Participation (20%) (Learning Outcomes 1-4)
1x 1000 word Virtual Seminar Presentation (20%) (Learning Outcomes 1,2)
1x 1000 word Sources Assignment (20%) (Learning Outcomes 1,2,3)
1 x 3000 word Topic Assignment (40%) (Learning Outcomes 1,2,4) *Final Piece

The purpose of this module is to examine transnational processes that have shaped the framework within which international relations (IR) operate in the modern period from c.1850 to the present day. IR can be about relationships between nations and the creation of supranational organisations. A transnational approach analyses networks, flows and circulations through and across nations and borders. The module focuses on networks of knowledge, technology and communications. How did states first ‘map’ their territories and ‘measure’ their populations? How did the international telegraph change diplomacy and imperial administration? How necessary were international scientific organisations and international standards for a world economy to function? How did ‘modernisation’ theory develop with American models for ‘developing’ the Third World? In what ways has space-time compression created financial transactions beyond the control of governments? How has the internet altered relationships between states and citizens and facilitated transnational social networks? To what extent are climate change imperatives reconceptualising an interconnected global space?

1. DEMONSTRATE DETAILED KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING OF HOW TRANSNATIONAL DEVELOPMENTS IN KNOWLEDGE, COMMUNICATIONS AND NETWORKS HAVE IMPACTED UPON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS IN THE MODERN ERA.
Knowledge and Understanding

2. DEMONSTRATE ABILITY TO INVESTIGATE ONE OR MORE OF POLITICAL, ECONOMIC, SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNOLOGICAL ASPECTS THAT HAVE RE-SHAPED THE FRAMEWORK WITHIN WHICH INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS OPERATES.
Enquiry
Problem Solving

3. DEMONSTRATE ABILITY TO DISCUSS AND ANALYSE CRITICALLY (IN WRITING) WITH USE OF A RANGE OF SOURCES IN THE TOPIC ASSIGNMENT.
Application
Communication

4. DEMONSTRATE ABILITY TO CONSIDER AND INTERPRET SOURCE EXTRACTS (WRITTEN AND VISUAL) IN THE SOURCES ASSIGNMENT.
Application
Communication

The module will be delivered through a structured format of weekly online tasks supported by tutor material, essential readings, and further reading. For assignment preparation there will be online tutor support. This work will be undertaken on an individual basis, but students will be expected to interact and share material and ideas with other students in their learning group and their tutor.

• Students’ own textbooks; supplied course packs of readings; e-books; e-journals; relevant websites.
• Blackboard VLE
• Computer with internet access

Agar, Jon 2012. Science in the 20th Century and Beyond. Polity, Cambridge.
Castells, Manuel 2013. Communication Power. Oxford University Press, Oxford. [2nd edn.]
Castells, Manuel 2015. Networks of Outrage and Hope: Social Movements in the Internet Age. Polity, Cambridge. [2nd edn.]
Iriye, Akira (ed.) 2014. Global Interdependence: The World After 1945. Belknap Press, Cambridge MA..
Osterhammel, Jürgen 2014. The Transformation of the World: A Global History of the Nineteenth Century. Princeton University Press, Princeton. [first publ. in German 2009]
Rosenberg, Emily (ed.) 2012. A World Connecting 1870-1945. Belknap Press, Cambridge MA..
Saunier, Pierre-Yves 2013. Transnational History. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan.