MA Global Affairs and Eurasian Studies (Joint Degree with Nazarbayev University)

This module will analyse the processes and dynamics of Soviet, post-Soviet and ongoing political, economic, social and cultural transformations in Central Asia (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan) and South Caucasus (Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Georgia). This module is designed to enable students to gain an in-depth understanding of the differential nature of Soviet modernization, imperial-colonial legacies, challenges of post-Soviet transition, complexities of nation and state building, the diverse understandings of Islam and its engagement with politics, the relationship between formal and informal institutions, and the durability of authoritarian regimes in the face of societal protests and resistance.

This module is designed to provide a critical introduction to international relations theory and contemporary world politics for students with no prior background in international relations. Students will acquire a solid grounding in international relations theory and how to apply it to understand and analyse key developments in world politics from 1945 to the present, including the Cold War, decolonization, globalization, development, and the War on Terror, amongst others.

The module provides students with an understanding of the UN system. It examines the context provided by situating the UN within other International Organisations (IOs). Understanding the heritage, operation, and goals of the UN and its constituent parts will add breadth and depth to the student experience. The course is deliberately designed to take advantage of cutting-edge research by academics at SOAS and elsewhere; it is research-driven teaching, drawing extensively on new research in the field.

This course aims to provide a critical introduction to the building blocks of public international law – its nature and sources, international personality, statehood and recognition, jurisdiction and immunities, the law of responsibility, international organisations, and enforcement. Throughout the course, you will be introduced to different theoretical perspectives– including feminist and 'third world approaches to international law' (TWAIL)– and encouraged to think critically about the rule and role of law in the international order.

This course examines the historical and contemporary politics of Central Asia (CA). The course will start with a brief discussion of the history of Central Asian countries after the collapse of the Soviet Union. We will look at the important factors contributing to the regime formation and survival. The course will continue with exploring the key information about institutions, decision-making procedures, and policies in the Central Asian republics. In the final part of the course, our ultimate focus will be on understanding the current political and socio-economic situation in CA, and we will devote a considerable amount of time to exploring how it came about. The course will cover the entire region but will largely focus on Kazakhstan.

This graduate seminar offers a comprehensive introduction to the field of International Political Economy (IPE), with particular emphasis on the shifting dynamics of global economic integration and fragmentation. As the international economic order faces growing contestation from nationalist protectionism to calls for equitable global governance, there is no more urgent time to engage with IPE’s foundational questions. In this course, we adopt both ‘international’ and ‘global’ lenses to better account for the roles played by states, multinational corporations, international organizations, and transnational networks in shaping economic outcomes.

The course is structured around five thematic modules. We begin by examining the intellectual evolution of IPE, from classical political economy to the emergence of IPE as a subfield of International Relations in the postwar period and survey its leading theoretical approaches. The second module turns to the global trade regime, tracing the institutional evolution from GATT to the WTO, the rise of regional trade agreements (RTAs), and emerging trade conflicts, including disputes over standards, anti-dumping measures, and strategic decoupling. As part of our exploration of RTAs, we will also examine the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) as a case study of economic cooperation outside the traditional Western core. This will allow us to consider how regional integration unfolds in post-Soviet contexts and what it reveals about the political underpinnings of market-building beyond the EU mode. The third module investigates international finance, with a focus on foreign direct investments and the fragmentation of the global value chains, and the role of private governance, including Corporate Social Responsibility, in regulating transnational firms. The fourth module introduces the evolution of the international monetary system, from the Gold Standard to Bretton Woods and contemporary floating exchange rate regimes. It critically examines the International Monetary Fund’s evolving role in crisis management, surveillance, and conditional lending. The final module addresses development and inequality in the global political economy. We interrogate globalization's distributional consequences, multilateral development institutions' role, and alternative development paradigms.

Throughout the course, students will be expected to engage deeply with both classic texts and cutting-edge scholarship. The aim is to cultivate a theoretically grounded and empirically informed understanding of major debates in IPE, and to equip students with analytical tools for conducting original research on the politics of the global economy.

Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has been in the spotlight of attention with experts and academics trying to explain the roots of such senseless behaviour. Regardless of an explanation, the Russian war in Ukraine has long-standing consequences for the global and regional order. In this course, using analytical frameworks developed by comparatists and international relations scholars, we will focus on the political foundations and dynamics of Vladimir Putin's regime including the Soviet legacy, economic transition from a planned to market economy, the waves of de- and recentralization, the state-society relations, and foreign policy. This is an advanced writing-intensive course offered at the graduate level. This course is designed to enhance students’ overall knowledge of Russian politics from a comparative perspective.

China is a global power with growing economic and geopolitical influence, but it remains a one-party state confronting profound governance, legitimacy, and institutional challenges. This course offers an in-depth analysis of the political system of the People’s Republic of China, tracing its evolution from imperial traditions to Maoist authoritarianism, Deng-era reforms, and the consolidation of power under Xi Jinping. It highlights the structure of Chinese state institutions, the role of ideology, elite dynamics, central-local relations, and adaptive policymaking strategies.

The course emphasizes top-down control and bottom-up resistance, examining censorship, propaganda, citizen participation, protests, and economic development. We conclude by analyzing China’s foreign policy narratives, regional influence in Eurasia, and debates over China’s global rise. Students will explore Western and non-Western theoretical perspectives and engage with texts, empirical data, and scholarly debates to better understand China’s political development and strategic ambitions.

The course will introduce key concepts and theories useful for the study of violent conflicts by using different empirical cases in the former USSR, including the Tajik civil war, the war in the Donbass and in the Nagorno-Karabagh, violence in Southern Kyrgyzstan, etc. In particular, we will discuss the categorization of conflicts, micro and macro causes of conflicts as well as actors’ interests and strategies. At the end of the class, students will be able to make a critical judgment on the causes of conflicts.

This internship will provide the student with an opportunity to acquire practical knowledge and skills from a planned experience in the student’s chosen academic field. It will allow the student to use in an applied manner his/her research skills that will culminate into the writing of a policy memo under the co-supervision of a faculty from Nazarbayev University and a supervisor from the organization where the internship will take place.