Courses

PhD Economics

For the PhD program, students need to complete an 18-credit coursework spread over 2 semesters in the first year of the program. Students will take four taught courses, each worth 4 credits (total of 16 credits), and a directed readings course worth 2 credits. The following is the structure of the one-year PhD coursework:

 

Semester 1: One core course and one optional course (total 8 credits)

Semester 2: One core course, one optional course, and a directed readings course

(total 10 credits)

 

There are two dedicated core courses for the PhD students:

1. Advanced Economic Theory (Semester I)

2. Research Methodology (Semester II)

 

Each of these courses is divided into three modules. The course on Advanced Economic Theory consists of the following three modules:

a) Topics in Microeconomic Theory

b) Topics in Macroeconomic Theory

c) Topics in Development Economics

 

The course on Research Methodology consists of the following modules:

a) Methodology of Inquiry

b) Survey design and methods of data collection

c) Topics in econometrics and advanced statistical methods

 

The students also take a 2-credit directed readings course in their second semester and develop a research paper as a part of the course. In addition, they give an open seminar based on the research paper at the end of Semester II.

 

Optional Courses

The students will choose one optional course in each of the two semesters from the following list of advanced courses offered in the final year of the Masters program. Only a subset of the following courses will be offered each semester.

Course Outline
Core courses (tentative outlines)

Courses

M.A. (Economics)

The duration of the Masters program is two years (four semesters). Students need to complete a 64-credit coursework, consisting of 9 core courses and 5 optional courses (each worth 4 credits), and a dissertation (worth 8 credits). The core courses consist of two-course sequences in Microeconomics, Macroeconomics and Development Economics, and one course each on Mathematical Methods in Economics, Statistics and Introductory Econometrics, and South Asian Economic Development. The sequence of the courses is as follows:

Year I

Semester I

Semester II

Microeconomics-I 

Microeconomics-II

Macroeconomics-I

Macroeconomics-II

Development Economics-I

Development Economics-II

Mathematical Methods in Economics

Statistics and Introductory Econometrics

Year II

Semester III

Semester IV

South Asian Economic Development

Optional Course III

Optional Course I

Optional Course IV

Optional Course II

Optional Course V

M.A. Dissertation

M.A. Dissertation
Optional courses Spread over Semesters III and IV, students opt for a total of 5 optional courses (two in the third semester and three in the fourth semester), through which they are introduced to advanced topics in economic theory, methods, and their applications in various specialized areas. These optional courses are also likely to be useful for writing M.A. dissertation. The following is a list of optional courses which have been offered in recent past. however, in any particular semester, only a sub-set of the these courses might be offered, depending on the availability of faculty and interest of the students.
Agriculture and Development Econometric Methods
Environmental Economics Efficiency and Productivity Analysis
Game Theory Gender and Development
Global Political Economy Growth and Development
Industrial Organisation International Economics
Money and Banking Poverty and Inequality
Public Economics Trade , Capital Flows and Development
Social Choice Theory Topics in Political Economy
Topics in Macroeconomics Topics in Applied Econometrics
Dissertation The work for the MA dissertation is spread over Semester III and Semester IV, and the total dissertation grades are distributed equally between the two semesters. The dissertation is a 10,000-12,000 words research project consisting of original research question(s), an independent and critical review of the relevant literature, and an analytical response to the research questions. The students are assigned a primary and a secondary supervisor in the third semester. In Semester III, the student has to independently think of a research idea and, by the end of the semester, has to defend a research proposal based on the idea. The proposal comprises of a statement and explanation of the research problem, a review of the literature, some preliminary exploration of data to motivate the thesis, and the research methodology. The student has to complete the research, write the dissertation and defend it by the end of the fourth semester.

Courses

M.A. (International Relations)

The two-year Masters Programme at the Department of International Relations is designed to encourage students to develop their critical faculties, both within and outside the field of international relations. The composition of its student community, drawn from across the South Asian region gives the programme a unique edge. Through an array of courses ranging from mainstream disciplinary orientations in IR and political science to the contemporary debates in social sciences, students are encouraged to engage with the wider world of politics that inform our intellectual and creative pursuits. The faculty provides an academic direction towards this aim through its teaching and supervision within the programme. The Masters programme at DIR is unique for its emphasis on developing the research orientation of students. The dissertation forms an integral component of the programme and provides them with an early opportunity and intellectual challenge to undertake an intensive exploration of a subject of their choice. This experience will be part of an ongoing conversation between disciplines, between theory and policy and between students and faculty. We welcome you to join us and be part of this exciting exchange of ideas.

