新人文学院

In a world of transborder digital connections, with escalating social activism, fake news, cybercrime and artificial intelligence, digital sovereignty, sustainability and security are at the intersection of the most pressing contemporary 21st Century Politics problems.

The MSc Digital Politics & Sustainable Development explores power shifts, power diffusion, and evolving organisational structures in an increasingly interconnected society. Students will have an option to specialise in sustainability and technology through their choice of optional courses and extended dissertation topic.

Summary

Governance and sustainability sit at the intersection of supranational actors, national agencies and non-governmental actors. They reflect the change in relationship building (governance) and the organisation of strategic priorities of three-level games (global, regional, national) in the 21st century. Consequently, these changes will alter the way that the “international” field is taught and learnt in the new millennium.

Students will be prepared to engage with both the processes underpinning current and future power shifts in IR and the actual power shifts and power diffusions in contemporary IR.

A further area of interest for this programme and where the transition towards digital technologies is making an impact is that of Security Studies. The development of the digital space has radically changed, for example, the way we understand ‘territory’ in International Relations, and by logical inference, the relationship between the state, sovereignty and security.

Programme Aims

MSc Digital Politics & Sustainable Development aims to:

• to train in political science and international relations, including how to find sources, analyse and critique evidence, and evaluate the value of different sources
• to develop an awareness and understanding of the different approaches to, and theories of sustainability and development, security, digital transition, and global citizenship in contemporary global politics
• to give a thorough grounding in the discipline and practice of International Relations and to encourage critical evaluation of how the past is represented, constructed, debated, and contested in relation to the present and the future, in different settings, and at different unit levels of analysis
• to give students an appreciation of the complexity of research within Political Science and International Relations

Career Opportunities

MSc Digital Politics & Sustainable Development core modules and pathways will prepare graduates to step into decision-making and leadership roles in government, international and regional organisations, NGOs, think-tanks, consultancies and private sector companies that engage with issues such as sustainable development, cyber security, the digital economy, internet governance, policy analysis, risk analysis and risk management, forecasting and prediction.