In this unit students develop critical problem-solving skills by engaging them with contemporary issues in politics and international relations. Unit content is based on issues at the forefront of the news cycle. Lectures introduce the various ways in which academic researchers and public intellectuals respond to world events. Tutorials allow the students an opportunity to discuss potential solutions with tutors and peers. Suggested topics could include, Brexit, Trump presidency, the Syrian War, leadership spills, same-sex marriage, and populism.

This unit provides students with a foundational understanding in two key areas of international relations. First students will gain an understanding of the history of the international political and economic system, and the forces, events, and processes that have shaped the contemporary international system. Second, students will be introduced to the main theories of international relations and explore how these help explain the forces that shape international relations.

What is politics? What is political science? How can we compare political systems? This unit introduces key political institutions, organisations, processes, activities and ideologies and how these differ between countries. It explains different approaches to political science, using examples from a range of countries, including Australia.

We can understand contemporary debates in politics and international relation via studying popular culture. The unit is based on three core concepts: power, identity and conflict. After introducing major theories and definitions the unit will apply them in multifaceted ways to popular culture: from House of Cards to Borgen, and from Eurovision to Game of Thrones.

This unit is designed to develop students real-world problem-solving skills in a team setting. Students will work in teams to devise solutions to case studies of contemporary problems (e.g. wars, natural disasters, economic and diplomatic crises). Student groups will analyse cases and consider how different problems at both the domestic and international level are framed by interactions between social, cultural, political and economic institutions (including governments, aid agencies, the United Nations and others).

This unit provides students with a comprehensive understanding of the main areas, processes, actors and structures involved in contemporary international relations. The unit is designed to build on the theoretical and historical knowledge the students have acquired in the Level One unit, Introduction to International Relations, and develops the students' understanding of the international system. The unit covers four main areas; international security, international organisations, international political economy, international law.

Public policy is about what governments do or choose not to do. This unit explores how public policy is formulated, implemented and evaluated, and what governance processes are typically followed. It also covers circumstances under which governments may choose to abstain from taking policy action. This unit examines a range of approaches to the study of public policy in both theory and practice and in the context of national and international politics, with both an Australian and comparative focus.

This unit introduces students to the diversity of theoretical and methodological approaches used by politics and international relations scholars. 'What is politics?' and 'how can we understand it?' are questions used to explore conceptual approaches, ranging from behaviouralism to feminism, and the way in which social science research is designed and conducted.

This unit introduces students to the notion of human rights, outlines international human rights enforcement mechanisms and the application of human rights standards in Australia. Throughout the unit we consider the evolution of human rights in Australia and raise questions about the adequacy of Australia's existing human rights machinery, and examine the reasons for Australia's reluctance to adopt a Bill of Rights. We examine government policies toward the indigenous Australians, women and refugees. We also consider current legislative changes to combat terrorism and consider the implications of these changes on Australian's civil rights.

This unit considers key themes in modern and contemporary political thought. It uses primary texts to address topics such as sovereignty, democracy, fascism, liberalism, human rights, politics and religion, violence, and political identity. Authors may include Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Kant, Nietzsche, Marx, J.S. Mill, Tocqueville, Rawls, Arendt, Schmitt, and Foucault.

Emotional policy issues dominate much of the agenda setting process. From shark culls following shark bites, to lock-out laws following "King Hit" tragedies, the way emotional episodes place pressures on policymakers and short-circuit the policymaking process are a critical area of modern public policy analysis. This unit focuses on the role of emotions in policymaking. Themes across the literature include the role of risk and affect on agenda setting, the use of policy instruments and policy design to influence behaviour as well as social movement mobilisation and media salience.

Until the 1997 East Asian economic/financial crisis, Southeast Asia was acclaimed as one of the most dynamic and rapidly growing regional economies in the Asia-Pacific sphere. Not surprisingly, the region has attracted enormous interest from social scientists and the wider business community in Australia. However, there is limited consensus about the causes for the region's economic performance and socio-political trajectory during the 'boom' and 'post-boom' years. This unit aims to place the region's economic experiences and socio-political changes within a broader historical and comparative context. Such an approach allows us to better appreciate the economic continuities, understand the major socio-political dilemmas and changing patterns of development.

