International Relations

These international relations dissertation examples are student-contributed and cover how power, security, cooperation, and conflict play out between states and across borders. International relations dissertations often work best when they take one clear arena — a region, a crisis, an institution, or a policy tool — and then analyse what drives decisions and outcomes beyond official statements.

Common directions include geopolitics and strategic competition, alliances and deterrence, war and conflict escalation, and how states use sanctions, trade restrictions, aid, and diplomacy to influence behaviour. Many projects explore global governance through institutions such as the UN, NATO, the EU, and international financial bodies, including why coordination succeeds in some areas (for example health or climate finance) and fails in others. Contemporary topics often focus on energy security, critical supply chains, migration and border politics, information warfare and disinformation, cyber operations, and the international politics of climate transition. Students also examine how narratives and identity shape foreign policy, using approaches like discourse analysis alongside more data-led work.

You’ll often see dissertations framed through key theories — realism, liberalism, constructivism, and critical approaches (including feminist and postcolonial perspectives) — to explain why actors behave as they do and whose interests are prioritised.