Studying at York
Introduction to International Politics: Global Hierarchies and Global Orders - POL00015C
- Department: Politics and International Relations
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: C
- Academic year of delivery: 2024-25
- See module specification for other years: 2023-24
Module summary
Through this module, students gain a general understanding about the nature and evolution of international hierarchies and global political order(s). The module offers a critical discussion about the trajectory and relevance of key institutions, ideas, and moments that have shaped global order(s) and how we think about it over the last four centuries, highlighting their context of emergence, ideational basis, and explicit and implicit patterns of exclusions, while discussing their relevance to understand a variety of issues, debates, and tensions in contemporary world affairs.
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Semester 2 2024-25 |
Module aims
This module explores the trajectory, relevance, and ideological underpinnings of major institutions and events that have shaped global order(s) over the last four centuries. By discussing these institutions and events in their historical and geographical context, the module pursues four general aims.
First, it traces the complex processes shaping the emergence, evolution, and change of specific ideas, norms, and forms of international organisation that regulated global order(s) and transnational affairs at different points in time, unpacking their functioning, limitations, contradictions, asymmetries, and contemporary relevance.
Second, it relativises the Western-centric character of certain ideas, norms, and institutions of global order, considering the process by which these ideas and institutions became global and displaced alternative forms of ordering, and considers the multiple implications this process has had, and continues to have, in terms of how global order is conceived, regulated, and/or imposed.
Third, it enables students to reflect on the nature of power and hierarchy in world politics and to gain critical insight on a number of debates, challenges, and unresolved dilemmas at play in contemporary global politics.
Fourth, it provides a solid conceptual foundation for the study of different paradigms and theories of international relations and diverse area-issues during the following years, while enabling students to engage analytically with both historical events and emerging developments in world politics.
Module learning outcomes
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Identify core issues, explanations and response in contemporary world politics (PLO1)
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Identify the central debates and contestations about how we define, think about and respond to core issues in world politics using relevant theories of international and world politics (PLO2, PLO7)
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Use critical reasoning to analyse the role of power, hierarchy, and inequality in shaping world politics and world order (PLO2)
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Demonstrate an awareness of the ways in which how we frame issues and the theories we use to explain them shape the questions we ask, and data we gather and the types of conclusions we might reach (PLO3, PLO7)
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Develop and demonstrate your ability to reflect on the messiness and complexity of world politics, contextualise where you are situated in world politics, and the basis upon which we might develop ideas of the global public good (PLO6, PLO7)
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Clearly and concisely communicate your ideas through organised argument using authoritative sources and key facts and concepts introduced in the module (PLO5).
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Online Exam -less than 24hrs (Centrally scheduled) | 100 |
Special assessment rules
None
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Online Exam -less than 24hrs (Centrally scheduled) | 100 |
Module feedback
Students will receive written timely feedback on their formative assessment. They will also have the opportunity to discuss their feedback during the module tutor’s feedback and guidance hours.
Students will receive written feedback on their summative assessment no later than 25 working days; and the module tutor will hold a specific session to discuss feedback, which students can also opt to attend. They will also have the opportunity to discuss their feedback during the module tutor’s regular feedback and guidance hours.
Indicative reading
Spruyt, Hendrik. The sovereign state and its competitors: An analysis of systems change. Vol. 176. Princeton University Press, 1996.
Hobsbawm, Eric. Age of extremes: the short twentieth century, 1914-1991. London: Abacus, 1995.
Long, David, and Brian C. Schmidt, eds. Imperialism and internationalism in the discipline of international relations. SUNY Press, 2005.
Watson, A. (2009). The Evolution of International Society: A Comparative Historical Analysis. Routledge.
Buzan, Barry, and George Lawson. The global transformation: history, modernity and the making of international relations. Vol. 135. Cambridge University Press, 2015.
Acharya, Amitav, and Barry Buzan. The making of global international relations. Cambridge University Press, 2019.
Getachew, Adom. Worldmaking after Empire. Princeton University Press, 2019.