Politics and International Relations with a Year in the Asia-Pacific

Politics and international relations addresses the most consequential questions about how power is organised and exercised in the modern world. Politics examines how states are governed, how political institutions function, how citizens and movements engage with power, and how political ideology shapes policy and collective life. International relations extends this to the global level, asking how states interact with one another and with non-state actors, how conflict arises and is managed, how international institutions and regimes operate, and how global challenges including climate change, migration, and security are addressed in the absence of a world government.

The two disciplines together provide a comprehensive framework for understanding the political world.

At the University of Kent, this four-year full-time programme includes a year spent in the Asia-Pacific region, which is one of the most significant in terms of contemporary geopolitics, economic dynamism, and political diversity. This extended international experience gives you direct exposure to a region whose politics, societies, and international relationships are central to understanding the twenty-first century global order. You will study political theory, comparative politics, and international relations alongside the specific dynamics of the Asia-Pacific, developing both theoretical understanding and regional expertise.

Kent has a strong track record in politics and international relations, including its connections to institutions in Brussels and elsewhere in Europe.

Graduates are well placed for careers in diplomacy, international organisations, the civil service, journalism, NGOs, policy research, think tanks, and international business. The Asia-Pacific specialism is a genuine asset in a job market where expertise in this region is sought by governments, companies, and organisations with interests there. Postgraduate study in international relations, political science, or area studies is a natural progression.