Why study International Relations?

Establishing yourself in the field of international relations demands the ability to think, speak, and write critically about international issues, including topics such as:

• How has globalisation changed international relations?
• To what extent is the international order based on conflict or cooperation?
• How is the global financial crisis affecting international politics?
• Do foreign military interventions in civil wars help or hinder peace-making?
• Why are economic resources so unevenly spread across the world, and what are the prospects for global justice?

With this online, part-time Master's programme, you can look forward to developing the theoretical understanding and analytical skills needed to navigate these with confidence and consideration.

The course offers challenging and thought-provoking modules to help you formulate your answers, and a lively, intelligent group of students and academics with which to debate and exchange ideas. 

What you'll study

• Leading theories in reference to important historical and contemporary themes of world politics
• The evolving challenges in international relations in conjunction with emerging areas of interest in the developing world
• Discussions on the historical significance of globalisation and how it relates to issues in international relations.

What's it like to study international relations online?

We believe our students say it best.

Read our interview with current student Padraig Downey to discover what a typical week looks like for him and the skills that have helped him make the most of the course. 

You can also watch our student Sophia Chase discuss why she chose to learn online:
 

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Masters

Our online International Relations MA is offered on a part-time basis over the duration of two years. During that time, you will undertake four taught modules and a 12,000 word dissertation.

For each module, you will be awarded 30 credits each and you will receive a further 60 credits for your dissertation. In order to graduate you must have accrued the full 180 credits, which involves completing every aspect of the modules and passing all relevant assignments.

Modules

This postgraduate programme has been designed to highlight the necessity of theory to understanding world politics. As such, it is built around the core module – Contemporary World Politics: Theories, Concepts, Themes – which then leads to other areas of learning.

The modules that follow will challenge you to develop your analytical skills and subject knowledge further. You can look forward to gaining expertise within areas such as international security, international political economy, and the impact of the changes associated with globalization on the study of international relations and US foreign policy.

Watch our video on the International Relations MA learning outcomes:

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Entry requirements

To be eligible for the International Relations programme, you should have: 

• A minimum of an upper second-class honours degree in politics or a related discipline.*

*  We will also consider graduates with a minimum of an upper second class-honours degree in another subject with either additional relevant qualifications or work experience. 

If your first language is not English, you should also have one of the following:

• IELTS Academic: 7.0 overall including 6.5 in Writing, and 5.5 in Reading, Listening and Speaking. 
• TOEFL: 100 overall including 24 in Writing, 18 in Reading, 17 in Listening and 20 in Speaking.
• PTE Academic: 68 overall including 62 in Writing, and 51 in Reading, Listening and Speaking. 
   

Taking your English language requirement test at home

The following at-home tests are also being accepted:

• HOME TOEFL: 100 overall including 24 in Writing, 18 in Reading, 17 in Listening and 20 in Speaking.
• IELTS Indicator Test: 7.0 overall including 6.5 in Writing, and 5.5 in Reading, Listening and Speaking. 

If you would like to apply but are unsure whether you are qualified, please contact our course advisers.
 

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Tuition fees

Masters (2 years, part-time, including dissertation):

£12,900

As an International Relations MA student at QMUL Online you might be able to receive a postgraduate loan. More information on requirements and how to apply is available here.

Postgraduate Diploma (2 years, part-time, no dissertation required):

£8,600

Postgraduate Certificate (1 year, part-time, no dissertation required):

£4,300

We realise this is a considerable financial investment on your part. To help you, we have a number of payment options. Details of these can be found by visiting our fees and funding page. 

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How do I apply?

To find out about the Queen Mary Online application process steps and the documents required, please visit our application guidance page.

If you have any questions, please get in touch with us to discuss the application process further.

How you are assessed

As a student at Queen Mary Online, we ask you to play an active role in your acquisition of skills and knowledge. We use a mixture of online tutorials, discussion forums and group webinars designed to generate informed discussion around set topics.

I enjoy the mix of different types of information-delivery and activities, such as the reading exercises, lectures, webinars and commentary from experts. I have also found the reading lists very useful for providing a broader view of topics covered in each lecture.
International Relations MA student, Queen Mary Online

Assessment for the International Relations programme is by coursework only. There are no exams - our focus is on helping you develop essential data-gathering and research skills. You can look forward to producing work that represents your true academic ability, not just what you can memorise at the time.

