Undergraduate - Area of study International relations

NOTE: This course has had one or more changes made to it since publication on 1 October 2014. For details of changes, please consult the Handbook change registerHandbook change register (http://www.monash.edu.au/pubs/2015handbooks/2015-change-register.html).

International relations as a discipline was founded after World War I and has evolved over the course of the century. However, its core purposes remain the same: to explain seemingly intractable global problems and the political nature of responses to them, and to consider whether there are global responsibilities. The discipline advances critical knowledge about the causes, consequences and challenges of mitigating conflict and promoting cooperation within and across states and societies. It is concerned with the relationships between international structures, processes and political institutions including states, non-government organisations (NGOs), social movements, and international organisations such as the United Nations and its specialised agencies, the World Trade Organisation, NATO, and the European Union. Concepts of power, sovereignty, security and the state are central to the subject matter of international relations. Students are encouraged to develop critical thinking, creativity, team work, research-based learning and analytical writing skills in order to understand contemporary changes and historical continuities in international relations.

International relations at Monash aims to offer students an understanding of many aspects of contemporary global politics and economics, coupled with a solid intellectual grounding in the key debates, historical events, and political institutions in which the discipline is immersed.

Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the major, students will be able to:

• recognise, interpret and analyse mainstream and critical theoretical perspectives and conventional and alternative concepts in the study of international relations across its four subfields (security studies, international political economy, foreign policy, global governance)
• apply these perspectives and concepts to illuminate and examine a new or existing problem in the study of international relations
• comprehend and constructively engage with current affairs, international relations scholarly articles and books, and put them in an appropriate theoretical and empirical context
• communicate orally and in writing using clear and persuasive language appropriate for an international academic community and a general audience
• demonstrate creativity and self-learning through research-based projects
• synthesise skills of creativity, team work, critical thinking, self-learning and analytical writing through differentiated assessment tasks of individual or group oral presentation using multimedia resources and a research-based written essay or reports.