Convenor name: Nick Westcott
Convenor email: nw28@soas.ac.uk
Module dates: Semester 2
Intended learning outcomes:
- This course is oriented towards providing students with a practical skillset. Designed with diplomacy in mind these are nevertheless transferrable skills useful in any setting.
- Students will have encountered and practiced negotiations through a series of full day workshops delivered by experienced trainers. At the end of this module students will not only be able to negotiate effectively but also to independently work out their position and tactics from a general brief.
- Students will have encountered and practiced mediation through a series of workshops and lectures delivered by experienced mediators. In the course of these workshops students will not only come to understand the value of mediating approaches to conflict but also to develop and practice skills in the area.
- Students will be able to analyse and write speeches. With a particular focus on turning policy points into compelling rhetoric for a large audience. This will include practice at delivering speeches and the work with various stylistic devices to achieve maximal impact. Students will also learn and practice to think of communications strategically and as tactical component of policy implementation and crisis management.
- Finally students will learn how to analyse policy for a variety of actors (governments, NGOs or Corporations). Additionally they will be able to design implementation oriented policy alternatives and communicate those effectively in the form of a policy analysis paper.
- Ultimately students will have the opportunity to bring all those skills to bear in a day long crisis management exercise. This team exercise draws on a real world crisis and student creativity to test all of the above skills in a pressured but safe environment.
Assessment 1: Name: Assignment 1 (AS1)
Assessment 1: Weighting: 50%
Assessment 1: Due date: 24 April 2026
Assessment 2: Name: Assignment 2 (AS2)
Assessment 2: Weighting: 40%
Assessment 2: Due date: 1 May 2026
Assessment 3: Name: Seminar Participation (SP1)
Assessment 3: Weighting: 10%
Page type: Module
Study year: 2025/26
Librarian name: Yurie Watanabe
Librarian email: yw25@soas.ac.uk
Page template: 2025/26 On campus
