Overview

Honours students are required to register for 5 courses for their academic year. For Semester One you must register for INTR4018 which is a compulsory course + the honours long essay INTR4037 which is also compulsory + 1 course of your choice. Students must also register for the Honours long essay INTR4037 In the second semester you must register for any 2 of the courses offered in Semester Two. Students will not be allowed to register for more than 2 courses per semester without the permission from both the Head of Discipline and the Faculty of Humanities.

Part-time Enrolment

If you are a part-time student, these 5 courses will be spread over 2 years – 1 course per semester and the long essay will be due in the September of your second year. Please note that although we offer a part-time degree, our courses are taught during normal working hours. If you are employed you would need to arrange to attend class once a week. We are happy to provide employers with letters

Mid-year Admission

Students who have been given permission to begin their degree in Semester Two (July) will register to

2 courses of their choice + the Honours long essay. Please consult with the Honours coordinate by September and provide them with your proposed topic for that they can assign you an advisor. In Semester One of the following year students then will take the compulsory INTR4018 research course + 1 course of their choice. The Honours long essay will be submitted in mid-May of this year.

Please remember – All students must enrol in the IR Theory and Methods Course – INTR4018 in the first semester as well as the Long Essay – INTR4037 – unless you are doing a joint Honours and doing these components in your other subject.

Curriculum

INTR4018 – International Relations Theory and Methods

This course is designed to introduce students to qualitative and quantitative methods used to conduct research in International Relations. Independent well designed and executed research is required for your postgraduate studies and this course will provide the basic building blocks to assist in becoming a competent researcher.  Students will be assessed on their ability to apply what they have learnt in class to practical various research scenarios.

INTR4037A – IR Long Essay

As the 5th component of this degree students are required to submit a long essay.  The long essay is an independent research project, where students are expected to apply the skills provided in Theory and Research Methods Course – in devising research feasible research topic as well draw on the knowledge that they have accumulated to date with regards their selected areas of interest.

Honours First Semester Elective Courses

Students are required to select any one of the courses below.

INTR4006A - Conflict Prevention and Resolution in Africa

This series of seminars examines conflict and conflict resolutions strategies in Africa since 1990. It aims to expose students to causes, courses and consequences of African conflicts and efforts to resolve them. Situating these conflicts within the internal, regional and external contexts furnishes a broader perspective on how the have evolved and been solved. Areas of focus include West Africa, the Great Lakes region, the Horn of Africa and North Africa.

INTR4010 – Gender, Race in IR

This course aims primarily to introduce students to the study of gender in International Relations. This course adopts an inclusive definition of the term ‘gender’ and endeavours to embrace the entire spectrum of gender identities. The course has been designed to facilitate a critical, counter-hegemonic engagement with the dominant or mainstream ontologies and epistemologies prevalent both in the study and practice of International Relations. From the outset students will explore the intersectionality of gender, race, and class in multiple facets of the discipline. Thus, the course allows students to explore IR in new and different ways, revealing hidden inequalities and challenges while opening new avenues for imagining, thinking as well as creating just equitable and sustainable societies and global practices.

INTR4013A - International Organizations

This is an advanced course investigating the functioning and impact of a variety of international organizations on altering or moderating the behaviour of international relations actors. Consequently, a key focus will be on the creation of international norms and the factors that lead to the effective localisation of these at regional, state and intrastate levels. This course is essential for any student wishing to undertake research on international law, and issues related to human rights or any issue the includes international instruments that have implications for the behaviour of other international relations actors. This course is a good pairing as well for students who are interested in examining transnational, gender or race issues in international relations as part of their long research project.

