Our MSc War and Humanitarianism analyses the complex interaction between war and humanitarianism from multiple historical, geographical, political and cultural perspectives. The degree approaches war as a social totality that encompasses all manner of human processes and structures, and considers humanitarianism as an increasingly pervasive ideology, informing all sorts of collective social and political activity across the world.

Taught by leading scholars in the fields of history, geography, politics, philosophy and psychosocial studies, this interdisciplinary programme will give you advanced knowledge of the concepts, theories, histories and policy implications of war and humanitarianism in the world today.

• Our location in central London puts us at the heart of the UK’s political life and at the centre of academic London. You can walk down to Parliament and Whitehall, while Bloomsbury contains some of the world’s most famous libraries and centres of research.
• You can take advantage of the rich research collections within walking distance, including Senate House Library, the British Library, and the British Library of Political and Economic Science at the London School of Economics.
• Our Department of Politics is a world-renowned centre of original, influential research. In the most recent Research Excellence Framework (REF), Politics at Birkbeck was ranked 17th in the UK.
• The department organises a lively programme of seminars and conferences and is home to affiliated research centres, such as the Birkbeck Centre for British Political Life, which run seminars, conferences and other events where some of the world's best scholars present their latest research.
• Our academic staff are international authorities in their fields, publishing and delivering stimulating teaching in a wide range of topics including civil society and the state, public policy, development, gender, international security and terrorism, and social and political theory. Watch a debate featuring the programme director Dr Antoine Bousquet on Surveillance, Big Data and Behavioural Science: Governing Populations in the Age of COVID-19.
• Birkbeck Library has a large politics collection, including the major specialist journals, and gives you access to an extensive range of online materials.