Using the comparative method, this unit examines the politics of New Zealand and a number of significant Pacific nations. The unit examines these nations' political cultures, structures and history, and explores regional governance and regionally-significant policy issues.

This unit introduces the theoretical foundations, essential concepts and central issues in the field of international security. It provides students with analytical tools to understand and participate in current debates concerning security and threats. The first part of the unit provides an introduction to the theoretical interpretations of international security. The second part discusses security phenomena, problems and strategies, including the coercive use of force, deterrence, guerrilla and counterinsurgency, nuclear stability, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, crisis management, arms races and disarmament, security cooperation and security regimes. The discussion in this part includes a critical review of the dilemmas, strategies, and solutions in each of the issue areas.

International Organisations is a survey of both the range of institutions created in response to various economic, security and environmental challenges faced by states and other actors in the global system, and some of the most prominent theories aimed at explaining them. The unit will be arranged around a series of case studies of particular issue areas, from international peacekeeping, to the regulation of multinational corporations, and the struggle to slow global warming. More broadly, the unit will question whether international organisations are instruments of or rivals to sovereign states, and whether they reflect the hegemony of the West, solutions to international collective problems, or agents of new transnational communities.

Environmental issues pose increasingly difficult challenges to our societies. What is the nature of these challenges? Where have they come from? How have political institutions adapted to them, at the national and international levels? What further changes might be necessary to better meet them? How might these changes come about? What effects might they have on the future of politics? This unit of study will engage these kinds of questions as an introduction to some theoretical and practical dimensions of environmental politics.

This unit examines how processes of social change are shaped by a variety of non-institutionalised political actors, including individuals, interest groups and social movements. It will answer questions such as: What is political participation? How and why do people act politically in Australia? How does participation both shape policy agendas and lead to societal change? The main conceptual topics include: political participation, political socialisation, civil society, interest groups and social movements. This conceptual framework will be used to examine the strategic repertoires adopted by movements and groups in society, including: young people, environmental movements, identity movements, the labour movement, anti-corporate globalisation action and community-based politics.

This unit is primarily about news, its production, contents and impacts. It will examine the special demands of different news organisations and of reporting different news areas; the news media as an arena in political conflicts and the consequent interests and strategies of various groups in affecting news content; and the impacts of news on political processes and relationships. Our primary focus is on Australia, but there is some comparison with other affluent liberal democracies. The substantive areas the unit will focus on include election reporting, scandals and the reporting of war and terrorism.

This unit introduces a variety of non-traditional security (NTS) challenges, along with different perspectives and policies regarding threats other than war. How does NTS relate to war and peace, and what dangers are most threatening? When does conflict over scarce resources - food, water, energy - affect survival? And what can be done about emerging threats like climate change and cyber attack? Considering these and other questions, students will tackle some of the greatest security challenges in the world.

This unit of study introduces students to the key global transformations of the contemporary era, focusing on the role of the United States amid the challenges posed by: globalisation, free trade, the rise of Islamic extremism, nuclear proliferation, and the emergence of China and India as world powers. The unit is designed to give students the ability to look behind today's news headlines to understand the underlying forces driving them, particularly the behaviour and views of key policy makers and opinion leaders.

This unit introduces students to US political institutions and political culture. The unit will examine the electoral system and recent presidential elections as well as presidencies from 1960 onwards. It will explore US public policies in the area of race, welfare, and criminal justice and analyse how policy ideas and proposals come into law. It will also introduce the dominant ideologies in US politics. By the end of the unit students will have a comprehensive understanding of American Domestic politics.

Interdisciplinarity is a key skill in fostering agility in life and work. This unit provides learning experiences that build students' skills, knowledge and understanding of the application of their disciplinary background to interdisciplinary contexts. In this unit, students will work in teams and develop interdisciplinarity skills through problem-based learning projects responding to 'real world problems'.

This course will examine how advancement in Information and Communications Technology (ICT) can lead to social and political change, particularly in developing nations. Can the Internet make societies more democratic? Does ICT empower the people or enable state surveillance? We will compare and contrast how ICT expansion affects different types of political regimes. Case studies of global and local movements will be analyzed.