Courses

Year – I: Semester – I

Course Description: This course familiarises students with some of the major debates within the discipline. It introduces them to key interdisciplinary conversations between IR and other disciplines such as history, philosophy and sociology. Although the course content is largely theoretical, it refers to historical and contemporary developments as illustrative examples. The course would particularly introduce ‘critical frames’ of enquiry to students, to nudge them to critically engage, for instance, with the broadly Eurocentric, ethnocentric and masculinist character of the discipline. (Read More)

Course Objectives:The course is intended to fulfill two basic objectives. First, it provides students with a sense of what one means by “International Relations” as a discipline. Second, it ex-poses students to some of the much-discussed and deliberated upon events and pro-cesses in history that have been of interest to scholars of International Relations. By focusing on these objectives, it is hoped that students will have a sufficient under-standing of the basic terrain of International Relations and will be better equipped to opt for courses during their Master’s program that will delve in detail on these issues, events, and processes that they have been initiated to in this course. (Read More)

The objective of this course on Comparative Politics (CP) is to introduce students to various facets pertaining to this rich and dynamic field of inquiry. A fundamental concern that informs this effort relates to how we can skill students of International Relations to think and argue comparatively. Commencing with an exposure to contending logics and methodological orientations within the field, the course introduces students to some topics that are of interest to scholars of CP. (Read More)

Course Objectives:The basic objective of this course is to facilitate and develop critical engagement with key concepts of political theory, particularly those which are fundamental to the understanding of International Relations. The course will underline an analytical approach, and provide a theoretical and conceptual prism to address challenges posed by issues in contemporary international relations. Readings have been selected on the basis of their relevance to the twenty-first century. The broad aim is to establish a dialogue between international relations theory and political theory and illuminate the significance of the ‘non-western other’ to the discipline of political thought and theory. (Read More)

Year – I: Semester – II

Course Objectives:The course aims at introducing students to the dynamic field of security studies. It seeks to combine a comprehensive overview of the major theoretical debates in the field with an in depth understanding of the key issue areas that impinge upon the notion of security. The course provides a critical evaluation of the contemporary security studies discourse and examines the manner in which the field has responded to transformations in world politics. It will further familiarize students with debates on certain core concerns that have compelled policy makers and researchers to widen the conceptual parameters of security. (Read More)

Course Objectives:The primary objective of this course is to explore and understand links between international relations and international political economy by keeping the phenomenon of globalization in sight. The interrelationship between politics and economics is quite complex because there can be economic basis of political choice and sometimes there is primacy of ‘political’ to transform the economy. In view of this, the course will try to untangle the intricate interconnections between politics and economics to grasp the nature of contemporary international political economy.Understanding the enmeshed network of ties between economics and politics can certainly enrich our understanding of international relations. Keeping this in the background the above course has been divided into the following six units. (Read More)

Course Objectives:Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding is an expanding, innovative discipline which is opening new frontiers of learning. It is mandated by the UN, which is seeking to support education for a culture of peace. However, the field is still at it fledging stages in South Asia and has largely been dominated by Western perspectives. There is need to build a vocabulary of Peacebuilding that is more ‘context sensitive’, which facilitates cross-fertilization of ideas and strengthen Peacebuilding practice in South Asia. (Read More)

Course Objectives:International Relations of South Asia is based on the study of South Asia as a region. The course will consider a number of conceptual and policy questions, and explore why is South Asia ‘international’ in contemporary world politic s. The students will be intro-duced to the idea of South Asia, its relevance as a region to international relations theory and praxis. Further, the course will cover a broad spectrum of issues which have a politi-cal and international dimension. The focus will also be on issue areas that internationalise South Asia as a region. While an imaginative exercise on engaging South Asia as region is encouraged, the students are made aware of the strategic undertones and the ‘over-developed’ nature of various South Asian states. (Read More)

Year – II: Semester – III

Course Objectives:The investigation of phenomenon related to international affairs can be conducted using a range of methodological approaches. The selection of the appropriate methodology is influenced by a number of factors including the theoretical approach underlying the research project. Further, this selection is then linked to the identification of appropriate data collection and interpretation techniques. This course is geared to introduce students to these various facets of conducting research. (Read More)

Course Objectives:This course examines the nature and scope of international organisations (IOs), specifically within the context of the contemporary era of global governance. First, it provides an introduction to the historical evolution of IOs as well as relevant theoretical approaches in International Relations used to study IOs. Second, the course examines processes that constitute the work of, and at, IOs, including multilateral diplomacy, rule making and implementation, and provision of services. Third, it seeks to identify and assess contemporary challenges as well as new trends vis-à-vis the role of IOs in global politics. (Read More)