INTR4053A – Empire and the Crisis of Civilization

This course will explore the historical and contemporary understandings of ‘Empire’ in the social sciences. Drawing on critical theory this course will assess how Empire relates to territoriality, power, culture and economic accumulation. These dimensions of Empire will be located within a historicised perspective to provide a critical understanding of the relationship between Empire and contemporary capitalism. At the same time, the making of Empire will be related to the engendering of ‘civilisation’. The genealogy of the category civilisation and its discursive (ab)uses will be critically explored. The course will also investigate how contemporary capitalism defines the meaning of civilisation and constitutes civilisation.

INTR 4044A – Development Issues

This course focuses on ideas and debates about development.  It examines how the notion of development has been reflected in the international system, as well as how the international actors and institutions have grappled with development challenges.  The first part of the course will examine conceptions of development and international through the prisms of key thinkers such as Sir Arthur Lewis, Gunnar Mrydal, P.T. Bauer, Hans Singer, Raul Prebisch, Amartya Sen, Adebayo Adedeji, and Douglas North.  In the latter part of the course, attention will focus on some contemporary concerns such as the origins of the developmental state, the role of the World Bank, corruption, and the G20 in global governance.  These questions will be examined through scholarly and policy debates.  The course seeks to expose students to the historical and contemporary discussions on various facets of development to broaden their horizons and generate serious research interests. 

INTR4054A– Africa Elections

The International Politics of Elections in Sub-Saharan Africa will address a fundamental issue that could reshape Africa’s international relations in the 21st century: Can Africa’s diverse community of 54 sovereign states develop the norms, institutional capacity, and political resolve, to prevent, mitigate, and resolve risks of deadly conflict within member states of the African Union without undermining peace, stability, and the prospects for cooperation and increasing integration among them? The course thus seeks to unpack the changing ‘logic’ and ‘grammar’ of elections in Africa, and in Africa’s international relations, and in exploring why elections matter? The course examines the role elections play in mitigating and preventing deadly conflict, and in creating the institutional adaptative framework and capacity to manage multisectoral and multidimensional challenges such as anthropogenic change. The course traces what some of the international and domestic dynamics are in driving and constraining elections on the continent and considers the role(s) that international electoral assistance and observation bodies (EOBs), alongside regional, continental and global governance institutions play in elections management and electoral integrity on the continent. The course equips students with the means to better analyse, understand, and assess Africa’s ongoing experiment with elections, in the wider context of Africa’s international relations. This is a reading intensive course and case study analysis, student presentations, and essay writing are used as ongoing forms of assessment. In addition to the required weekly readings, students are expected to keep abreast of ongoing and unfolding developments relating to elections on the continent.

Honours Second Block Electives

Students are required to register for any 2 of the electives below. Please note as well that the Honour long essay is due in mid-October. 

INTR4001A - Diplomacy & Negotiation

Diplomacy is the art of creating and managing relationships among nations and the art of negotiation is that of forging relationships through agreements. This course investigates how foreign policy objectives are practically realised through the strategies of diplomats and the different ways they engage with counterparts from different countries. The process involves the interaction between having clear policy understanding between policymakers, diplomats, and negotiators, establishing working relationships with key parties, being able to accurately target the right people to engage with, understanding and accounting for cultural, governance and other differences. Moreover, through syndicate work students will also experiment with using the various negotiation strategies and tactics that they have studies in course, in a stimulated diplomatic context. As a postgraduate course, students are assumed to understand what constitutes foreign policy, particular related theories and the variables that determine what and who policy objective are identified, prioritised and executed.

INTR4017A - The International Relations of the Asia Pacific Region

The course builds on the undergraduate East Asia course advancing deeper knowledge and understanding of the East Asia region. Students will investigate the importance of East Asia in terms of economic growth and the shifting balance of power. Key regional issue in East Asia and their potential as destabilisers – peace and the productive evolution of region, together with its importance of its growing engagement with Africa. Please note as this is an advanced course it assumes that students have studied the region at an ungraduated level and have a good grounding in issues related to it.

