Course Catalogue

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This course will introduce students to the study of (formal and informal) international organizations (IOs). It is motivated by the following questions: What are international organisations and why should we study them? Why do states create international organisations? How are decisions taken within international organisations? What difference do international organisations make (if any)? Why are international organisations contested? Theoretically, the course addresses these questions from the perspective of major IR theories. Empirically, the course covers a broad range of international organizations from diverse issue areas, such as environmental protection, global health, international economic affairs, the protection of human rights, and collective security. 

Lecture: one hour per week, for 10 weeks

Tutorial: one hour per week, for 10 weeks

Mandatory Entry Requirements: Entry to Honours Politics requires a grade point average of 12 (Grade C) over Politics 2A and Politics 2B at the first attempt.

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The summative assessment consists of two parts (with weights indicated):

1. An essay of 2,500 words (worth 60% of the overall mark).

2. Three quizzes taken via Moodle which aim at testing students' knowledge and comprehension of the material covered in the lecture, the seminar, and the essential readings. Only the two best results count towards the final mark (20% each, 40% in total).   

The course aims at familiarising students with the significance of international organisations for international relations. More precisely it aims at helping students understand what international organisations are and why we should study them; why states create international organisations; how decisions are taken within international organisations; what difference international organisations make (if any); and why international organisations are contested. To that end, it will introduce students to core concepts and key theoretical approaches that have been developed in the field of International Relations to study international organisations. Crucially, the course aims to empower students to fruitfully apply those concepts and theoretical approaches to a broad set of international organisations from a wide range of issue-areas, including environmental protection, global health, international economic affairs, the protection of human rights, and collective security.  

By the end of this course students will be able to:

■ Critically analyse the creation, decision-making, effectiveness, and contestation of international organisations by drawing on an encompassing conceptual and theoretical apparatus.

■ Apply core concepts and theoretical approaches from the field of International Relations to international organisations in an analytically fruitful way.

■ Systematically compare the creation, decision-making, effectiveness, and contestation of key international organisations in a wide range of issue areas (such as the International Monetary Fund, the United Nations, the World Bank, and the World Trade Organisation).

■ Develop analytically significant and factually supported claims about the creation, decision-making processes, effectiveness, and contestation of international organisations.

■ Critically assess the relevance and validity of different theoretical arguments in concrete empirical cases.       

Students must submit at least 75% by weight of the components (including examinations) of the course's summative assessment.