Your module leaders will set assessments appropriate to the content of their module which will usually take the form of a research essay or critical evaluation. They will also be available to advise and support you throughout the course.

The final dissertation (MA only) will involve more in-depth study and independent research on a topic agreed with your supervisor. Past topics of dissertations included:

• The global financial crisis: a failure of governments or markets?
• Is the UN fit to prevent genocide?
• Is China a good trade partner for Latin America?
• From Actions to Policy: A Theoretical Shift in U.S. Counterinsurgency Security Operations during the War on Terror in Iraq
• Is China Challenging US Economic Hegemony?
• Tackling cultures of immunity: how can the United Nations effectively address the practice of sexual abuse and exploitation by military peacekeeping forces?
• Militarizing Egypt’s Policy making arena: The Army between Socialism and Neoliberalism
• Postcolonial President? Barack Obama and Humanitarian Intervention
• Globalisation, Inequality and Underdevelopment: The Myth of Economic Convergence
   

Independent study

At Queen Mary Online, we take your studies seriously and in return, we hope you will do the same. Each week you will need to invest additional time on individual study. This could be spent preparing for, or following up on formal study sessions; reading; producing written work; completing projects; and undertaking research for you dissertation.

The direction of your individual study will be guided by the formal study sessions you attend, along with your reading lists and assignments. We expect you to demonstrate an active role in your own learning by reading widely and expanding your knowledge, understanding and critical ability.

Independent study helps foster the ability to identify your own learning needs and determine which areas you need to focus on to become proficient in your subject area. This is an important transferable skill and will help you throughout your working life.

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Resources and services 

Our online students enjoy the same status as those who attend the Queen Mary campus. You will have access to our extensive online resources and if you are able, are welcome to attend any of the extra-cirricular events run by various research centres to complement your studies.

In addition, you will benefit from dedicated tutor support, enhanced online material, and a range of interactive features. There will be lively online discussions with your peers and webinars led by members of the academic staff, all accessible at the times that suit you.

You'll also be able to turn to our helpful Student Adviser team once you enrol. They will help you with any non-academic questions. 

Teaching team

As a member of the Russell Group, Queen Mary is committed to the highest quality teaching and research. 

Our research-active staff ensure the content of our programme is dynamic, responding to the latest global events in their respective modules. Our staff have regional expertise in South America, South East Asia, the Middle East, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

Together, they hold internationally recognised research strengths in the politics of the developing world, globalisation and development, conflict and war, migration and transnational mobility, security and critical and post-colonial theory.

Programme Director

Professor Jef Huysmans

Jef Huysmans is Professor of International Politics. After finishing his PhD at the University of Leuven (Belgium), he took up a lectureship in International Relations and European studies at the University of Kent at Canterbury. Later he moved to the Open University where he taught politics and international relations and was Director of the Centre for Citizenship, Identities and Governance. He joined Queen Mary University of London in January 2016.

He is best known for his work on the politics of insecurity, the securitization of migration, and critical methods in security studies and IR. Currently he is working on security and democracy in times of surveillance, the political life of methods, and the political significance of little nothings.

He was Co-Editor-in-Chief of the ISA journal International Political Sociology from 2012 until 2016.

Full staff profile

Module Leaders

Dr Rick Saull

After graduating from Portsmouth Polytechnic in 1990 with a BA in Politics, Rick completed an MSc in International Relations at the LSE. He then spent two years teaching English as a foreign language in the Czech Republic and Spain. After returning to the UK in 1994 he moved on to doctoral studies in International Relations at the LSE completing his PhD in 1999. Prior to joining the School in September 2006, Rick lectured at the University of Leicester (2002-2006) and before that at SOAS and Richmond, the American International University in London.

Rick's doctorate outlined a new historical materialist theorization of the Cold War and since completing his doctorate he has continued to work within this framework; in the study of the international politics of revolution, the end of the Cold War and the theorization of US global power.

More recently, his work has been concerned with developing an international historical sociology of far-right social and political movements through examining the ways in which the capitalist political economy of the international system has conditioned the historical rise and contemporary development of such movements.

