Study Details: MA 1-year full-time; 2.5 years part-time
The MA in War and Conflict in the Modern World combines the disciplines of History and International Relations to provide students with multi-disciplinary, advanced study from both humanities and social science perspectives.
The course covers the period from the French Revolution to the present. It examines the impact of the French and Industrial Revolutions on warfare, before focusing on the development of ‘total war’ that reached its apogee in the First and Second World Wars, and the interaction between democracies and conflict in the 20th century.
To understand war in this period, students will study the development of international relations as well as the actual wars fought. The programme looks at the ‘face of battle’ as seen by soldiers, generals and politicians; developments in the tactical, operational and strategic levels of war; the interaction between war and society; and the thinking that drove on these changes in warfare.
The programme also draws on Brunel’s expertise in intelligence studies, offering the students the chance to take optional modules in this area from the University’s Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies.
The programme aims to give students a thorough grounding of the place of war in the modern world, an understanding of historical and social science research methodologies, and an overview of diplomacy/international relations and war.
The War and Conflict programme offers students the opportunity to attend talks by expert speakers on campus. Students also have access to London’s many research centres, such as the Royal United Services Institute, the Institute for Historical Research and the Royal Institute of International Affairs located at Chatham House. Students on the programme have free membership of Chatham House.
A first degree (2.1 or above) or equivalent. It is expected that students for this programme will have a degree in a relevant subject although in exceptional circumstances students with qualifications in non-related subjects can be considered.
Brunel also offers our own BrunELT English Test and accept a range of other language courses. We also have a range of Pre-sessional English language courses, for students who do not meet these requirements, or who wish to improve their English.
Fees for 2012/13 entry
Home/EU students: £5,060 full-time, £2,530 part-time
International students: £12,650 full-time, £6,325 part-time
For funding opportunities please visit: http://www.brunel.ac.uk/courses/pg/funding
Focusing on the study of key aspects of war in the contemporary period, the MA in War in the Modern World equips students for a variety of careers in government, the armed forces, the media and business. The degree also prepares students wishing to go on to study for research degrees and those interested in military history seeking to expand their knowledge of the subject.
Students complete four modules, two core (compulsory) and two elective modules, plus a 15,000 word dissertation.
War in History 1789-present
Main topics of study include: limited war: the period before 1789; the French revolution and the birth of the modern style of warfare; the impact of the industrial revolution on warfare; Jomini and Clauwsewitz; the idea of ‘absolute war’; warfare in the 19th century: on the road to ‘total war’; the First World War; changes in warfare in the inter-war period: Blitzkrieg and ‘deep battle’; the Second World War; the nature of warfare after 1945; Korea, Vietnam and the Arab-Israeli conflicts; counter-insurgency; low-intensity conflicts; warfare in the 21st Century.
War in Politics: Democracy, War, Peace and Intervention
Main topics of study: introduction; contemporary theories of war 1; contemporary theories of war 2; contemporary theories of war 3; liberal interventionism: debates and paradoxes; Gladstone: the reluctant interventionist? Woodrow Wilson: archetypal crusader? Korea and Vietnam; covert operations; the Balkans; Iraq 2003; review.
Dissertation
Topics will reflect the personal interest and subject relevance of the programme and require approval by the student’s supervisor.
Optional
Evolution of International Relations
Main topics of study: introduction: the evolving domain of international relations; idealism vs realism; realism – neorealism; liberalism – neoliberalism; explaining peace in Europe; the ‘English School’ (International Society); Marxism and dependency; critical theories; historical sociology; normative theory 1; normative theory 2; the future of international relations.
Arab-Israeli Conflict
Main topics of study: the birth of three nationalisms: Turkish, Arab and Jewish; the Middle East and the First World War; Britain’s ‘moment’ in the Middle East; the historiography on the Arab-Israeli conflict and problems with methodology; the formation of Israel 1: The Palestinian Refugee Crisis; the formation of Israel 2: Collusion across the Jordan? the formation of Israel 3: The first Arab-Israeli War: David versus Goliath?; War 1: Nasser or Ben-Gurion? Who started the 1956 war? War 2; Israel triumphant – the 1967 war; War 3: Israel defeated – the 1973 war; exporting the Arab-Israeli conflict: Lebanon; Israeli-Egyptian peace; Israeli-Palestinian peace?
