| Qualification | Start dates | Entry requirements | Full- or Part-time | Assessment | |
| Master of Arts (MA) | April July September | First or second class degree or relevant work experience | Level of English required | Full-time (1 year) | Exam, written assessment and dissertation |
Course outline
The MA in Global Affairs is a broad based, multi-disciplinary programme unique to Buckingham. The original programme was innovatively designed and founded as a gift to the University of Buckingham by alumnus Charles Henn L.Arts(Hons)(Buckingham), M.Sc.[Econ.] (LSE), LL.M., Ph.D (Cantab.) who was Consultant Professor and who continues in an honorary capacity as the programme’s Founding Director. Dr Henn is also a Senior Visiting Fellow of the Beloff Centre for the Study of Liberty.
The programme aims to educate graduates for rapid advancement into senior professional work in foreign and other ministries, international organisations, financial and commercial institutions, trade and industry, international journalism and global civil society organisations. Areas of study include global economies and finance; public international law; international law relating to trade, investment and finance; global governance; global security; human rights; environmental issues; global diplomacy; and global business. Students are trained in the skills that would be required in senior professional work. The courses are taught intensively in lectures, seminars and small group tutorials; they assume little prior knowledge but rapidly bring students to an advanced level of understanding. Buckingham is a small academic community and students have personal and frequent access to their instructors. The programme is also suitable for those without a specific career aim in mind but who wish to acquire an advanced understanding of global affairs.
Teaching staff
David Armstrong, PhD (ANU), Professor of Global Politics. Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and founder / editor of Diplomacy and Statecraft and editor of the Review of International Studies. He has many publications, initially on aspects of East Asian international relations and in the last twenty years on international organisation and international law.
More information about David Armstrong
John Clarke, MA, DPhil (Oxon.), Professor of History, Secretary to Council. Prize Fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. Research areas include George III, the social and economic history of the early 19th Century and British diplomatic history. Author of British Diplomacy and Foreign Policy 1782-1865: The National Interest (London: Unwin Hyman, 1989).
More information about John Clarke.
Michael Jefferson, MA (Oxon.), is also Visiting Professor at London Metropolitan University, and Professor of International Business and Sustainability in the Centre for International Business and Sustainability at London Metropolitan Business School. He spent nearly 20 years at Shell in various roles from Head of Planning in Europe to Director of Oil Supply and Trading, and 10 years as Deputy Secretary-General of the World Energy Council. He has written several books in the fields of energy and economics; contributed to books on economic and social history; and written or co-authored many peer-reviewed papers in the energy and environmental field.
More information about Michael Jefferson.
Richard Langhorne, MA (Cantab.). Professor of Global Politics, Programme Director of the MA in Global Affairs. Formerly Director of the Centre for International Studies at Cambridge University; Fellow of St John’s College, Cambridge; Director of Wilton Park, think-tank and diplomatic conference centre of the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office; most recently, Professor of Political Science and Director of the Division of Global Affairs, Rutgers University, New Jersey, USA. Author of numerous books, including The Coming of Globalization: Its Evolution and Contemporary Consequences (St Martin’s Press, 2001) and The Essentials of Global Politics (Hodder Arnold, 2005).
More information about Richard Langhorne.
Cornelia Navari, PhD (Birmingham). Visiting Professor in International Affairs. Publications include British Politics and the Spirit of the Age: Political Concepts in Action (Keele University Press, 2000), Chatham House and British Foreign Policy during the Inter-War Period (with Andrea Bosco, Lothian Foundation Press, 1994) and Internationalism and the State in the 20th Century (Routledge, 2000). Her current research is into international regulatory regimes and involves a number of linked projects covering regime development and the elaboration of new compliance systems.
More information about Cornelia Navari
Julian Richards, PhD (Cambridge). Lecturer in Security Studies. Dr Julian Richards obtained a PhD in political violence in Pakistan in Cambridge University in 1992. He then entered the UK Ministry of Defence, where he worked for a number of years on defence and security policy, returning to academic life as a Research Fellow with Brunel University’s Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies in 2006. In 2008, he jointly founded the new Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies (BUCSIS) at the University of Buckingham, and joined the Global Affairs teaching staff two years later.
More information about Julian Richards
Martin Ricketts, BA (Hons) [Econ] (Newcastle), DPhil (York). Professor of Economic Organisation, Dean of Humanities. Honorary Professor, Heriot-Watt University, UK . Formerly Economic Director, National Economic Development Office, UK (1991-1992); Chairman of the International Advisory Council of the Institute of Economic Affairs, London. Author of The Economics of Business Enterprise (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar; 3rd ed. 2002).
More information about Martin Ricketts.
Ali Tajvidi, DPhil (Westminster). A former architect, Dr Tajvidi changed his career to political science in 1993. He has been teaching comparative politics, foreign policy analysis, international relations and the politics of the European Union at various British as well as overseas universities since. He has a first degree in History and Politics from the Open University and a Master’s in Diplomatic Studies from the University of Westminster. His doctorate, from Westminster’s Centre for the Study of Democracy, was on United States foreign policy towards Iran. His research interests include EU-US relations, comparative politics and methodological implications for social science research. He is currently working on a book on US-Iran relations.
More information about Ali Tajvidi.
Philip Towle is Reader in International Relations at the University of Cambridge and was previously Director of the Centre of International Studies there. He has worked for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Australian National University in Canberra. He has written 11 books including ones on enforced disarmament after wars, on post-war peace negotiations and on the history of Anglo-Japanese relations. He is currently finishing a book entitled Good Samaritans and Imperialists: the British and War from Wilberforce to Blair.
More information about Philip Towle.
Geoffrey Wood has lectured in Economics at the University of Warwick and in Banking and Finance at City University, London, where he has been Professor since 1986. He worked at the Bank of England as Economist, and later as Special Adviser on Financial Stability. He was also Visiting Scholar at the Federal Bank of St Louis. He has acted as economic adviser to various firms and organisations, including W. Greenwell & Co., the Union Discount Company of London, the New Zealand Treasury and the Bank of Finland. Visiting professorships have taken him to universities around the world: South Carolina, Harvard, London, Athens and Oxford. Since 1991 he has been a trustee of the Wincott Foundation. He is the author, co-author or editor of over twenty books, and he has published over fifty papers in academic journals, as well as doing a good amount of written and broadcast journalism. Recent books co-edited with F.H. Capie include The Development of Monetary Theory in the 1920s and 1930s (1999), and Policy Makers on Policy (2001).
More information about Geoffrey Wood.
Assessment
Assessments for each course will take the form of written tests, innovative papers and occasional oral presentations. Students have the option of submitting one 12,500-word research paper in lieu of a test in specific areas of the programme. Candidates whose total average mark is above 70 are awarded the MA with Distinction; those whose total average mark is between 60 and 69 are awarded the MA with Merit; those whose total average mark is between 50 and 59 are awarded the MA and those whose total average mark is between 40 and 49 are awarded the Diploma.
News
Read the latest news about MA in Global Affairs students and staff.
Scholarship
The Max Beloff Scholarship in Global Affairs, which is worth £1,000, will be awarded annually to the student with the best performance after the first term’s study on the MA in Global Affairs programme. The decision about the award will be made by the Board of Examiners, at the recommendation of the Programme Co-ordinator. The Dean of the School of Humanities shall have discretion not to award the Scholarship in any given year. The Scholarship is in the form of a cash sum.
