Politics and International Relations
Politics and international relations examines power in its widest sense: how it is organised within states, how it is exercised between them, and how the international system both constrains and enables what governments can do. Political science asks why democracies take the forms they do, what drives electoral behaviour, how institutions shape policy outcomes, and what causes political instability. International relations asks how states interact, what role international institutions play, what explains conflict and cooperation, and what the rise of new powers means for the existing global order.
Together they give you an integrated picture of how political life works at every scale.
At Aberystwyth, where the world's first Department of International Politics was established over a century ago, this three-year full-time degree places you within one of the discipline's founding traditions. You will engage with the theoretical frameworks that have defined international relations as an academic field, from classical realism through liberalism and constructivism to critical approaches that question the assumptions of established theory. Contemporary global challenges, including geopolitical conflict, climate change, growing inequality, and the pressures facing multilateral institutions, are treated as objects of serious scholarly inquiry alongside the analytical and theoretical work of the curriculum.
The programme develops research skills, analytical rigour, and the capacity to communicate complex arguments clearly in both written and oral form. These skills are genuinely transferable across a wide range of professional contexts.
Graduates pursue careers in diplomacy, the civil service, international organisations, NGOs, journalism, think tanks, consultancy, law, and policy research. Many go on to postgraduate study in international relations, political science, public policy, or law, building the specialist expertise that academic and senior policy careers in these fields require.