International Relations

International relations at the University of Buckingham is a rigorous, wide-ranging education into the political structure of the world and of a range of key countries and regions. The degree focuses on how global order can be achieved even in the absence of world government, a fundamental question of the discipline that has grown more urgent as the post-1945 multilateral order has come under increasing strain. You will be taught about security, the world economy, globalisation, and the conflictual and cooperative engagement between states, developing the analytical tools to understand why states behave as they do and what the prospects for international cooperation and order actually are.

At the University of Buckingham, this two-year full-time programme takes advantage of Buckingham's distinctive academic calendar to compress the content of a standard three-year degree into a more intensive two-year format. This makes it attractive both to students who want to enter the workforce sooner and to those who value the cost and time savings of a shorter programme. The university's small size and close-knit academic community support a teaching environment with relatively high levels of personal contact between students and staff.

Graduates pursue careers in diplomacy and the foreign office, international organisations, journalism and broadcasting, think tanks, NGOs, the civil service, international business, security analysis, and the many roles in public and private life where a rigorous understanding of international political dynamics is professionally valuable. The two-year structure makes this programme particularly distinctive for those with a clear career direction. Many graduates continue to postgraduate study in international relations, security studies, international law, or area studies.