INTR4039A - The Role of the Media in IR

Understanding the role that the media plays in international relations is a complex undertaking and the degree to which its narratives sway public opinion and influences the actions of states and other international actors is contested. Moreover, there are many instances where the media has been co-opted and controlled by states and other influential actors to produce narratives that champion foreign policy actions, particularly military interventions. Indeed, Noam Chomsky’s book Manufacturing Consent presents a strong case for the way the Western media, are as controlled by the agenda of liberal political and economic interests that whether they constitute the “free press” they claim to be is debatable. Moreover, the emergence of social media, streaming platforms and the ability to leak classified information poses further challenges to state sovereignty and the ability to control information to which citizens have access. These are some of the issues which this course will engage with over the course of the semester.

INTR4048A – Transnational Issues

This course asks the question of what it is to think with the globe and its exigent problems rather than from a disciplinary point of view of states in their relation to each other and to the presumed world order. It raises questions about war, peace and migration that act beyond national border and takes into account the fact that the contemporary world is characterised by movement across borders rather than only within and in-between them. How do we move beyond a liberal understanding of the relations between states while at the same time reflecting on the cliches and axiomatic assumptions that undergird our understanding of International Relations.

INTR4052A - Africa & IR: Critical Perspectives

What is Africa’s place in International Relations (IR)? On one hand, a raft of scholars claim that Africa must be “recentred” in the study of International Politics. On the other, some reject “bringing Africa back in” to the discipline. In this course, we traverse key debates surrounding Africa’s place in IR theory. We begin by surveying the role of race in the creation of international order. We then examine different perspectives on Africa’s contribution to IR theory, before exploring case studies and counterarguments. Throughout, we also reinforce our knowledge of African geography. We also cover various practical skills concerning academic reading, essay writing, and examination technique. 

SOSS4063 A– Data Science and Data Analysis

This course introduces statistical social research, with applications in the social sciences and related fields. It introduces the logic and methods of statistical social research along with the basics of statistical computing. Topics include univariate and bivariate descriptive statistics and graphics, and an introduction to inferential statistics through applications such as univariate confidence intervals and tests of bivariate association.

Entry Requirements

Selections Criteria

• Degree Criteria
• Students must have majored in either International Relations or Political Studies. In other words, courses in either subject were taken in each year of study, up until the final year of the degree.
• All foreign qualifications must be assessed by SAQA as having the equivalent of a NQF level 7.
• Applications that do not meet these criteria will be rejected.

• Mark Criteria

• For automatic admission, in the final year of the undergraduate degree, an average of above 70% for either the major in IR or Political Studies must be achieved.
• The programme does not cap the number of students who qualify for automatic admission.
• Students who achieve between 65% to 69% as an average for either their IR or Political Studies major will be offered a place in the Honours programme as determined by the capacity of the enrol further students after the number of students who qualify for automatic admission has been ascertain and the degree still has capacity to enrol more students.
• Offers will then be made in rank order according to average. In other words, we will first offer places to those with 69% averages and then if there is still capacity, we will next make offers to those who have 68% and so forth until enrolment capacity is met.
• All applications that have an average of less than 65% will be rejected. As this is a Faculty criteria, we are unable to assist students who wish to appeal this decision. However, students can choose to repeat third year IR of Pols subjects to improve their marks and then re-apply.

Applicants should include with their application:

• A curriculum vitae
• transcript of marks
• letter of motivation
• An example of recent academic or professional writing

University Application Process

University Fees and Funding

Click here to see the current average tuition fees. The Fees site also provides information about the payment of fees and closing dates for fees payments. Once you have applied you will be able to access the fees estimator on the student self-service portal.

For information about postgraduate funding opportunities, including the postgraduate merit award, click here. Please also check your School website for bursary opportunities. NRF bursaries: The National Research Foundation (NRF) offers a wide range of opportunities in terms of bursaries and fellowships to students pursuing postgraduate studies. External bursaries portal: The Bursaries South Africa website provides a comprehensive list of bursaries in South Africa.