Military and International History BA

Compulsory

• Conflict in the Modern World

  The module aims to provide an overview of how conflicts are studied - practically show how conflicts are measured, illustrate how conflicts occur, who are involved and how they stop.

• Makers of Modern Strategy

  This module looks at and evaluates a range of military and political thinkers and commanders who have been influential in shaping and understanding the nature of modern warfare. This will include those who have looked at war holistically (Grand Strategy, Strategy, Tactics and Operations) and through the prism of political thought and structures, as well as those who have considered certain distinct elements of it – e.g. land, sea and air warfare.

• Modern South Asian History

  This module introduces the colonial and post-colonial histories of one of the most populous regions in the world, South Asia. We focus on key political, social, religious, and cultural movements and events in the regions that became modern India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, and emphasise the plurality of South Asian historical experiences.

• The Problem of the Past

  History always illuminates two periods: the period under examination and the period in which the history is being written. This module explores this dichotomy.

• Total War in the Modern Era

  This module examines the concept and development of ‘Total War’ in the period from the French Revolution to the end of the Second World War. It first introduces students to the changing nature of warfare in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It then shows students how these changes related to and impacted on the two world wars and how they were fought.

• Global London

Compulsory

• Historians and their Craft

  This module prepares students for the Dissertation by introducing them to some methodological and theoretical issues that historians encounter in the practice of history. Students are introduced to ways in which historians have engaged with other disciplines. They reflect upon public history and why history matters in today’s society by tracing developments in historical method and examining different approaches to history.

• The First World War: Causes, Course, Consequences

  This module aims to introduce the main areas of debate surrounding the origins, course and consequences of the First World War and to introduce the range of different interpretative and historiographical tools used by historians in categorizing and understanding the First World War.

Optional

• Australia and The Modern World

  The module focuses on Australia’s connections with the wider world from the European maritime voyages to the Pacific in the eighteenth century up to contemporary times. Major themes dealing with varied aspects of Australia’s role in the modern world have been selected for study.

• Colonialism and Decolonization in Africa

  Africa is one of the most misunderstood and misrepresented regions of the modern world. More often than not, its history is presented as a long series of human disasters, conflict, and disorder. However, Africa’s modern history is also one of resistance, and dynamic and creative responses to changing circumstances. This module examines Africa’s multifaceted history since about 1800.

• From Gibraltar to Suez: Britain and the Mediterranean, 1704-1956

  This module assesses Britain’s strategic relationship with the broadly- defined Mediterranean region, including the Middle East, North Africa and Southern Europe, over a period of roughly 250 years. In particular, it examines British efforts to exert power and influence there from their first serious encroachment with the taking of Gibraltar in 1704, through to the Suez Crisis in 1956. 

• Insurgency and Counter-insurgency

  This module examines the concept and development of insurgency and counter-insurgency from the classical period to the present, with an emphasis on the post-1789 period, especially the post-1945 wars of decolonisation. The module will conclude with the post-9/11 ‘war on terror’ and current examples of insurgency and counter-insurgency. 

• National Security Intelligence

  This module furnishes students with an overview to the field of national security intelligence. It also examines in greater detail intelligence collection, analysis, counterintelligence, covert action, and other selected topics.

• The State and Revolution

  This module provides students with an understanding of the historical emergence of two of the central concepts of modern political thought: the state and revolution, or the constitution of political order and the process of fundamental political transformation. We study the development of these concepts in some of the major events of political modernity, from the 16th to the 19th centuries.

Compulsory

• Advanced Research Skills for History
• Military and International History Dissertation

  The final year military and international history dissertation provides undergraduates with the opportunity to provide evidence of abilities not usually measured by the written papers and assessments through their degree - notably the ability to work independently in a subject area of the student’s choice.

• The Royal Navy in the Era of the Great Naval Races circa 1880-1914

  This module looks at and evaluates two naval races. the first between Britain, France and Russia; the second between Britain and Germany.

Optional

• Apocalypse! Crisis and Society

  Explore the social & political significance of representations of national and global crises, and public perceptions of controversies. Students analyse dystopian popular and scientific discourses that dwell on disorder and catastrophe. Indicative content includes risk, uncertainty, globalisation, the environment, disease, capitalism. Public understanding, perception and engagement with popular and scientific controversies and notions of crisis.

• Borders, Nations and Belonging in Modern Europe

  From Brexit to the wall between the USA and Mexico, borders are an important part of contemporary political debate. But where do our ideas about borders come from? Why do borders represent such powerful symbols? And who makes decisions about who can and cannot cross? This module explores these questions (and others) through the history of borders in modern Europe.

• Fascist Italy, 1919-1945: Revolution, Conflict and Collapse

  This module explores the rise and fall of Fascist Italy through political, socio-cultural, economic and military perspectives, among others.

• Long Walk to Freedom: The Rise and Fall of Apartheid in South Africa

  Encouraging students to consider the extent to which the current situation in South Africa is a product of the colonial era, postcolonial circumstance, or Africa’s deeper past. It will familiarise students with the main developments in Africanist and South Africanist historiography and encourage students to study South African history from both an Afro-centric and European perspective.

• Making the Social

  An introduction to core concepts in social theory. The emphasis is on concepts through which students can relate to the worlds they inhabit and the lives they live, connecting these to a broad canvas: the diversity of social existence and the sweep of human history. The focus is on basic building blocks of social existence.

• Religion and Power in South Asian History

  What is the relationship between religious identity and social, political, military, or economic power? In this module, we examine the role that religious practice and belief has played in South Asian societies from the early modern through the contemporary era. We introduce the intersecting histories of major South Asian religions, including Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism, and Buddhism, among others. 

• Terrorism and Counterterrorism

  This module aims to address a series of empirical questions regarding the causes, conduct, and consequences of campaigns of terrorism in the modern world. It provides students with an understanding of a series of key debates in the social science literature.

• The Arab-Israeli Conflict

  We survey the Arab-Israeli conflict, covering three overarching themes: 1) Origins of the Conflict; 2) Evolution of the Conflict; and 3) Peace and its Limits. The module covers the origins of both national movements, the development of the conflict under British rule, the major Arab-Israeli wars, peace agreements, and it ends with recent events. 

• The British Maritime World, 1660-1815

  The module focuses on the British Maritime World in a period that witnessed significant advances in oceanic exploration, trade and shipping and increased naval protection and supremacy. Students will cover both a broad overview of selected important topics and closer focus on varied types of primary source material.

• The Creation of the Western Alliance, 1945-1955

  Students will examine from an international history perspective the process by which the NATO alliance was formed in the years following the Second World War. They will analyse and evaluate the historical evidence underpinning competing theories concerning the growth of confrontation between Britain, Western Europe, and the United States on the one hand and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on the other.

• The Second World War

  This module explores the military, political and socio-economic events and developments of the Second World War. Students will focus on the historiography and cultural significance of the war up to the present day and will adopt an “international history” approach by building its analysis around the interaction of states and peoples in this global conflict.

• Violence and Conflict in Eastern Africa

  In this module students will explore the role of violence and conflict in the course of eastern Africa’s modern history. Students will gain an in depth understanding of the ways in which violence and conflict have influenced economy, society and polity in the modern era, through a consideration of broad themes, such as age, ethnicity, and resources, as well as specific case studies taken from across the region.

• War and Humanitarianism

  This module aims to provide students with a critical understanding of the main themes in the anthropology of war and humanitarian assistance. These include the anthropology of violence, how societies respond in the aftermath of violence, the origins of humanitarianism, the concept of emergency, refugees and Giorgio Agamben’s concept of ‘bare life’.