International Politics (MSc)

Programme structure

Courses

• Great debates in Political Science (5 EC). Read seminal Political Science texts and familiarise yourself with the—often opposing—views of leading scholars. Discover how their ideas and approaches have inspired other researchers and discuss these with your fellow students and lecturer.
• Academic and Professional Skills (5 EC). Develop compelling research questions, devise sound schemes for conducting the research necessary to answer those questions, and, ultimately, follow through with the research itself.
• Conflict and Cooperation in International Politics (10 EC). Examine the dynamics of international conflict and cooperation. Familiarise yourself with the theoretical and conceptual approaches in international relations, making use of historical and contemporary case studies.
• Elective seminars, such as Applying Game Theory in International Relations, Transnational Politics of Human Rights, Preventing Terrorism in Multicultural Europe, or Foreign Policy Analysis.
• Thesis Seminar (20 EC): Deepen your understanding of theories and methods related to research on a specific subfield of Political Science. Apply them to a specific topic related to international politics as part of your master thesis.

Internship

The structure of the programme allows for an internship in the period early January to the end of March, followed up by taking part in the Internship Research Project Seminar. In this seminar, you will complete your thesis based on the research you conducted during your internship. The institute’s internship coordinator will facilitate placement, but the responsibility to find an organisation lies with the individual student. The organisation must allow and facilitate the student to implement a research project relevant to the organisation or its activities.

Please note that a fixed number of students will be allowed to conduct research on the basis of an internship. This is because the Institute of Political Science wants to offer students full support and guidance during and after the internship. The internship is subject to approval by the Institute. Among several other criteria, the academic level of the internship will play a key role in the decision process.