The master's programme Global Politics aims towards you who are interested in global political issues. You will learn how an increasingly complex world, where the global and the local meet, presents us with new challenges and opportunities. The programme provides you with a solid practical base concerning concepts like justice, peace, security, power, culture and democracy. You will learn how to analyse conflicts, international relations and human rights claims and violations.

This is a multi-disciplinary programme with a core of political science which addresses aspects of international relations, human rights and peace and conflict studies. The focus lays on the transformation of society, especially concerning the relationship between the state and other actors such as international organisations and companies.

Changes in political control, from reduced central control towards a greater degree of network control will also be addressed. You will analyze the growing importance of international norms, such as human rights. The emergence of other conflict patterns than those related to socio-economic resources (such as culture, ideology and religion) is important parts of the courses.

Political Science at Malmö University

This two-year master's programme draws on the one-year master’s in political science, with additional opportunities for an internship, exchange studies or elective courses. This provides you with the opportunity to deepen your knowledge and gain practical experience, as well as the chance to develop relationships and network with people and organisations working with political and global issues.

The programme is thoroughly interdisciplinary and draws on the different strengths from fields within the Department of Global Political Studies, including international relations, peace and conflict studies, human rights, public policy, but also ethnography and philosophy. To gain a deeper understanding of the changes in political science, we consider four key development areas:

• global politics: an increasing number of international and intergovernmental organisations impact world politics.
• government and governance: whilst new information technologies and surveillance legislation mean that the administrative powers of the state have never been stronger, the concept of ‘government’ has become increasingly surpassed by ‘governance’ at the transnational level. Few decisions affecting our lives are made exclusively within the national context.
• existing modes of power are challenged: there has been a significant change in how organisations like NGOs, as well as everyday individuals, challenge existing governance and modes of power. For example, social media has radically changed the transnational political landscape to both enable new forms of protest and contestation, as well as facilitate new political identities.
• global concerns: issues like climate change and terrorism show that increasingly the kind of problems requiring policy solutions far exceed the confines of any nation-state. That is to say, policy problems are increasingly transnational and therefore require transnational solutions.

What kind of career will I be prepared for?

The programme should be of interest to individuals committed to a career in which knowledge of our changing world is an evident benefit, with relevance to employers including international agencies, non-governmental organisations, transnational businesses, and local/national administrative agencies.