Dept of War Studies | KCL | 2015-16
BA3 Optional Modules - Academic Year 2015-16
6SSW0002
Tutor:
Diplomacy
Prof. Ronald Barston
Diplomacy since the end of the cold war has become increasingly complex and subject to rapid
change. Underlying these changes are shifts in the distribution of political power to New
Economic Powers and corresponding decline of traditional powers. In addition, distinctive
features of the diplomatic setting are the variety of new regional organisations and diplomatic
groupings (open and covert); and the spread of transnational violence. Diplomacy has altered
significantly in style; methods; technical content and purposes.
This module, in analysing the nature of contemporary diplomacy, will focus on questions of
contested norms and values; the breakdown of under-standings about the nature of
international order; and, developments in diplomatic practice. Evolving Diplomatic strategy
and methods are examined in four contexts (political – strategic crisis; multilateral
conferences (trade, finance, environment; maritime); transnational violence and the impact
of new actors.
6SSW0003
Tutor:
A History of Nations Nationalism and Theories of the State
Pablo de Orellana
Recent conflicts articulated as ethnic, cultural or national struggles suggest the pressing
need to supply students with the means to analyse the rise and role of nationalism. The
course aims to firstly introduce students to the philosophical methods necessary to analyse
this history of ideas and, secondly, analyse historical and contemporary case studies of
nationalism. This course seeks to study ways of answering two key questions of relevance to
analysis of international relations: Why is the nation considered the “natural” basis of the
state from Wilson’s Fourteen Points to current UN norms on self-determination? What is
the origin of the expressions of nationalism we recognise today?
Analysis of historical expressions of nationalism proceeds in parallel with discussion of the
political philosophy, narratives, fiction and even poetry that placed the nation as the locus of
the state from the Romantic era to the present.
6SSW0010
Tutor:
Power, Politics and Ethics in International Relations
Prof. Mervyn Frost
We will assess the ways in which the United States coped with the challenges of waging a
world war over two oceans. We will consider the relationship between land, air and sea
power; we will study the interaction between personalities and structures in the evolutions
of methods of waging war, especially in the creation of effective coalition relationships,
especially with Great Britain. Finally, we will study the relationship between the executive
and legislative branches of government. Our main focus will be on conduct at the battlefront and due attention will be devoted to naval history as well as the evolution of
amphibious operations.
Dept of War Studies | KCL | 2015-16
6SSW0012
Tutor:
Leadership in a Time of War & Revolution (1960-69)
Prof. Malcolm Murfett
This module examines the 1960s - a decade arguably like no other in its generational break
with the past. It was an era that began and ended by pitching the youth and its AntiEstablishment culture against the forces of reaction; it was a time of political brinkmanship
and military leadership that hovered between the intuitively brilliant and the naively
abysmal; it saw egotism run rampant and meritocracy ignored; it ushered in wholesale
changes and catastrophic humanitarian tragedy; it was a time of hope and despair,
recreational pharmaceuticals and wishful thinking, great music and utter disillusionment.
6SSW0013
Tutor:
The UN and Global Governance
Filippo Costa-Buranelli
We will look at how to understand the concept of global governance in theory and practice;
as well as providing students with a firm knowledge base on the United Nations system and
other actors involved in global governance. This way, we can then gain detailed knowledge
about key case studies of global governance and the competing interests and motivations of
the actors involved. Students will then be able to understand and critically engage with
scholarly debates on the role of the United Nations and regional international organisations
in international relations and their shortcomings.
6SSW3023
Tutor:
The 9/11 Era Anglo American Foreign Policy since the end of the Cold War
Dr. John Bew
This course will address the ‘9/11 era’ as a set of western foreign and security policy responses
to the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001, right up to the present day. It will examine the
process of official decision-making, analysing the ideas and debates that underpinned AngloAmerican governmental policies (the Washington-London axis). It will evaluate the decisions
that were made and assess their consequences (including intervention in Afghanistan, Iraq,
and Libya and non-intervention in Syria).
The course will begin with the context/pre-history to the 9/11 era by looking at British and
American foreign policy in the 1990s. It will consider the debates that were had about the
position of the West in a unipolar world and the possible democratisation of the Middle East.
It will address liberal interventionism, democratic geo-politics, the Blair-Bush relationship and
the foreign policies of Brown, Cameron and Obama. It will go right up the present day and
discuss the intervention in Libya, the Arab spring and the rise of Islamic State.