This module is not currently running in 2022 to 2023.
This course seeks to offer an International Relations perspective on one of the most crucial challenges today: how is Europe's role in the world changing? The course starts from the idea that the economic globalisation since the beginning of the 1990s is increasingly translated into new political structures. New players have arisen and new challenges have emerged. Inevitably this changes the role of Europe. The focus is both on wider Europe and on the EU. Both dimensions of integration and of fragmentation are taken into account, so that Europe appears in its multi-dimensional complex forms (states and regional organisations). Different aspects are dealt with: interests, power, identity, perception, institutions; regional and global impact; foreign policies, trade, development cooperation; multilateralism; global challenges (climate change, energy, financial markets, etc.). Also the varying role of the EU in international organisations (UN, WTO, IMF, etc.) is being studied. Students learn to approach these issues in a critical and balanced way.
Total contact hours: 24
Private study hours: 176
Total study hours: 200
The module is primarily, but not solely, intended for the MA programmes in International Relations, European Public Policy and International Conflict Analysis at UKB
Essay, 5000 words (100%).
Reassessment methods: 100% coursework.
Reading list (Indicative list, current at time of publication. Reading lists will be published annually)
Hill C., Smith M. (eds.) (2011), International Relations and the European Union. Oxford University Press.
Bretherton C., Vogler, J. (2006), The European Union as Global Actor. London, Routledge.
Cooper, R. (2004). The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-First Century. Atlantic Monthly Press.
Orbie, J. (ed.) (2008), Europe's Global Role. Hampshire, Ashgate.
Tonra B., Christiansen, T. (eds.) (2004), Rethinking European Union Foreign Policy. Manchester University Press.
Lucarelli, S. and Manners, I. (eds.) (2006), Values and principles in European Foreign Policy. London, Routledge.
Tiersky, R. And R. Van Oudenaren (eds.) (2010), European Foreign Policies. Plymouth: Rowman and Littlefield
See the library reading list for this module (Canterbury)
The intended subject specific learning outcomes. On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
SLO1: have a good understanding of the changing global political and economic structures and Europe's place within them
SLO2: have a good understanding of the major challenges for Europe following from global change
SLO3: critically analyse the foreign policies of the EU and of major individual European states with the outside world, both regionally and globally and in different dimensions (political, economic, security)
SLO4: integrate the outsider's perspective into their analysis of European external relations
SLO5: place the role of Europe and the EU in its historical and larger theoretical context
SLO6: be familiar with the core concepts, theories and debates on global change and European external relations
The intended generic learning outcomes. On successfully completing the module students will be able to:
GLO1: work with theoretical knowledge at the forefront of their discipline
GLO2: be aware of the ethical dimensions of the scholarly work done in their discipline in general as well as of their own work in particular
GLO3: have a comprehensive understanding of methods and methodologies in their discipline
GLO4: undertake analysis of complex, incomplete or contradictory areas of knowledge
GLO5: have a level of conceptual understanding that will allow them to critically evaluate research, advanced scholarship and methodologies and argue alternative approaches
GLO6: be reflective and self-critical in their research work
GLO7: engage in academic and professional communication orally and in writing
GLO8: have independent learning ability required for continuing professional study
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