The end of the Cold War marks the victory of democracy as the 'best' political system in the world. Yet many existing democracies today are fledgling and of poor quality and are at risk of breaking down. This unit will examine advanced theoretical and empirical debates about the origin, development and collapse of democracies since the 20th century. It also focuses in-depth on understanding why some authoritarian regimes remain resilient despite an ongoing global trend towards democratization.

Over half the world's population is urban. Economic and social change depends on the vitality, inclusiveness and resilience of cities, which form the locus for public policymaking and politics. This unit focuses on the policy and politics of governing cities, which require mediation between multiple and competing interests and needs. Themes include citizen participation, equity, and innovation; contending theories about power relations between the actors, institutions and interests of urban politics; and how these relate to the strategies adopted.

This unit offers a gender perspective on human rights, with a focus on gender and insecure international contexts. The unit covers themes related to the challenges of pursuing human rights, violations of human rights, and the role of civil society groups in advocating human rights. Attention will be given to the gendered nature of human rights and to specific issues that impact men and women differently when it comes to human rights protection and promotion.

This unit explores how the public sector sets policy and delivers public services. It begins by using the main concepts and theories of public management and governance to assess the various trade offs that are involved in designing and implementing different types of public sector reform. These theories are then applied to evaluate specific reform initiatives and compare reform patterns between different countries and across different policy sectors. Topics include: public administration, privatisation, performance management, partnership working and community engagement.

Globalisation is posited as a process of deep change to the international order, one that restructures the role of the state (internally and externally), and has implications for a wide range of actors (international institutions, corporations, interest groups and individuals). One argument is that this erodes the capacity of national, and sub-national governments to manage economic and social change. In response to these concerns, this unit will appraise the debates about the impact of globalisation and state power erosion.

This unit critically examines the role that ethnic conflict plays in national and international politics. Students will have advanced knowledge of nationalism, and close familiarity with current thinking around the role of the ethnic nationalism in particular. This unit will analyse the most influential theories, historical and contemporary, about the role of ethnic nationalism (as opposed to civic nationalism), regionally and internationally. We will consider a range of competing theoretical approaches, concentrating on the theory of a "divided society".

This unit examines why there is no clear consensus on the status of Islam and sharia (Islamic law) within the state, constitution and political system. It will also consider whether the secular democratic state is consistent with Islamic principles such as adil (justice) and maslaha (common good). The unit highlights the linkages between historical, political and cultural Islam and the emergence of discourses which provide a contextual understanding of the faith.

Power is the essential concept of political science, which is the systematic study of politics. Bertrand Russell, perhaps the greatest mind of the 20th Century, said power is the central concept of all the social sciences. Students explore this concept in different parts of political science and survey some debates on power, assessing the advantages and disadvantages of concepts of power. There are three themes in this unit. The first is the distribution of power in society. The second is power in comparative politics and the third is power in international relations. The emphasis is on the nature, sources and use of power.

Science and technology have been intimately involved with security ever since mankind discovered fire and started using tools. This interdisciplinary unit considers how scientific facts and technical artifacts influence security and, conversely, how security influences science and technology. Through advanced reading, independent research, seminar discussions, and other exercises, students will analyze and apply a wide variety of perspectives - strategic, organizational, cultural, and ethical, among others - to evaluate the complex relationship between modern science, advanced technology, and international security.

Just how important are parliaments to democracy? This unit takes a critical look at how well Australian parliaments carry out their representative, law-making and accountability functions. Analytical material will be complemented by practical insights from members and staff of the NSW Parliament.

Builds on students' knowledge of Australian politics to examine the background, context, conduct and implications of politics relevant to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and policy affecting indigenous Australians. Explores aspects of inclusion and exclusion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people from the formal political system; internal power relations within and between communities, social movements and representative bodies; compare Australian indigenous politics with those of other nations, and; look at a range of policy areas.

The unit serves as a rigorous investigation of the politics of violent and criminal non-state actors. It will start with a conceptual discussion of such groups, focusing on analysis of their structure and behaviour and the roles that globalisation and technology play in non-state threats, before moving on to specific types of dark networks. The dark networks that may be covered include terrorist organisations, non-state nuclear proliferation networks, and various forms of organised crime, including maritime piracy, drug trafficking, mafias, mundane smuggling, and money laundering.

