International Security and Development MA

The MA in International Security and Development introduces you to the major issues and critical debates within a profoundly serious field. 

Security, violence and conflict are now central to international politics and development policy discourse. Understanding the modern world demands a full appreciation of conflict and violence.

In the International Security and Development course you explore coverage of ‘traditional’ security issues such as war and conflict, in addition to ‘non-traditional’ issues such as economic security, environmental security, health and migration.

Capitalising on departmental expertise in security, you will receive an advanced introduction to the main approaches in the study of security. 

These approaches cover realism, securitization theory, feminist approaches, critical theory and poststructuralism.

Why International Security and Development at Swansea?

Swansea University has a well respected name for the teaching of international security and development. 

Based on our energising Singleton Park campus, in parkland overlooking Swansea Bay, we have the expertise and full range of modern facilities to ensure your learning is right up to the minute.

The Graduate Centre of the College of Arts and Humanities is designed to promote individual and collaborative research activity of international standard. 

It offers a supportive environment for postgraduate research and taught masters study, as well as training to enhance academic and professional development.

Your International Security and Development experience

You will study four compulsory 20-credit international relations modules, and a further two optional modules before taking a 60-credit dissertation project of your choosing in the second part of the International Security and Development course.

The compulsory modules are: human rights, humanitarian Intervention and global justice; critical security studies; and violence, conflict and development.

A wide selection of optional modules span from war, technology and culture to the policy making process, and from rethinking global governance to democracy and constitutional design.

International Security and Development employment opportunities

You will develop a depth of knowledge around international security and development, as well as excellent oral and writing skills.

Graduates of the MA in International Security and Development go on to careers in UN organisations, government and politics, humanitarian organisations, media and PR.

International Security and Development modules

You study four compulsory 20-credit international relations modules, and a further two optional modules, before taking a 60-credit dissertation project in the second part of the International Security and Development course.

Modules on the International Security and Development course may include:

• Conceptual Issues In the Theory and Practice of Social Sciences
• Human rights, Humanitarian Intervention and Global Justice: Moral Problems International Politics.
• Critical Security Studies: Issues and Approaches in Contemporary Security
• Violence, Conflict and Development
• Approaches to International Relations
• The Policy Making Process
• Introduction to Development Studies
• Gender, Society and Politics in the Middle East and North Africa
• Democracy and Constitutional Design
• War, Identity and Society

How you're taught on the International Security and Development course

The full-time International Security and Development course structure is split across the year with three modules taken in each academic semester (a total of six modules) and then a dissertation over the summer.

International Security and Development students study four compulsory modules, the research module and one optional module. The dissertation is written on a specialist research topic of the student's choosing.

Part-time study is available.

International Studies, Conflict and Security

International Studies, Conflict and Security (ISCAS) covers political theory and philosophy, area studies, international policy studies, international relations, security studies, and war studies.  

ISCAS focuses its expertise to make major contributions to research debates in two principal areas of research:

1) Social science approaches to international policy and area studies 

2) The philosophical and critical study of war, security and conflict 

ISCAS Research is concerned with normative theoretical debates, for example in just war and the ethics of space warfare. It develops theoretical approaches to research on international policy regimes, and security and war studies applied to both comparative and single country and issue studies. In conducting new research, ISCAS addresses the AHRC priority to develop language-based area studies and the ESRC priority for innovative research on security, conflict and justice. At its inter-disciplinary boundaries, work in these areas embraces research in international development studies, international policy studies and substance misuse, international studies and law, gender studies, and childhood studies, as well as war and cultural studies.    

You may also be interested in:

• Development and Human Rights, MA
• International Development, MA by Research
• International Relations, MA
• International Relations (Extended), MA
• International Relations, MA by Research
• International Security and Development (Extended), MA
• Politics, MA
• Politics, MA by Research
• War and Society, MA
• War and Society, MA by Research

Visit the International Security and Development MA page on the Swansea University website for more details!