also introduce students to the principal analytical approaches to the study of political economy such as rational choice theory, new institutional economics, historical institutionalism and Marxism. Apart from providing students with a critical introduction to the theories and case studies of political economy, this module will also improve students' general skills of research and presentation of arguments in both verbal and written forms.

In this module, students will study various conceptions of republicanism, empire and revolution in both western and anticolonial political thought. This module examines the republican language of political activism, virtue, liberty, equality, revolution and constitutional foundings. We will consider how the republican mixed constitution was deployed to promote social hierarchy and empire in some contexts, and radical equality and anti-imperialism in other contexts. Students will read about Roman, American, French, Haitian and Indian republicanism through the ideas of Cicero, Machiavelli, Montesquieu, Thomas Paine, CLR James, Anna J. Cooper, Nehru, Arendt, Ambedkar, and others.

This is a unique undergraduate module focusing on Taiwan’s relations with China and its international politics. Against the background of the island’s international relations during the period of the Cold War, lectures will explore Taiwan’s search for international space since the 1970s, as well as the evolution of cross-Strait relations under the administrations of Chen Shui-bian (2000-08), Ma Ying-jeou (2008 to 2016), and the newly-elected DPP president Tsai Ing-wen.

The Final Year Project allows students to develop an independent research and writing project on an approved topic and supervised by a member of academic staff in the Department.

This final year module provides a philosophical and empirical introduction to contemporary debates regarding the compatibility of Islam and democracy. It also encourages a critical re-examination of these debates through: a discussion of Muslim scholarship (and practice) pertaining to the specification and interpretation of Islamic law, the role of religious and political opposition, and the status of the individual in political and social life, as well as a careful recapitulation of these debates in the context of well-known texts prepared by non-Muslim democratic theorists, all of whom have addressed the meaning of “law,” the role of “opposition,” and the political status of the “individual” (as well as the relationship between religion and politics in general) in some detail.

Decolonisation was a set of historical processes that radically transformed international politics in practice and thought. The emergence of a world of sovereign states - a core premise for International Relations - is founded on the assumed completion of such processes. Yet increasingly, research in the field points to a number of ongoing theoretical, methodological and practical issues that result from the colonial and post-colonial constitution of global order. This module asks what it means to 'decolonise International Relations' by engaging with the challenges posed by anti-colonial, post-colonial and de-colonial thinkers on such issues. We will do so by critically examining the complexity and diversity of anti-colonial movements and thinkers, mainly in Anglophone contexts. We will study colonialism and anti-colonialism as international and transnational in thought and practice by exploring how both the colonised and the coloniser were transformed by decolonisation. We will also consider the contemporary relevance of decolonisation by looking at the condition of postcolonialism. In addition we will examine the intersections between 'race', gender and class.

To what extent is the leader of a country free to make their own decisions, unconstrained by the material power at their disposal, the governmental bureaucracies they are trying to work through, the experts that surround them or their own socially constructed perceptions? How does a small state set its foreign policy agenda? What does it mean if a state proclaims a feminist foreign policy? What is the role of secrecy in foreign policy? These are a selection of questions we will cover in this module. There are contending approaches within Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA). FPA is a sub-field of International Relations, but also an object of analysis which is constituted and transformed by a variety of actors, practices and organisational structures. This raises the important question of how to study the multiple dimensions of foreign policy and who has the power to shape it. Each week's topic will attend to an important dimension of foreign policy, covering central actors, bureaucratic practices, issues and foreign policy tools. The module will also decentre the traditional focus on the US, which has dominated much of FPA scholarship.

This module examines the relationship between the production of scientific knowledge and technology and political projects in the Global South. It investigates how the struggle over power transforms and is itself transformed by science as modern and contemporary regimes worked to “master” non-human and human nature (and bodies) in the Global South.