Dr Katharine Hall

Katharine Hall received her PhD in 2015 from the Department of Geography, Environment and Society at the University of Minnesota, where she wrote her dissertation on the history of drone technology (Lethal Surveillance: Drones and the Geo-History of Modern War). Before joining the School of Politics and International Relations at QMUL, she held a three-year postdoctoral fellowship in the Society of Fellows and the Department of Geography at Dartmouth College.

Katharine works in the fields of international relations and security studies, political geography, and science and technology studies, and her research focuses on questions related to modern war and security, military and surveillance technologies, and the longer historical and racialized geographies of militarization and practices of state violence.

Dr Patrick Pinkerton

Patrick Pinkerton is a lecturer at the School of Politics and International Relations (SPIR) at Queen Mary University of London. Prior to taking up this position, he was a Visiting Lecturer at City, University of London.

Patrick holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of Manchester. He has published work on the post-conflict situations in Northern Ireland and Bosnia-Herzegovina in the British Journal of Politics and International Relations and the Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding.
 

Tutors

Dr Nevena Nancheva

Nevena Nancheva is a recognised Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has been teaching International Relations at the Master's level since 2010. Her leading research interest is nationalism in the European context. She has written on European integration, EU security and migration governance, national minorities, refugee migration, and recently, on nationalism and the construction of 'national' food.

Nevena's 2016-17 research project EU Migrants in the UK: Political Community, Identity and Security is funded by the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust. She is the co-founder of an academic research network on EU migration (eu-migrants.net) hosted by the Centre for Research on Communities, Identities and Difference at Kingston University London.

Dr Alice Martini 

Alice has a PhD in International Relations from the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Italy, and, jointly, the Autonomous University of Madrid, Spain. Among other publications, she is the author of The UN and Counter-Terrorism: Global Hegemonies, Power, Identity (Routledge, 2021) and co-editor of Encountering Extremism (MUP, 2020).

Her research examines and deconstructs global discourses on security, (counter)terrorism and (counter)extremism, looking into the resulting practices of power and international hegemonies.

She lectures on Critical Security Studies, Critical Terrorism Studies, and, more broadly, International Relations and Global Politics theories.

Before her PhD, she collaborated with the Human Rights Office of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation.

Dr Haro Karkour

Haro Karkour is a recognised Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has been teaching online modules at Masters level since 2012. He has completed his PhD in politics at the University of Leicester with the thesis entitled 'Kosovo, Libya, and the problem with depoliticisation in the theory and practice of post-Cold War Humanitarian Intervention'.

Haro's research is focused on International Relations (IR) theory. He is currently looking at classical realism and its application to US foreign policy, the liberal international order and the 'Global IR' debate. His research has been published previously in IR journals such as International Relations and Journal of International Political Theory.

Read Haro's blog post on how IR students can interpret the G7 Summit in Cornwall >

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How could Queen Mary's International Relations MA benefit my career? 

You will gain substantive knowledge about the history of the international system and how it is developing so that you have a view on the broader context in which companies, non-governmental organisations, charities, and so on operate in the world. 
Jef Huysmans, International Relations MA Programme Director

Queen Mary University of London is a member of the Russell Group of leading universities. Studying online with us gives you access to the highest quality of teaching and research, empowering you to achieve lifelong career success and make a global impact.

What career-relevant skills will I develop?

This course doesn’t train you for a specific job, but it gives you knowledge and transferrable skills that you can apply to a variety of roles in international relations.

You will get a broad understanding of international relations and how people in the international community analyse the world. For instance, how do changes in the international global economy impact on government policies? This knowledge will help you operate in various international settings.

You will gain the ability to listen to or read complicated material and pick out the core arguments quickly. You will also learn how to communicate your ideas and arguments effectively, both verbally and in writing. These are skills many employers value.

What additional career support is available from Queen Mary?

As an online student, you'll have access to QM Careers and Enterprise throughout your studies and for up to two years after you graduate. The service offers information and guidance on a wide range of topics, from choosing a career to finding work experience and starting your own business.

Find out more about career guidance for Queen Mary Online students on our Career Support page.