The doctoral research programme at the Department of Economic History and International Relations provides you with a fruitful research environment, world-class supervision, as well as theoretical and methodological training to set you up to become the next leader in your field. 

Research in International relations at the department is divided into three main clusters; international security, international institutions, and global political economy. Within these clusters our researchers are exploring how individuals, societies, governments and non-governmental organization interact on a global level. 

During the doctoral program you learn to master essential components in academic research. Apart from being supervised by experts in your field we also offer rich methodological and theoretical training programmes to enable your research project. Our methods courses are delivered by experts in the area and include everything from advanced statistics, to digital research and archival methodologies. Through our theoretical modules you will be introduced to current discussions in the field of international relations as well as take an interdisciplinary outlook on the discipline as a whole. 

We will support you to gain the tools to independently plan, organise and execute a large research project, and we see that you are someone who thrives on managing your own work, has a passion for reading, writing and analysing a large amount of data (whether qualitative or quantitative). Stockholm university offers great support to our doctoral students and as has been proven by several of our student it is entirely possible to combine postgraduate education with family life.

Doctoral students are given a unique opportunity to part-take in the wider research at our department. Every second week our researchers and doctoral students meet at the Higher Seminar in International Relations to present and discuss current research. At the higher seminar, doctoral students have the opportunity to practice giving feedback to senior colleagues, present chapter or article drafts, and to receive support and advice from the wider research community. Doctoral students are expected to actively participate on a regular basis.

At the Department of Economic History and International Relations you have the possibility of either writing your thesis as a monograph or as a collection of scientific articles (summary dissertation). The final part of the doctoral program is a public disputation where the doctoral student defends his/her thesis. 

A doctoral degree in International Relations enables a professional career in multiple areas. Among our former doctoral students various have continued as researchers and lecturers in academia. Others have ended up in workplaces which require qualified research skills, such as international organizations, corporations and public authorities.

The doctoral program in International Relations includes four years of full-time studies. A prerequisite is that the doctoral student has the prior knowledge necessary to make use of the teaching in an efficient way. The program for a doctoral degree comprises 240 credits divided into an independent research project and elective/mandatory courses. The course part holds 75 credits and the thesis 165 credits. Doctoral studies in International Relations leading up to a licentiate degree comprises 120 credits. The course part is 60 credits and the licentiate dissertation 60 credits.  
 
The course part of the Doctoral Degree is divided into mandatory and elective courses.

Introduction course to international studies, 7,5 hp
This course provides students with an introduction to conducting research in ‘international studies’ as an academic field. It opens with an introduction to research in International Relations at Stockholm University, as well as SU’s Graduate School of International Studies (SIS). It outlines and discusses the contours of international studies, reviews major theoretical and methodological debates in the field, and gives students practical skills in terms of navigating the process of research design and earning a PhD: support systems, writing the PM, thesis-writing milestones, conference presentations, and getting published. It serves as obligatory credit for the PhD Program in International Relations and elective credit in the SIS.

Theory formation in International Relations, 7,5 hp
This course offers an overview of theories and conceptual tools traditionally used to study International Relations. The main aims are to (a) familiarize participants with the theories and conceptual tools used to analyze events in global affairs, and (b) explore how theories and tools can be applied to understand historical and contemporary global developments more precisely. The target group is doctoral candidates new to the field of International Relations and/or those wishing to write a thesis on an International Relations topic for an International Relations scholarly audience. A follow-up course, going deeper into alternative approaches to International Relations theory, can be offered as an optional course once this course is completed.

Qualitative research methods in International Relations, 7,5 hp
This course covers research-level qualitative methods in the social sciences with a contextual focus on International Relations. The course includes some of the major methodological issues that the doctoral student is likely to grapple with in his or her own work, including segments on the philosophy of science, research design, and, importantly, research ethics. The aim of the course is three-fold. First, the course covers terrain that is supposed directly to help the student in his or her dissertation work. Second, the course is intended to familiarize the student with methodological issues and methods that enables him or her to better evaluate a variety of scholarship in the field. Third, the course covers research ethics questions. The course consists of nine seminars and includes seminar assignments and a final paper.

Quantitative research methods in International Relations, 7,5 hp
This course covers cutting edge quantitative methods in the social sciences with a contextual focus on International Relations. The course covers data management, descriptively mapping quantitative data, data visualization, regression analysis, and time-series regression analysis. The aim of the course is three-fold. First, the course covers methods that can be used and built on in the student's dissertation work. Second, the course is intended to familiarize the student with quantitative methods to be able to understand, critically assess, and apply to test theoretical hypotheses using empirical data. Third, the course covers the tools necessary to produce high quality analyses that are publishable, such as assumptions of linear regression analysis, panel data regression, and time series analysis. The course consists of several lectures and computer lab sessions.

