Diplomacy, International Politics and Trade

The aim of this module is to introduce students to the evolution and change in diplomatic practice in the contemporary digitised world, through a range of conceptual tools, cases and issue areas. The main objectives are:

A) To equip students with theoretical approaches, concepts and debates enabling the critical interrogation of diplomacy in the contemporary digitised world through theoretical and empirical exploration of the relationship of diplomacy to the following key organising categories: sovereignty, representation, communication, power, knowledge production, gender, and sustainability. In so doing, it aims to uncover the role of both state and non-state actors in diplomacy in the contemporary digitised world, thus adopting an enlarged approach to diplomacy, entailing diplomacies in the plural--of multiple actors, in multiple issue areas, and of multiple modalities.

B) To showcase skills and various ways of being a diplomat in the contemporary digital world, through introducing and unpacking the real-life applications of such skills and ways, integrating practitioner contributions where possible; as well as through examining various and often overlooked pathways of practicing diplomacy (such as public diplomacy, paradiplomacy, protodiplomacy, NGO and advocacy diplomacy).

The aim of this module is to give students an opportunity to explore grand challenges facing our global society and to propose imaginative solutions to specific challenges in one or more country.

Students will critically reflect on the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals and think about how Loughborough University's Creating Better Futures. Together Strategy might contribute to them.

Students will engage with ideas and approaches to possible solutions from their own programme and gain diverse insights from Loughborough University London's interdisciplinary ecosystem. This will involve solution-oriented thinking and a balance between criticality and possibility, leading to a deep understanding of grand challenges and imagining creative responses to them.

The aim of this module is to understand the main features, concepts and practices of international negotiations. It provides an overview of the most important elements of negotiation and offers an application to a number of case studies

This module aims to equip students with in-depth knowledge of world trade law and regulation; the contribution it makes to the evolution of international economic law; and the challenges it faces in light of competing theories of development, economic and social globalisation, and inter-state and inter-regional economic conflicts.

The aim of this module is to understand the role that sport plays in political and diplomatic issues at a national and international level. Using contemporary examples from developed, transitioning, developing, and fuel-based economies, the module will explore how sport can be used to positive (e.g., facilitating socio-economic plans) or negative (e.g., whitewashing human rights violations) ends. In doing so, the module aims to promote a critical, evidence-based understanding of the interplay between sport, politics, and diplomacy.

The aim of this module is to provide students with a wider understanding of the role the international regulation of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) plays in the socio-economic well-being of countries. It will develop students' understanding of the relationship between states' right to regulate in the public interest and foreign investment protection; and of the legal, practical and theoretical implications of FDI regulation. It will enable students to place FDI regulation within economic, social, and political contexts and to recognise the different perspectives on FDI regulation articulated by states, investors, civil society actors and theorists.

The aim of this module is to help you understand and assess the global economy and the political debates and forces that shape it. Students are introduced to the history of the global economy and then the main theoretical approaches for understanding how it has evolved and operates, such as liberalism, mercantilism and Marxism. These are applied through the exploration of a number of topics.

The module looks at the history and governance of the global economy, the role of the state and non-state actors, the the global trading and financial systems, and crises and opportunities in the global economy. Students are placed into small groups to study an individual small or medium sized economy over the duration of the module. Students will have to focus on their assigned country in presenting a plan for their essay and in their final essay.

The module aims to introduce students to the way the changing nature of world order has affected societies globally. Transformations in the world order have brought to the fore risks and challenges that indiscriminately impact peoples around the world. The module explores the nature of these transformations, namely the agency and autonomy that individuals have in mitigating change. Key emphasis will be placed on the identifying the most successful strategies that societies have designed and implemented in order to adapt to changes in the world order.

Some of the most important challenges derived from the evolution of the world order that the module aims to discuss include conflict and geopolitics, global inequality, innovation and progress, resilience and sustainability or migration.

The experience of societies in the Global South will be given greater consideration, with a special focus on the impact that the BRICS group of states (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) has on the world order. In broader terms, the module evaluates the various strategies that states, international organisations, businesses or NGOs have developed in order to cope with change in the world order.