This unit considers how the concept of risk and risk management applies to politics and international relations. It examines the historical origins of the concept of risk and how it has been applied to different fields, before then exploring risk management principles and risk mitigation strategies. Students will then apply these concepts and principles to a series of historical and contemporary case studies, drawn from domestic (Australian) and international politics.

This unit provides an advanced overview of the theory and practice of economic relations by and between states. It considers the four major theoretical approaches to international political economy: economic nationalism, liberalism, neo-Marxism and poststructuralism. The unit focuses in particular on relations between the developed and developing world by applying each of the four main theories to developing country regions. Through a comparative regional analysis, students are acquainted with and critique the theoretical basis and practice of economic development.

Modern corporations have multiple roles and responsibilities. They perform functions for which states were once responsible, and are political and social as well as market actors. This unit provides students with theoretical and methodological approaches to explore how political agendas are set as well as influenced by corporate decision-making, and an advanced understanding of the social and ethical responsibilities and impacts of business.

This unit offers an advanced examination of environmental politics in Australia. It will provide a survey of the various issues, stakeholders and movements at the forefront of key environmental debates, including analysis of the theory and discourses of the environment, and an examination of policy implementation.

The unit examines the Australian party system, including colonial-era pre-party politics, the development of major parties (Labor, Liberal and National) and minor parties (Greens, One Nation etc), parties and ideology, parties and social movements, internal party politics, parties and the law, parties and elections, parties and parliamentary politics, and parties and public policy. Emphasis is placed on how theoretical and comparative models of political parties help to explain Australian party politics.

This unit will shed light on the springs of change in politics and economics and their intersections in East Asia, which includes South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, and Singapore. The unit examines the political and economic transformation in the region. Among the major issues considered are: Are East Asia's political institutions distinctive? How does economic change affect political power and the state? Will democratisation and globalisation undermine the distinctive traditions of the region?

What enables us as political animals to live together in political communities? This unit examines key concepts underpinning our contemporary political life handed down to us through centuries of political thought; from the Athenian city-state to contemporary reflections on identity. Some of the concepts and problematiques explored may include: the state; sovereignty; the political; liberty; property; the citizen vs. the subject, reasons vs. the passions.

The unit will discusses all aspects of the cost of international security conflict, including collateral damage. By cost of war, the unit refers to the material, human, cultural, social, institutional, and development impact of war and security conflict. Each student will chose one angle of the cost of conflict, and develop her/his own research agenda, as she/he applies the theoretical knowledge gained from the literature to empirical world.

This unit provides an overview of the American political system and the formulation of foreign policy. The unit considers how foreign policy is made through the interaction of executive, legislative and judicial branches and with other elements of civil society, with a special emphasis on the post-Cold War period. It seeks to answer: (a) what is the influence of domestic politics on US foreign policy; and (b) how does the US system cope with the apparent contradictions between its ideals and the imperatives of global power?

This unit examines the diverse theoretical and methodological approaches used by political researchers, including, for example, institutional, behavioural, discourse and feminist approaches to political inquiry, and the use of quantitative and qualitative methods. The unit develops the student's ability to meet the demands of an independent project like an Honours thesis. It will cover selecting and refining a topic, identifying research to be undertaken and planning how to do it, bibliographic searches, and writing a report or thesis.

The seminar will provide a discussion-based setting to examine core topics in the field of international relations such as international security, international political economy, and international relations theory. Students will discuss and debate ideas, and develop analytical and research essays on topics pitched at an advanced level.

This unit is the first semester of a year-long project to complete an Honours thesis. Each student writes an 18-20000 word thesis under the supervision of a full-time member of the Government Department staff. The thesis is expected to make an original contribution to the study of politics and international relations and will count for 60 percent of the student's fourth year grade.

Each student writes an 18-20000 word thesis under the supervision of a full-time member of the Government Department staff. The thesis is expected to make an original contribution to the study of politics and international relations and will count for 60 percent of the student's fourth year grade.