The Rise of the National Security State
Main topics of study: the breakdown of the Grand Alliance and the Yalta system; threat evaluations in the early cold war; bureaucratic politics and the rise of the national security state; the debate in the us on ‘the garrison state’; the British defence dilemma and the genesis of NATO; the Soviet defence dilemma and the creation of the Warsaw Pact; the United States National Security Act 1947 and the creation of the national security bureaucracy; the military-industrial complex.
Empire, Imperialism and Hegemony
Main topics of study: empire and hegemony: conceptual introduction and historical overview; early-modern imperial and hegemonic powers: case studies; European imperialism; theories of imperialism; US foreign policy: historical overview; the USA in the world economy; theorising US hegemony/empire.
Intelligence Concepts: Theory and Policy
Deals with the essential concepts and issues of what intelligence is and its role in government and decision-making. It introduces the basic concepts of intelligence studies, the various sources of intelligence available to national governments, and examines the analysis of those sources, sources of intelligence success and failure and intelligence needs in the contemporary environment.
Intelligence and Non-Conventional Threats
This module is a survey of contemporary threats faced by the UK and all other modern liberal democracies. It discusses the changes wrought by new military technologies in the conduct of war, and the new civilian technologies which permit modern organised crime, drug trafficking, terrorism, and insurgency to pose a globalised, complex and integrated threat to our security, as well as a tricky foe for our domestic and foreign security structures.
China in the World
Main topics of the study: IR theory applications; Chinese frameworks (strategic culture, world views, Grand Strategy); China’s relations with other regions (Asia-Pacific, Central Asia, Africa, Latin America); with other actors (Russia, Japan, India, USA, EU); and with global issues (UN, environment, globalisation, image).
The Second World War
Main topics of study include: the origins of the war in Europe and Asia; the connection between politics, culture and military strategy; the Grand Alliance; impact of technology on the course of the war; the role of intelligence; the impact and legacy of the war.
Violence and Revolution in Political Thought
The main aim of the module is to introduce students to a range of theoretical perspectives on the concepts of violence and revolution in early modern political thought. We will discuss the development of these concepts between the 16th-17th century. The rationale for the module is to thus trace the thematic as it reverberates through political thought, from the crisis of the Renaissance and Humanist politics, through the 17th century. The final aim is to offer students a theoretical background and support to their study of ‘Violence in Politics’ and ‘Revolution’ in history, with a special focus on the early modern period.
Enlightenment and Revolution
The main aim of the module is to introduce students to the political thought of the Enlightenment. It does so by dealing with one of the fundamental questions of Enlightenment: revolution. Focusing on select authors who represent the so-called Age of Enlightenment, the module considers the debate about revolution in the context of the rise of the bourgeoisie, new economic practices such as industrialization, and the intensification of colonial peoples. The Age of Enlightenment culminates in the extreme consequences of this movement: the American and the French revolutions, which will dramatically change the political order of Europe and the World, opening up the political, economic and social conditions for modernity. The rationale for the module is to trace the thematic of this movement as it reverberates through political thought and culture. The final aim is to offer students a wider historical and theoretical background to their study of politics and history.
Capitalism and Revolution in the Nineteenth Century
The main aim of the module is to introduce students to theories of revolution and political struggle against capital in the nineteenth century. The module will focus in particular upon the development of Marx’s critique of political economy in its historical context. The nineteenth century witnessed the emergence of a range of critical perspectives on the consequences of the ongoing industrial revolution and the consolidation of capitalism as a global system. Marx’s critique of political economy developed at the crossroads between different intellectual and national critical traditions, ranging from the classical political economy of Smith and Ricardo, to the radical political theories that emerged in the wake of the French Revolution, to the legacy of German idealism. This singular synthesis produced a distinctive vision of history as a process of struggles between classes founded in the social and political organisation of production. It also produced a range of concepts and perspectives that defined a new paradigm within which conflicts in political modernity and solutions to them could be thought. The rationale for the module is to trace in detail the development of the critique of political economy and its relationship with political theories of revolution in its time. The final aim is to offer students a theoretical background and support to their study of violence and revolution in politics and history, with a special focus on the nineteenth century.
Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Twentieth Century Political Thought
The main aim of the module is to introduce students to theories of revolution and counter-revolution in early twentieth century Europe. The module will focus intensively on four thinkers who can be regarded as representative of the full range of the political spectrum: Weber, Schmitt, Lenin and Gramsci. Each of these thinkers responded to the revolutionary and counter-revolutionary movements of early twentieth century in a distinctive fashion, developing and transforming some of the key concepts of modern political thought. In so doing, they proposed theoretical perspectives and positions that have remained operative until the present day, including theories of rationalisation, decisionism, dictatorship, democracy, legitimation, sovereignty, hegemony and passive revolution. The module will focus in particular upon the impact of early twentieth century revolutionary and counter-revolutionary movements upon the development of each theorist’s work, and the way in which these experiences contributed to the reformulation of classic themes in the history of modern political thought. In particular, these include theories of political power, political form, political organisation and legitimation. The rationale for the module is to study in detail the development of theories of political modernity, revolution and counter-revolution in relation to the concrete political movements of their time. The final aim is to offer students a theoretical background and support to their study of violence and revolution in politics and history, with a special focus on early twentieth century Europe.
East -West Encounters Across Time
The module aims, at postgraduate Masters level, to: give students a sense of the chronological development and significance of East-West* encounters across time; involve students with use and evaluation of theoretical frameworks, paradigms and theories from International Relations (IR), vis-à-vis East-West encounters across time; give students a sense of the ‘History of Ideas’ as a sub-discipline of History; and of the historical role of cultural, transnational and global forces under and across national state boundaries; develop student skills, at a substantive level, in the skills of analysis, discussion, interpretation, evaluation, empathy, contextualisation and extrapolation; develop student skills, at a substantive level, in interpretation of primary sources and appreciation of their diversity of form in materials like travel accounts, fiction, and the visual arts; develop student skills, at a substantive level, in interpretation of secondary scholarly sources.
Globalisation
This module will enable students to develop an understanding of global changes and their impact on national and international politics; introduce students to the literature on political economy and social theory of globalisation; and provide students with theoretical and conceptual tools for independent research in international political economy, international relations, and social theory.
Empire, Imperialism, Hegemony
This module examines: The dynamics of expansion and contraction of empires and hegemons; The major rival perspectives on defining and explaining hegemonic and imperial power; The causes of the unparalleled extent and transformative impact of European imperial expansion; The contemporary debate over the USA’s role in the world economy and states system.
Imperialism and Culture
The module explores how imperialism and culture have shaped each other in the modern era. It will introduce and evaluate a range of theoretical perspectives and confront them with a number of empirical case studies to assess existing research and reflect on directions for future studies. Using textual, material and visual sources, the course will examine how imperial conquest and rule was influenced by, and in turn fostered, the emergence of modern disciplines from botany to anthropology, developments in the sciences and the arts, and trends in entertainment and popular culture. The case studies span the period from the late eighteenth century to the present. While centred on the imperialism of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, the module also reflects on the nationalisation of culture during decolonisation and how the legacies of empire shape contemporary cultural policies and international relations. It does so by focussing primarily on the impact of the colonial encounter on the metropole (i.e. how did colonialism make Europeans?). By comparing the experience in different European empires, it highlights local and national differences and the role played by cultural transfer.
US in World Affairs, 1945-2001
This module will analyse the historiography of US diplomatic, political, economic and military interactions with the world; it will examine and assess key documents providing evidence of these interactions; and it will explore the key domestic and international issues that shaped the activities of the U.S. as a projector of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ global power in the ‘American half-century’.
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