Brighton, United Kingdom
DURATION
2 years
LANGUAGES
English
PACE
Full time, Part time
APPLICATION DEADLINE
01 Sep 2025*
EARLIEST START DATE
Sep 2025
TUITION FEES
GBP 10,500 / per year **
STUDY FORMAT
On-Campus
* UK
** £10,500/year for full-time home, Channel Islands and Isle of Man students | £21,500/year for full-time international students
Key Summary
Introduction
In today’s world intense and increasing Great Power tensions, there’s a renewed interest in geopolitical narratives. How do the new geopolitics of an emerging multipolar world order shape up? What does the return to Great Power politics look like?
On this MA, you’ll learn about:
- the rise of the new Great Powers, particularly China
- the re-emergence of Russia as an actor challenging a Western-dominated liberal order in the context of the current Ukrainian crisis
- the debate over American grand strategy and decline, and the shift to economic power away from the West
- the challenges to British foreign policy in a post-Brexit world.
Set in different geographical contexts, you’ll also explore a range of security issues. You’ll gain an advanced understanding of security topics and the new security challenges that have emerged.
You’ll be based in the School of Global Studies. We bring together Anthropology, Development Studies, Geography and International Relations. Your teaching is underpinned by the distinctive programme of events and interdisciplinary research strength in our School. We host the:
- Sussex Centre for Conflict and Security Research
- Centre for Advanced International Theory
- Centre for Global Political Economy.
You’ll learn with students from across the globe, from various academic disciplines and with a wide variety of professional expertise. You’ll benefit from our strong working relationships with alumni, collaborators and partner organisations around the world. Studying in such an interdisciplinary and intercultural environment is great preparation for your future work environment. When you graduate, you’ll have the expertise and cultural background required in many jobs today.
Admissions
Scholarships and Funding
Scholarships
Our aim is to ensure that every student who wants to study with us is able to despite financial barriers so that we continue to attract talented and unique individuals.
Masters Webinar
Studying MA International Relations & MA Geopolitics & International Affairs
Curriculum
Full-time and part-time study
Choose to study this course full time or part time, to fit around your work and personal life. For details about the part-time course, contact us.
Core modules
Core modules are taken by all students on the course. They give you a solid grounding in your chosen subject and prepare you to explore the topics that interest you most.
Autumn teaching
- Geopolitics and International Affairs
- New Security Challenges
Spring teaching
- Research Methods and Professional Skills (IR)
Summer teaching
- Dissertation (Geopolitics and International Affairs)
Options
Alongside your core modules, you can choose options to broaden your horizons and tailor your course to your interests. This list gives you a flavour of our options, which are kept under review and may change, for example in response to student feedback or the latest research.
While it’s our aim for students to take their preferred combinations of options, this can’t be guaranteed and will be subject to timetabling. Options may be grouped and if so, students will be able to choose a set number of options from the selection available in any particular group.
Spring teaching
- Environment, Resources, Security
- Foreign Policy Analysis
- Humanitarianism in Global Politics
- Managing Economic Instability
- Nationalism and Global Order
- Rethinking Imperialism
- Russia, Eurasia and the Crisis of the Liberal West
- The Political Economy of Development
- War and Security in North/South Perspective
Summer teaching
- Dissertation with Placement (Global Studies)
Field trip
This course offers optional field trips to London or Brussels, Belgium to visit international organisations, think tanks and NGOs.
Placements
To help you gain experience and increase your employability, you can apply for an optional placement as part of your course. Research placements run for up to 12 weeks in the summer term and vacation. You can also write your dissertation based on your experience. You’ll be responsible for applying for and securing your placement. Our dedicated careers team can help you:
- find an employer
- draft an application
- prepare for interviews.
Find out more about Global Studies postgraduate placements
We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2023/24. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum. We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.
We’ll do our best to provide as much optional choice as we can, but timetabling constraints mean it may not be possible to take some module combinations. The structure of a small number of courses means that the order of modules or the streams you choose may determine whether modules are core or optional. This means that your core modules or options may differ from what’s shown here.
Check back in January 2024 for the modules running in the academic year 2024/25.
Program Tuition Fee
Career Opportunities
You’ll graduate with a thorough understanding of International Relations – expertise required in many jobs today. Alongside your academic knowledge, you’ll have the transferable skills to succeed in your career. This includes:
- interdisciplinary and teamwork skills. You’ll successfully collaborate and communicate with colleagues from different parts of the world, with different backgrounds and experiences
- problem-solving skills. You’ll understand key topics by breaking them down into smaller parts, identifying the key issues and debates, and finding different pathways to solutions
- critical thinking and research skills. You’ll challenge taken-for-granted assumptions, collect relevant information, and assess information for reliability and validity
- communication skills (written and verbal). You’ll communicate your arguments clearly and listen to others carefully and sincerely. There are training workshops to help you write concisely in any given formal format.
Your future role could include:
- foreign service, trade or other government departments
- international civil service such as the United Nations
- non-governmental organisations active in various fields, including development, environment, health and humanitarian assistance
- media organisations
- the private sector, where international political expertise is increasingly needed and valued.
You’ll also be well prepared to go on to a PhD and to pursue a career in academia.
Graduate destinations
Our recent graduates have gone on to jobs including:
- adviser, Department for International Trade
- area programme manager, Danish Refugee Council
- global research manager, ACLED.
(Department of International Relations careers database)