| Qualification | Start dates | Entry requirements | Full- or Part-time | Assessment | |
| Master of Arts (MA) | January September | First or Second Class degree or relevant work experience | Level of English required | Full (1 year) | Exam, written assessment and dissertation |
Course outline
The MA in Global Affairs and Diplomacy combines elements from our existing Global Affairs MA and our new MA in Diplomacy. Like all of our MA programmes, it aims to help to prepare graduates for careers in foreign and other ministries, international organisations, international journalism and global civil society organisations or for further research. Areas of study include the history of the international system; international law and diplomacy; global governance; foreign policy analysis; global diplomacy; security challenges and other global issues and security challenges: flashpoints and hotspots. 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.
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.
Julian Richards, Ph.D (Cantab). Joint founder of Buckingham’s Centre for Security and Intelligence Studies, Associate of the Pakistan Security Research Unit (PSRU) at Bradford University, and an active member of the European Ideas Network (EIN). Previously member of the Ministry of Defence.
More information about Julian Richards.
Assessment
Assessment will take the form of written assignments and examinations and an individually supervised 12,500 word dissertation. 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.
