Master of Arts in International Relations

This course examines the major approaches, theories, and debates in contemporary International Relations theory. It examines the central assumptions of key theoretical approaches, addresses the main paradigmatic debates in the field. It also assesses the utility of various theoretical approaches in explaining key issues and cases in the contemporary international system. the course should provide students with a basic toolkit with which to evaluate existing theories and think about the nature and possibility of causal explanation in International Relations.

This course provides a rigorous analysis of foreign policy as a function of the state in the international arena, in terms of the theories associated with its formulation and practice, as well as the real-world case examples of foreign policy issues, ranging from historical to contemporary. It focuses on how states formulate and implement their foreign policies as well as what are the drivers and determinants of the foreign policy.

This course provides comprehensive exploration over the subject of Security Studies as a sub-field of International Relations. The course will cover both classical approaches to Security Studies as well as more contemporary debates in the field. A range of topics will be covered throughout this course, covering hard and soft security topics, as well as conventional and unconventional challenges, across a range of contextual settings.

This course offers students an in-depth analysis of the concepts and contending theoretical and analytical approaches in Global Political Economy. It provides an overview of contemporary issues in international economic relations such as cooperation and conflict in the global political economy, regional trade agreements, the rise of global production, the nature of financial crisis, political economy of development, and the political economy of the environment.

The course provides students with the in-depth skills required to be able to design and carry out social science research projects, especially in International Relations. Students will be equipped with a broad range of qualitative and quantitative research skills that are relevant across the social sciences. This course should be considered the beginning of the research dissertation component of the MA Degree. By the end of the course, students should have completed a comprehensive research proposal and ethics application.

The course addresses the foreign policies of some great and regional powers in the Middle East. It is divided into two parts. In the first part, students are introduced to the theoretical approaches to the foreign policies of great powers in the Middle East. This is done by studying different texts of International Relations its different theories and approaches that characterize the study of international relations, along with their application to the Middle East. It will study the roles of the USA, China and Russia in the Middle East in general. The second part of the course focuses on actual conflicts in the Middle East such as Iraqi War in 2003 and major non-state actors in the Middle East, Yemeni War, Libyan and Syrian conflicts, the rise and fall of Oslo Peace Process, Iran nuclear crisis etc. The focus will be on the role of the great and regional powers in these conflicts.

This course examines the history, evolution, and theories behind US Foreign Policy. In this class, we will draw on the foundational ideas in American political thought and how they shape America's perceptions of itself and the world. Students will then examine how these thoughts shaped American foreign policy post WW2 in Europe, throughout the Cold War in Latin America, through to the presidency of Donald Trump and beyond with a focus on the Middle East. Finally, the course will tackle the domestic and geopolitical implications that define the United States behaviour with regards to threats to the unipolar world order. The course should provide students with a basic toolkit with which to understand foreign policy objectives of the US and how they go about accomplishing them.

The course surveys the theoretical and empirical literature on the influence of domestic politics on foreign policy and international relations in general, with a primary (though not exclusive) emphasis on foreign policy of the United Arab Emirates. Scholars have long recognized that domestic politics influences states' decision-making in international trade and finance. Yet, the past decade has witnessed an explosion of interest in explicating the linkage between domestic politics and international relations more broadly, including the decidedly "high politics" arena of war and peace. We will review a variety of theoretical perspectives concerning both international economics and international security, ranging from the role of individuals and individual psychology, to the influence of interest groups, political institutions, the mass media and public opinion. The goal is to assess the strengths and weaknesses of domestic political explanations for policy outcomes in Emirati foreign policy in particular and international affairs more broadly.

The primary objective of this course is to explore the history, types, and impact, of foreign aid. The course begins with an overview of the history and types of foreign aid, after which we attempt to disentangle developmental and political motivations, and consider debates over the relative success of aid over the course of the past century. The core question asked is whether aid has actually improved the lives of people living in recipient countries, or whether this aid has simply provided rents to (usually authoritarian) leaders at the expense of the poor.

This course provides a thorough examination of global economic institutions and governance, by explaining the history and theory of global economy, trade, fiscal structure and polices, institutions and governance developed to facilitate, organize and regulate areas of global economic activities among nations and in the globe. It will examine underpinning theories of global economic institutions, especially those after the Mid-20th century and practice of global economic governance through international treaties, regime, or organizations in trade, currency, development, investment and regulations.

This course introduces students to the political economy of sustainable development. It analyzes the host of factors (Particularly poverty, economic inequality, the pursuit of economic growth through carbon industrialization etc.) that impinge on the natural environment and thus contribute to the degradation/depletion of environmental resources. The course also critically addresses policy interventions to bring about sustainable development. It also critically examines the various debates as to how to deal with environmental protection and environmental sustainability issues. Topics covered include, inter alia, the meaning of sustainable development, poverty and environmental health, economic/income inequality and environmental sustainability, economic globalization and sustainable development, gender and sustainable development.

This course focuses on structural causes of migration rooted in national and international economic policies and practices. Students will first be introduced to major theories of international migration that influence economic policy and then apply those theories to a deeper examination of how migration affects national and global economy. The course seeks to answer two major questions: (1) what are the effects of migration on both the states that receive immigrants and the states that send emigrants and (2) how do policymakers respond to these effects? Topics included are various aspects of migration such as war, economic opportunities, climate change, forced-migration, refugees, asylum seeking, human trafficking and the effect of migration on war and conflict.