LSE – PKU Double MSc Degree in International Affairs

About the MSc programme

Organised jointly by LSE and Peking University, this double MSc degree offers an outstanding opportunity for graduate students and young professionals. The first year is spent at the School of International Studies at Peking University, studying the international relations of China and the Asia Pacific region. The second year is spent at LSE, studying the theory and history of global international relations. It offers the following benefits:

• Gaining an insight into international affairs through studying at the best universities in the social sciences in China and in Europe.
• While at LSE, courses in the Departments of International Relations and International History.
• Combining an empirical and a theoretical approach to contemporary international affairs.
• Studying in small seminar groups of no more than 15 students. 
• Engaging at an advanced level with the latest academic research and undertaking your own research-based term work and dissertation.

At Peking University, the students take a core course on Chinese Politics and Diplomacy and can select other courses among the wide variety on offer in the School of International Studies. Students can choose among courses taught in English and in Chinese. They complete the First Year programme by writing and defending a dissertation on a topic relevant to their studies. The dissertation can be written in English or in Chinese.

At LSE, students take core courses in both the International Relations and the International History Departments, take a third course from the wide range of options offered by the two Departments, and complete the programme with a dissertation on a relevant topic in international history.

The programme provides an excellent preparation for careers in academia, business or consulting, government or international agencies, the media, politics and law.

Course assessment is by assessed coursework (in some courses) and by a final exam.

Year one: PKU

Students are required to achieve 18 (International students are required to achieve 22 credits including the Chinese language course) credits while studying at Peking University for the first year. Please note: The dissertation does not count against any credits at PKU but is compulsory. Students cannot progress to year two at LSE without successfully completing year one at PKU.

Compulsory courses

• Chinese Politics and Diplomacy
• Dissertation - students are required to submit a dissertation at PKU and to defend it
• Chinese language (for international students)
  

Options

Choose two from:

• Non-traditional Security Studies
• International Security: Theory and Practice
• Political Economy of Transition in China
• Politics and Diplomacy in Southeast Asia

Plus, choose three options (in English or Chinese) from:

Lists of options taught in English and Chinese

Courses taught in English:

Courses taught in Chinese: 中文课程:

Environmental Diplomacy Foreign Relations of Modern China, 1840-1949 China's Relations with the Middle East and Africa Contemporary China-US Relations Media and International Relations International Relations in East-Asia Chinese as a Second Language

Studies on Contemporary Chinese Diplomacy Theory and Practice of Post-Cold War International Relations Studies on China's Security Environment Issue Studies on Northeast Asia Studies on Japan Nation and Nationalism Studies on Environment and International Relations Security Studies of the Asian Pacific Region Studies on Southeast Asia Studies on Central Asia Studies on Northeast Asia International Relations of South Asia Studies on the History and Culture of the Korean Peninsula Studies on the Socio-culture of the Asia-Pacific Region Studies on China's Diplomatic Ideology Study on China's Foreign Policy Making Geopolitics and the Chinese Diplomacy

Note: The course offering at PKU is subject to adjustment.

Year two: LSE

Course choice and acceptance into specific courses depends on the availability of courses in a given year, staffing resources, the number of seminars offered for a particular course and student demand.

Compulsory courses 

• Crisis Decision-Making in War and Peace
• Dissertation in International History

Options

(* half unit)

Choose one full unit from:

• International Political Economy of the Environment
• Foreign Policy Analysis III
• International Institutions 
• Strategic Aspects of International Relations
• The EU in the World
• International Politics – Asia and the Pacific
• The International Relations of the Middle East
• Conflict and Peace Studies 
• Economic Diplomacy
• European-Union Policy Making in a Global Context* 
• European Defence and Security* 
• Politics of Money in the World Economy
• The Political Economy of International Trade
• Comparative Political Economy

Plus, choose an additional full unit or two half units from the international relations courses listed above or one of the full units listed below    

• European Integration in the Twentieth Century
• Presidents, Public Opinion and Foreign Policy: From Roosevelt to Reagan 1933-89
• Empire, Colonialism and Globalisation
• The Napoleonic Empire: The Making of Modern Europe?
• The European Enlightenment, c1680-1799
• Anglo-American Relations from World War to Cold War, 1939-1991 
• From Cold Warriors to Peacemakers: the End of the Cold War Era, 1979-1999 
• The Rise and Fall of Communism in Europe, 1917-1990
• Political Islam: From Ibn Taymiyya to Osama Bin Laden
• Race, Violence and Colonial Rule in Africa
• Western Intellectuals and the Challenge of Totalitarianism
• War Cultures, 1890-1945
• The Emergence of Modern Iran: State, Society, and Diplomacy 
• East Asia in the Age of Imperialism, 1839-1945 
• The Origins of the Cold War, 1917-62
• Crises and Détente in the Cold War, 1962-1979  
• Nationalism
• The International History of the Balkans Since 1939: State Projects, Wars and Social Conflict