Module overview
This is a Portsmouth module, offered as an optional module to students on the Masters in Social Research Methods in Southampton.
The unit coordinator is Dr Patricia Shamai
Aims and Objectives
Learning Outcomes
Learning Outcomes
Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:
- Engage in critical debate about the changing meaning of security and processes of securitisation.
- Develop a proposal for an independent project in a relevant field of contemporary security politics.
- Critically assess the major challenges to stability and security in contemporary international politics.
- Critically assess the competences, capabilities and credibility of security providers.
Syllabus
1 Strategic and Security Studies from classical approaches to contemporary concepts of human, political, economic and environmental security. The changing referents of security post 9/11, a return to statism?
2 The state as a security provider: external security dilemmas, domestic resources and constituencies. Democratic states contrasted to autocratic regimes in the management of security.
3 The media and security: from Vietnam to the invasion of Iraq, war reporting, society and leadership. Governments, agenda setting and information control, Al Jazerra and Middle East conflicts.
4 The state as a security provider, strategies of deterrence, alliance and pre-emption. Israel and its neighbours. The United States, unilateralism and security after 9/11.
5 Institutions as security providers, capacity, credibility and the post Cold War security agenda.
6 NATO in the New Europe: relations with Russia, regional strategy in the Black Sea as a case study.
7 The European Union as a new security actor: from soft to hard power?
8 The United Nations and human security, development, democratisation and security.
9 Intervention and peace enforcement, regional case studies: Legitimacy, alliance cohesion and military intervention. Ethnicity, identity and conflict management.
10 Jihad and International Security: Jihadist ideology from Taymiyya to Bin Laden, the organisation of Jihad from 9/11 to London 7/7, popular support for Jihad. The war on terror and the reconceptualisation of security, counter terrorism strategies and military force, pre-emption and intervention, human rights and the new security agendas.
Learning and Teaching
Teaching and learning methods
Tutorial 24
Type | Hours |
---|---|
Workshops | 12 |
Independent Study | 276 |
Lecture | 12 |
Total study time | 300 |
Assessment
Summative
This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.
Method | Percentage contribution |
---|---|
Essay | 100% |