Course Objectives:The objective of the course is to acquaint students with the complex ways in which the cultural and political realms interact. It undertakes a critical enquiry into the academic and political endeavours that offer cultural interpretations of world politics in both historical and contemporary contexts. It is based on the implicit assumption that politics is negotiated and interpreted through the lens of culture, as are cultural interpretations often imbued with power and political intent. Intended to equip students with the analytical skills to problematise the immediate contexts in which some of the major issues of international politics are embedded, the course covers a broad sweep of issues ranging from strategic culture and diaspora studies to multiculturalism and popular culture. Although it frames culture largely within the IR discourse. (Read More)

Course Objectives: Regional integration is not a new phenomenon and in the twenty-first century, this process has intensified. The relevance of regional integration was not questioned even after the fall of the Berlin Wall when the world politics entered into a phase of hyper-globalisation. The best example is the European Union (EU) that has not only consolidated its position but also expanded its boundary by including East and Central European countries of the former socialist bloc. At present, almost every region of the world has its regional organisation. The EU excelled in this process, ASEAN proved its viability and the SAARC still struggling to gain momentum. Briefly, regional integration is a dynamic process involving many nation states, actors and several interconnected issues ranging from politics to economics. Therefore, regional integration draws the attention of academia, particularly of those interested in International Relations. This course covers theories and concepts of regional integration. Several essential case studies are part of the course for developing a comprehensive understanding of the regional integration process. In the case studies section, South Asia is the primary focus. Along with regular class lectures and general discussions, group discussions and project work is also a part of the course structure. It is expected that students will actively participate in the class and group discussions. (Read More)

Course Objectives:This course aims to equip the students with conceptual and theoretical tools towards understanding the strategic behaviour of state and non-state actors in world politics. A theoretical study of international negotiations, backed by practical examples will also help to underline essential linkages between theory and the practice of diplomacy. Given that there are various factors influencing the behaviour of state actors, it is important that inter-disciplinarity is encouraged. It is from this perspective that choice of actors and issues has been made as diverse as possible ranging from states, non-governmental organizations, terrorists, and affected people’s groups amongst others. Thus, the course intends to engage variety of actors and issues which range from ‘high’ politics to that of ‘low’ politics, intending to go beyond the conventional parameters of IR discipline, where states remain the primary unit of analysis. Issues areas like environment, business, arms control, territorial and social conflict would be discussed to study various approaches, actors, styles and types of negotiation in an applied context. Since this is an introductory course on two important themes of diplomacy and negotiations, students are expected to catch up with the recommended readings. (Read More)

Past and Present: This course is situated within the broad framework of grand strategy. Students are introduced to both Western and Asian thinkers and the classics range from 5th century B.C to as recent as the 20th century. The overarching purpose of the course is to assess how some key concepts in international relations such as war, justice, power, leadership and statecraft have been understood and envisaged by some leading brains at various points of time. The twenty-first century is plagued with various traditional and non-traditional security challenges. While some of the challenges are specific to contemporary times and quite distinct from those posed in the past, the nature of threats posed to the state (internal and external) indeed remain the same. Students focus on four classics in the course of eight weeks to contextualize the strategic thought within the broad frame of strategic themes of past and present.

Year – II: Semester – IV

Course Objectives:This course challenges the assumption that International Relations (IR) should primarily focus on relationships between states and follow the trajectories of the powerful. Instead, it brings peoples and communities to the center of analysis and highlights alternative narratives of contemporary global politics that emerge from this analytical move. The course offers students an eclectic toolbox with which to challenge knowledge received from within and outside academia (for instance, the media) about their world, and the relationships of power that are woven into these dominant narratives and their real‐world consequences. (Read More)

Course Objectives:International Relations as a formal discipline was established in the context of the devastations caused by World War One. The initial objective of this discipline was to study wars to find out why they recurred. This course introduces students to wars as a phenomenon in the international system. Not only will this course examine the various reasons why wars break out in the international system but it will also engage with insights and theories drawn from other disciplines to add additional perspective on this issue. The course aims to be more than just answering the question, “Why do wars occur?” It will also examine the relationship between wars on the one hand and societies, the changing nature of wars and some of its salient aspects. (Read More)

This interdisciplinary course is designed to situate India in World Affairs during the Cold War and the Post-Cold War phases. While locating India within the broader world, it will simultaneously relate India to a wide range of complex issues and events concerning India’s foreign policy. In essence by handling several specific and yet significant events as well as realities concerning India’s foreign policy since India’s independence empirically, the course will initiate a dialogue with the existing schools of thought in international theory.

