Gwybodaeth Modiwlau

The module presents students with an opportunity to understand and critically examine the debates in political theory in the last seventy decades from the specific perspective of how they relate to international affairs. It is made of three parts. First, it addresses the crisis of normative political theory in the aftermath of the horrors of the world wars and the Holocaust. It then explores the responses to this crisis in the form of renewed trust in the concept of justice on the one hand and the quest to theorise the role of politics to renew political order on the other hand. Third, the module focuses on the issue of human rights to both address one of the key notions of global ethics and demonstrate how the deconstructive and constructive modes of political theorising, explored earlier in the module, affect this notion. Giving students an opportunity to read and analyse original texts by some of the most influential twentieth century political thinkers, the authors assigned for reading include Hannah Arendt, John Rawls, Michael Walzer, Michel Foucault, Jurgen Habermas, and Judith Shklar. Teaching is done in twelve interactive lectures and five two-hour, small-group seminars.

The proposed module presents students with an opportunity to understand and critically examine the debates in political theory in the last seventy decades from the specific perspective of how they relate to international affairs. It develops students' knowledge-base in the subjects of political theory, international political theory and international ethics and contributes to the department's teaching provision in these three areas. As of now, there is no module covering twentieth century political theory, while students are introduced to earlier political thought (IP32220) and political ideologies (IP12220). Starting with the crisis of normative political theory in the aftermath of the horrors of the world wars and the Holocaust, the module explores the responses to this crisis in the form of renewed trust in the concept of justice on the one hand and the quest to theorise the role of politics to renew political order on the other hand. The module then focuses on the issue of human rights to both address one of the key notions of global ethics and demonstrate how the deconstructive and constructive modes of political theorising, explored earlier in the module, affect this notion. The module gives students an opportunity to read and analyse original texts by some of the most influential twentieth century political thinkers. Particular emphasis is placed on the international aspects of these works.