Course info

This level 6 module seeks to examine and explain the complex developments that have transformed international society since the end of the Cold War and the demise of the Soviet Union. The module will cover the expansion of globalised international society beginning with the radical transformation of Eastern European politics, the evolution of an aggressively democratic Wilsonian idealism in the United States, the collapse of the Soviet Empire, the modernisation of the Asia-Pacific rim and the rise of an assertive Islamist movement. It examines both the benefits (e.g. globalisation, the deepening of civil societies) and the perils (e.g. failed states, terrorism) of the diversifying global landscape, and asks whether the peculiar American ‘empire of liberty’ is being replaced by the opposite: a multipolar world in which China and other rising powers increasingly challenge the USA for global hegemony. Students will acquire knowledge of some of the key events of this period and a deeper understanding of key themes and theories that helped to explain this complex era in world history.