Course objectives:The changing nature of contemporary armed conflict pose a significant challenge to the theory and practice of peacemaking. This course will provide a dialogic space to review theories, models and skills for theorizing and developing peace initiatives that can respond to protracted armed conflict particularly in South Asia. The course is organized around five themes for peacemaking: protracted armed conflicts, approaches to peacemaking, critical frames in peacemaking (timing, violence and spoilers), peace agreements, en-gendering peacemaking and post conflict challenges. The attempt is to critically engage with the rich body of academic literature on peace process, negotiations, mediation, dialogue, peace accords, power sharing, post conflict challenges from the standpoint of global south. Keeping in mind a representative spectrum, and space for comparative review, in-depth analysis of five case studies: Northern Ireland, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Bosnia Herzegovina and Kashmir would be offered. The attempt is to initiate a dialogical process of enquiry and creativity in thinking about protracted armed conflicts. The pedagogy for the course would be elicitive, participatory and would draw on multiple formats for the teaching -learning process. (Read More)

Course Description: The Indian Ocean and its regional seas have become pivotal to an increasingly ocean-centric, ocean-driven regional and global geopolitics. The Indian Ocean Region —with its complex, cultural, socio-economic, and political diversity—  appears to be the fulcrum of globalizing international geopolitical economy. The major shifts in geopolitical tectonic plates (e.g. simultaneous rise of Euro-Asian Rimland) and the imperatives of multi-faceted maritime security have resulted in high stakes of state as well as non-state actors and agencies in securing the uninterrupted flows of ship-borne international trade passing through the Sea Lanes of Communication (SLOCs) in the Indian Ocean and the larger Indo-Pacific maritime domain. (Read More)

All courses are for four credits each. The Dissertation to be done in the fourth semester is for eight credits.


Courses

PhD International Relations

Compulsory Courses :

Course Description: The intent of this course is to invite research scholars (MPhil/PhD during the Monsoon Semester) to reflect on the state-of-the-art theorizing of International Relations (IR) drawing on a range of contemporary concerns. These encompass Anglo-American ethnocentrism in IR, decoding race, class and gender in IR, the interplay of emotions and collective memories and the significance of specific contexts and issue areas in determining the lenses through which we view world politics. While critically interrogating mainstream IR theories, it seeks consciously to acknowledge the geographies, politics and sociology of IR knowledge production in order to foster a more critical and anchored theoretical inquiry. (Read More)

Course Objectives: The primary objective of this course is to present multiple methodological pathways to MPhil/PhD scholars embarking on their respective research project. Contemporary social science offers a wide array of choices in terms of structuring the study of world politics. These encompass both qualitative and quantitative modes of inquiry that help frame sustainable research designs, and bring to bear relevant evidence to substantiate one’s claims. Using published research as illustrative aids, students would have the opportunity to familiarize themselves with these multiple modes of inquiry.(Read More).
Optional Courses :
Course Objectives:Using gender as the central category of analysis, feminist International Relations (IR) scholars have argued that masculine values associated with men (such as autonomy and rationality) define the scope and limits of political practice and discourse in international relations. This, it is argued, makes women, feminine values and indeed non-hegemonic masculine values invisible in the field of IR. Taking this problem of marginalization as their starting point, feminist scholars have made substantive interventions in theory-building as well as empirical analysis in the field of IR. Most strands of feminist IR have an explicit normative agenda wherein knowledge production is directed towards making the discipline gender inclusive, and transforming international practices and processes that are oppressive.(Read More)
Course Objectives:The course permits a close inspection of world politics by revealing its many entanglements with culture. In doing so, it problematises the easy categorisations of internal and external domains that organise to a significant degree, contemporary analyses in IR. The course is an interdisciplinary one, drawing as it does upon debates located in disciplines such as sociology and history. Admittedly, many of the issues addressed in the course have developed into distinct nodes of enquiry within IR; indeed, it stands to benefit from insights thus developed. Nonetheless, it offers an exploration into key practices that have influenced the way states and societies organise themselves, especially in ways that imbue notions like power and territoriality with meaning. It approaches the structure-agent debate from multiple vantage points- popular mobilisation, media interventions and cultural flows, among others- to examine culture as providing both, the cause and context to world politics. The course aims at familiarising students with some of these major processes that not only impact the theory and practice of international politics, but also serve as useful signposts for further interdisciplinary enquiries.(Read More)

