International Politics and Human Rights MA

The International Politics and Human Rights programme is for students who want to explore international politics and human rights more widely and to specialise their knowledge. The MA is designed to give you the chance to create your own questions about the way the world works – and to shape arguments where you feel it doesn’t. These are some of the questions the course poses:<br/><br/><br/>- Do human rights offer universal protections, or do they provide ideological cover for neo-imperialist powers?<br/><br/><br/>- Can human rights provide protection to individuals in a way that supersedes the nation-state, or do they serve the interests of powerful states?<br/><br/><br/>- Should human rights be concerned with the minimalist needs of security and subsistence, or should they aspire to grander visions of global justice?<br/><br/><br/>This is a course where you will challenge your own point of view. We unpick the ideas that structure the way we understand the world, so we can identify how those understandings shape global events. We then focus on how the way we view things may, in itself, be ethically problematic.<br/><br/>International Politics and Human Rights is an evolving subject so you explore unique specialisms backed by real-world research. The Department of International Politics’ academics are actively shaping policy, sitting on the advisory board for the opposition shadow cabinet, hosting talks on the human right to housing in London, and engaging in study groups around the US presidency. This keeps the content of the course effective and current, giving you a contemporary lens from which to view rapid political change.