Global Political Economy, 7,5 hp
This course provides an overview of key theories and issues within the field of Global Political Economy for doctoral candidates working broadly in the orbit of International Relations. It is offered alongside, and aims to link to, other modules for PhD students in IR, such as Theorising International Relations I, and optional courses such as Critical Security Studies or Gender in IR Studies. Students taking this course will  explore the economic foundations of the contemporary international system, from the post WW-II evolution of finance, trade and production, to the most recent global recession, global migration flows, global inequality and poverty, and questions related to war and global security in the twenty-first century. 

Advanced Quantitative Methods (7,5 or 15 ECTS)
This course can be given as a 7.5 or 15 ECTS point course. It builds on the basic quantitative methods course in the mandatory IR PhD program and deals with a series of advanced quantitative methods in the social sciences. The main aim is that the student becomes proficient in understanding, critically evaluating, and applying times-series cross-section analysis, which is needed increasingly to analyze economic, historical, and political phenomena. This course will cover, among others, hypothesis testing, structural breaks, ARMA, ARIMA, ARCH, GARCH, VAR, unit root tests, instrumental regression. 

Chinese Foreign Policy Making: Evaluating the Debate on ‘Top-down’ and ‘Bottom-up’ Processes (7,5 ECTS)
In recent years the traditional view of how foreign policy is made in China has been increasingly challenged. Rather than the conception of China’s foreign policy being dictated from the top, by one or a small number of leaders at the highest levels of the government or Chinese Communist Party (CCP), some researchers have argued that a wider number of actors, including non-governmental actors, play a role in foreign policy making. This has led to considerable debate about the extent to which ‘top down’ and ‘bottom up’ processes work to produce China’s foreign policies. A sub-strand of this debate has been regarding the formation of public opinion and national identity in China, with some arguing that these are formed ‘top down’ by an all controlling government which engages in extensive opinion shaping and others arguing that public opinions or identities emerge in a bottom up fashion. This course will primarily engage with the main debate about foreign policy, whilst also covering elements of this secondary debate.  

Critical Qualitative Methods (7.5 ECTS)
The aim of this reading course is to introduce the PhD candidate to specific literatures that provide both an overview and an in-depth insight into an array of prevalent qualitative methods within the social sciences that are also of relevance to the candidate’s doctoral thesis. These methods include discourse analysis (on a broader philosophical level, as well as an in-depth poststructuralist take), as well as readings touching upon the importance of self-reflexivity and the art of narrative writing. The literature assigned features scholars whose research is commonly situated within critical sub-disciplines of International Relations, including Critical Security Studies (CSS) and feminist studies. This literature questions the way that traditional methods are reproduced. Instead, it often puts the subjectivities of language, the researchers, and those “being researched” at the forefront, investigating how knowledge is constructed, reproduced, and embedded with power, as well as its implications. 

Critical Security Studies (7,5 ECTS)
This course offers an advanced survey of some of the core issues in Critical Security Studies (CSS). The main aim of the course is to familiarize the participants with some of the classical as well as more recent debates within the field. Going beyond the characterization of CSS in terms of different “Schools” (Copenhagen, Welsh and Paris to name the most frequently invoked), the course instead focuses on some core themes. The course explores the relation between security and identity via Campbell; security and risk via Amoore; securitization theory via Huysmans; security and gender via Wibben; security and emancipation via Nunes; and security and biopolitics via Vaughan-Williams.

Critical Sociological Approaches to Security
This course exposes PhD students to the sub-field of critical security studies. Traditionally the study of security focused on realist and liberal approaches, with occasional use of Marxist, constructivist and post-colonial perspectives. This course goes further in a critical direction. We question the conventional state-based focus, the focus on traditional security conflict, and even existing ontologies about how we look at security. Special emphasis, for example, will be placed on professional communities of security actors and non-governmental officials acting on non-military threats of various sorts. 

European Integration Theory (7,5 ECTS)
The European Union is the world’s most advanced experiment in governance beyond the traditional nation-state. Over the course of six decades it has evolved into a political, economic, and social community that directly affects the daily lives of its citizens and with considerable global influence. Perhaps because of this, the EU has been increasingly publicly debated in recent decades. This course surveys the development of European integration theories over time. Special emphasis will be placed on the theories traditionally used to explain the EU’s development, new analytical approaches coming to the fore, and the theoretical structure of the discipline.