Course objectives: Given the growing complexity of contemporary armed conflict in South Asia there is need to push the confines of the discipline of International Relations beyond conventional/or ‘given’ analytical template both in theory and practice. This course will provide a dialogic space to review theories, models and skills for theorizing causes of conflict and developing peace initiatives that can respond to deep-rooted contemporary conflicts particularly in South Asia. The attempt will be to build a healthy synergy between research, theory and perspectives ‘from the field’. The multi and interdisciplinary nature of the field of peace and conflict studies compels for a need to draw from the fields of sociology, psychology and other social sciences. The attempt is to facilitate firstly, an understanding of social theories that may prove useful in conflict analysis, secondly evaluate the usefulness of these social theories from the standpoint of practice, thirdly to assist students to develop critical acumen to construct useful theories for conflict analysis and transformation The pedagogy for the course would be elicitive, participatory and would draw on multiple formats for the teaching -learning process.(Read More)

Course Objectives:The category of the ‘great power’ emerged in the lexicon of international politics al-most two centuries ago. Since then, a considerable amount of ink and intellectual en-ergy has been expended in better understanding this category of states. However, a perusal of contemporary scholarship of this much-invoked concept reveals that a great deal of confusion and uncertainty exists. For instance, who exactly is a great power? Can the great powers be identified ‘objectively’ on the basis of certain indicators or can they only be determined historically? How exactly does a state attain the status of a great power? Are capabilities sufficient for the attainment of great power status or is recognition also required? If recognition does play an important role in this regard, then who accords recognition to the state in question? Is it the existing great powers or the international community? This course seeks to expose students to the literature on the great powers to help them reflect on, and develop their opinions, as regards great powers in international politics. Not only will such an exercise help them better understand this concept but it will also enable them to make better sense of interna-tional politics – both of the past and the present.(Read More)
Course Objectives:This course is designed for the M.Phil programme being offered by Department of International Relations, South Asian University. The primary objective is to facilitate critical enquiry on the significance and relevance of studying non-state actors in world politics. Approaching the subject through a theoretical prism, and engaging with key debates on the subject, the emphasis is on underlining the ‘social dimensions’ of international relations, whereby the role of norms, ideas, individuals, networks and collectives are studied. While cases ranging from human rights, women movement, conflict induced grievances, disarmament, environment, internal displacement, amongst others, would be studied, The syllabus in due course would also address questions related to ethics, morality, justice, interests and rational choice in international politics.(Read More)
Course Objectives: This course is designed to explore the scope of global institutions and networks in responding to contemporary security concerns in world politics. Broadly, it focuses on three aspects of global security governance. First, the course reviews key concepts underlying the subject such as security, governance, globalization, sovereignty, authority, legitimacy, agency and power. It also puts the notion of ‘global security governance’ in context of historical milestones of the 20th and 21st century. The second aspect relates to the key actors, intergovernmental and non-governmental, engaged in global security practices including the United Nations (with particular emphasis on the Security Council). As an advanced course, it does not provide introductions to various sets of actors but examines these together, for instance, as ‘strategic complexes’ (Duffield 2001). Finally, the course critically reviews the ways in which global actors and networks collectively respond to both traditional (e.g. nuclear proliferation) and non-traditional (e.g. health) security issues.(Read More)
Regionalism is regarded as one of the most important phenomenon influencing contemporary international relations. This can be inferred by the fact that practically all the countries of the world are members of at least one regional organisation/trading bloc. With this, there have been qualitative changes in the regional integration arrangements and therefore, this process requires serious academic attention. The basic objective of this course is to academically engage with the concepts and theories that explain the process of regional integration; as to understand its impact on international relations. Different aspects of regionalism, including political, economic and social dimensions, the debate on globalisation and regionalism, and the relationship between borders, border-regions and regional-integration; will also be discussed in this course. For a better and comprehensive understanding, this course includes case studies of Europe and South-East Asia. In the course, we will also discuss challenges and prospects of South Asian integration. (Read More)
Course Objectives: Adequate understanding of multifaceted challenges facing Maritime South Asia–one of the most diverse and complex sub-regions of the Indian Ocean Region (IOR)– is at times compromised by excessive focus on Continental South Asia. It needs to be appreciated that ‘South Asia’ comprises three littoral states namely India, Bangladesh and Pakistan, two island states of Sri Lanka and Maldives and three ‘landlocked’ states of Afghanistan, Nepal and Bhutan with transit rights under the Law of the Sea. (Read More)

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