Research degrees

We offer MPhil/PhD programmes in many areas of politics and international relations. Our four Research Centres explore local, national and global political challenges: these are the Centre for Global Health and Policy , Centre for Democratic Futures , Centre for Political Ethnography , Centre for English Identity Politics .

In these areas, we pursue and supervise research across political science, political philosophy, comparative politics, public policy, global politics, international political economy and international relations. Our research interests in these areas cover a wide range of topics, including:

Citizenship and democracy

• the changing composition and allocation of citizenship in transnational and global contexts
• challenges to institutions of representative democracy
• extra-institutional political action
• impact of new communication technologies on politics
• sustainability of processes of democratisation in globalising world

States, international organisations, (in)security and power

• challenges of political and economic globalisation to traditional nation states and vice versa (national challeges to globalisation)
• capacity of national governments to deal with new threats to national and human security
• the role of international organisations in international security and economy
• the changing patterns of authority and power in international relations
• advent of transnational security threats and crises, such as environmental catastrophes, systemic financial collapse, terrorism, pandemic diseases
• mechanisms of governance required to deal with new crises

Faces of inequality and expressions of justice

• arms control and nuclear non-proliferation
• counter-terrorism policies
• global governance and inequality
• globalisation and development
• globalisation, state security and the authority of the state
• issues in international political economy
• theories of global governance

Post-carbon futures

• challenges to global system of carbon-based economy
• political potential for new renewable energies
• political restructuring in light of post-carbon demands
• political impact of international climate change negotiations

Governance and its discontents

• transformations in political rule at levels ranging from local to global
• governance failure and conditions for effective governance
• nature of power in governance arrangements
• contested governance and demands for world government and better global governance
• legitimacy and accountability of existing forms of governance

Scholarship

The Caroline Thomas Memorial Fund Scholarship

The Caroline Thomas Memorial Fund has been established to further research into human security in developing countries by supporting females of outstanding merit and research potential from the African continent who would otherwise not have the opportunity or financial resources to undertake such work.

** Please note there are currently no scholarships available through the fund **