Historical Institutionalism: Incremental Institutional Change and Critical Junctures 
The aim of this reading course is to introduce the PhD candidate to specific literatures that provide both an overview and an in-depth insight into an array of prevalent approaches to historical institutionalism. The concepts that this course puts special emphasis on, i.e., incremental institutional change and critical junctures. Theoretically, the course spans broad literatures in political science and sociology relevant for historical institutionalist approaches to the study of international relations. This broad selection ensures an encompassing overview of existing theoretical and methodological literature on historical institutionalism. 

Key Concepts in International Studies (7,5 ECTS)
This course, offered as part of SU’s inter-departmental Graduate School of International Studies, surveyed five key concepts related to international studies across disciplines. The course, which included full professors offering customized teaching, focused on the following concepts: territory, security, nationalism/citizenship, the commons, and the media. Seminar based teaching was combined with tailored reading lists to drive discussion, and resulted in assignments and a final exam.

Legitimacy and Procedural Justice in Global Governance (7,5 ECTS)
International organizations (IOs), such as the African Union, United Nations, and World Health Organization, have seen increasing public contestation in recent decades. One of the key insights of scholarship on global governance over the past decade is that IOs have become increasingly salient and debated among citizens and elites. This course assesses to what extent and on what grounds citizens, elites, non-governmental, and states perceive IOs to be legitimate, i.e., whether they perceive an IO’s exercise of authority to be appropriate. It also engages in explaining why IOs are perceived to be varyingly legitimate, foregrounding procedural fairness theory that posits that the way in which authoritative decisions are made strongly impacts people’s willingness to accept them. 

Producing National and Global Security: Organizational and Institutional Change (7,5 ECTS) – given in class
This course will examine various security threats and explore the ways in which they can be identified, understood, responded to and mobilized around on a discursive and material basis. The emphasis is on discursive and material interventions attached to a security outcome and how these operate jointly. In contrast to Critical Security Studies, the goal is not to deconstruct or analyze existing regimes of security (or what security means), but rather to understand how discursive and material mobilizations operate as part of a coordinated system which manifests itself in material outcomes. The course examines both openings and closures related to both discursive and material mobilizations. 

Social Psychological Approaches to International Relations
This course aims to provide PhD students with an overview of the variety of psychological approaches to IR as well as to thoroughly familiarize them with the more recent hot cognition and macro-level developments in the discipline. To this end, the course will touch on the traditionally influential scholarship on, inter alia, rational choice theory, prospect theory and belief systems, while paying special attention to newer scholarship on emotions, collective identity theories and socio-psychological insights regarding hierarchies, reputation and status. By the end of the course the students should have a good grasp of the importance of social psychological approaches for IR, be aware of the various psychological approaches out there, and be able to situate their own research vis-à-vis the course literature.

The craft of writing peer reviewed journal articles (7.5 ECTS) – given in class 
The course provides PhD students with skills that are useful when writing and publishing peer reviewed journal articles. It covers aspects of the article writing and publishing process, including how to identify suitable journals, how to develop and clarify the argument and contribution of a paper, how to engage with reviewers and editors, and how to co-author articles. The course presents concrete techniques for using short texts or abstracts to develop papers and offers participants the opportunity to develop and receive feedback on their own article drafts. It also introduces participants to academic literature on how writing groups can assist PhD students in the writing and publishing process. 

Qualitative Textual Analysis (7.5 ECTS) 
The purpose of the course is to introduce the PhD candidate to the craft of qualitative textual analysis. The PhD candidate is expected to be able to identify suitable methods in relation to specific research questions, illustrate skills in relation to the application of the textual analysis (including coding, where relevant) on a small sample of empirical material and to assess strengths and weaknesses associated with particular forms of qualitative textual analysis in relation to these questions. Issues of coherence and relevance of different methods in relation to the research questions should be addressed. Particular attention is devoted to qualitative content analysis, thematic analysis and visual analysis. The course is a reading course where PhD students independently read the literature, chooses empirical material and writes a paper for examination. 

Theorizing International Relations II (7, 5 ECTS)
This course is typically offered in the form of a ‘reading course’, by which PhD students focus in on a particular theoretical school of thought in international relations. Such a course would be tailored to the students’ intellectual needs, for instance in relation to her thesis work. In the past we have held courses on ‘Constructivism in International Relations’, ‘Identity Construction in the State System’, ‘Nuclear Non-Proliferation: theories and concepts’, ‘Norms in the International System’, and ‘Securitization Theory’.