Subject Area: International Relations
This course can also be studied in the following specialisation: Politics

This course builds on general themes in politics and International Relations (IR) to provide a comprehensive introduction to and examination of the historical development, modes of organisation and contemporary form of the international system. This requires both theoretical and practical analysis of formal institutions and their legal/institutional mandates (such as the United Nations, the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the World Trade Organisation, and so on), as well as analysis of the ways in which the contemporary international system embodies certain modes of organisation. These are the (formal and informal) processes and practices whereby international actors (governmental, private, non-governmental and/or civil society-based) follow, adapt and/or contest the rules, procedures and frameworks of cooperation in the international system. In particular, this course seeks to survey and understand the governance of human security by paying close attention to the ways in which particular ‘regimes’ are organised internationally, including the global economy and globalisation, international security and intervention (humanitarian and otherwise), aid and development, regionalism and the environment.