The aims of this module are to give the student the opportunity to study a subject, business problem or research question in depth and to research the issues surrounding the subject or background to the problem.
The module will equip the student with the relevant skills, knowledge and understanding to embark on their individual research project and they will be guided through the three options available to them to complete their dissertation:

• A desk based research project that could be set by an organisation or could be a subject of the student's choice
• A project that involves collection of primary data from within an organisation or based on lab and/or field experiments
• A full professional placement within an organisation during which time they will complete a project as part of their role in agreement with the organisation (subject to a suitable placement position being obtained)

Students will achieve a high level of understanding in the subject area and produce a written thesis or project report which will discuss this research in depth and with rigour. 

Cities and large urban areas are home to more than half of humanity and generate over 80% of global economic activity. Consequently, cities have become leading actors in diplomacy and critical hubs of international and domestic political, economic, technological, social, cultural, and security developments. This module examines the role of cities in international affairs, exploring both their capacities as influential actors and the diverse issues associated with them.

Using London as the central case study, students will research other cities to examine the issues and theories presented in the module and write about these cities in their assessment. The module will cover topics such as theoretical approaches to global cities, the history and evolution of cities, ideas and models of how cities act in international and domestic affairs, and the main political, economic, social and security issues connected to them.

The module will also allow students to better understand London, the city they have chosen to study in, and the central place in international affairs of many of the cities most of them will spend their lives living and working in.

The aims of this module are to:

• To introduce, compare and contrast traditional and critical approaches to peace and conflict transformation;
• To undertake empirical case studies, in lectures and via readings and class discussion, as a means of illustrating and critically interrogating competing theories, concepts and debates on intervention, success and failure of contemporary approaches to peace and conflict transformation;
• Introduce and interrogate recent trends in the practice of conflict transformation, and assess their political and ethical implications.

The aims of this module are to:

• enable students to become familiar with a comprehensive range of research methods and techniques relevant to the investigation of international development practices as well as social change and social justice policies and mobilizations;
• generate insight and understanding of how different methodologies dialogue with different epistemological perspectives, aligned to specific research paradigms or philosophies.

The aims of this module are to:

• Provide students with an opportunity to be exposed to project-based teamwork in diverse settings (understood in this context as involving a range of multidisciplinary, multicultural and demographic elements in differing configurations), aiming to strengthen their cooperative and collaborative working skills and competence, while raising awareness and appreciation of diversity itself.
• Provide students with hands on experience of identifying, framing and resolving practice oriented and real-world based challenges and problems, using creativity, critical enquiry and appropriate tools to achieve valuable and relevant solutions.
• Support the development of students' ability to engage in critical enquiry and individual reflection, as well as to apply individual strengths and skills, building on their own educational backgrounds.
• Provide students with opportunities for networking with stakeholders, organisations and corporations, aiming to enhance the competence and skills needed to connect to relevant parties and build up future professional opportunities.

This module has two main aims. The first is to expose students to concrete development challenges experienced by different stakeholders (policy makers, communities and industry representatives, etc) in developing countries.

The second is to experiment with the ways through which the immersion into the field can inform the identification of development challenges and the formulation of research questions and action plans in the area of development.

Note that there are additional travel costs involved in taking this module.

The aims of this module are to provide business awareness regarding

• How businesses and other economic actors are influenced by sectoral, national and global institutions
• The differing institutional trajectories along which regional and national economies develop
• Examine the relationship between markets, institutions, business strategy and macroeconomic economic outcomes regarding slow growth, inequality and crisis
• Provide an introduction to alternative theoretical approaches to understanding capitalism

The aims of this module are to give the student the opportunity to study a subject, business problem or research question in depth and to research the issues surrounding the subject or background to the problem.
The module will equip the student with the relevant skills, knowledge and understanding to embark on their individual research project and they will be guided through the three options available to them to complete their dissertation:

• A desk based research project that could be set by an organisation or could be a subject of the student's choice
• A project that involves collection of primary data from within an organisation or based on lab and/or field experiments
• A full professional placement within an organisation during which time they will complete a project as part of their role in agreement with the organisation (subject to a suitable placement position being obtained)

Students will achieve a high level of understanding in the subject area and produce a written thesis or project report which will discuss this research in depth and with rigour.