Diplomacy and Sport MSc

Loughborough University

The aims of this module are to: Provide students with an opportunity to be exposed to project-based teamwork in diverse settings (understood in this context as involving a range of multidisciplinary, multicultural and demographic elements in differing configurations), aiming to strengthen their cooperative and collaborative working skills and competence, while raising awareness and appreciation of diversity itself. Provide students with hands on experience of identifying, framing and resolving practice oriented and real-world based challenges and problems, using creativity, critical enquiry and appropriate tools to achieve valuable and relevant solutions.

The aim of this module is to introduce students to the evolution and change in diplomatic practice in the contemporary digital age through a range of cases and issues from across world. The main objectives are: A) To equip students with theoretical approaches, concepts and debates enabling the critical interrogation of diplomacy in the digital age; its promises and its drawbacks; and its relationship with power, knowledge production, networks, gender, voice, and communication; while also critically appraising the relationship between digital diplomacy and democracy. In so doing, it aims to uncover the role of both state and non-state actors (individuals, activists, journalists, influencers, diasporas, charities, corporations, minorities) in digital diplomacy demonstrating that widening engagement means widening the agenda.

The aims of this module are to give the student the opportunity to study a subject, business problem or research question in depth and to research the issues surrounding the subject or background to the problem. The module will equip the student with the relevant skills, knowledge and understanding to embark on their individual research project and they will be guided through the three options available to them to complete their dissertation: A desk based research project that could be set by an organisation or could be a subject of the student's choice, A project that involves collection of primary data from within an organisation or based on lab and/or field experiments, A full professional placement within an organisation during which time they will complete a project as part of their role in agreement with the organisation (subject to a suitable placement position being obtained).

The aim of this module is for students to understand the conceptual tools of Foreign Policy Analysis (FPA), acquire specific knowledge relevant to an understanding of the foreign policies of key state actors in the global arena, and develop awareness of the issues and policy contexts that shape these policies.

The aim of this module is to understand the main features, concepts and practices of international negotiations. It provides an overview of the most important elements of negotiation and offers an application to a number of case studies.

The aims of this module are to: Examine the nature of sports integrity and the threats to it presented by the manipulation of sporting outcomes and corrupt governance practices in both national and international contexts, including key legal and regulatory areas. Develop a greater awareness of ethical issues in relation to combatting sport integrity issues. Explain the role of the board, and senior management, in providing organisational leadership and implementing cultural change, with particular emphasis on composition and values-based leadership models. Consider the importance of professional conduct, athlete reputation and public confidence in sport. Critically review a range of legal and regulatory issues in sport.

The aim of this module is to understand the role that sport plays in political and diplomatic issues at a national and international level. Using contemporary examples from developed, transitioning, developing, and fuel-based economies, the module will explore how sport can be used to positive (e.g., facilitating socio-economic plans) or negative (e.g., whitewashing human rights violations) ends. In doing so, the module aims to promote a critical, evidence-based understanding of the interplay between sport, politics, and diplomacy.