United Kingdom - England

The conflict environment in which peace mediators operate has changed considerably since the end of the Cold War. The discrete Cold War conflicts between a state and a major political rebel group, each backed by a Cold War power, have fragmented into localized, urbanized, and criminalized conflicts of the kind we see in Syria, Afghanistan, Mali, and South Sudan today. At the same time, peace mediation as a field has become increasingly professionalized and standardized through the international codification of peace mediation norms and techniques of peace process design. This course considers how the process design tools, concepts of conflict analysis, and norms underpinning "peace mediation" are evolving to negotiate peace in increasingly complex intra-state conflicts. The course begins by examining the traditional realist and liberal concepts of conflict analysis and techniques of peace process design developed to understand and manage conflict during the Cold War and immediate post-Cold War era. Using critiques from peace studies, comparative politics, global IR theory, sociology and post-colonial theory, the course highlights the weaknesses of these traditional IR approaches to peace mediation in the post 9/11 international security environment.

The course covers various aspects of the changing international business environment, and their impact upon business operations and strategy. It gives students an appreciation of the business difficulties faced; the variety of factors influencing the choices and compromises that have to be made in international businesses, and the implications of those for the future viability and effectiveness of the organizations concerned.

This course covers Social Psychology and the scientific study of individuals and groups. Students explore the key approaches and methodologies in Social Psychology, evaluating different perspectives on studying individual differences. The course may draw from areas such as motivation, emotion, health and well-being, personality, and intergroup behavior.