1. DEMONSTRATE A SYSTEMATIC UNDERSTANDING OF THE KEY THEORETICAL APPROACHES AND DEBATES OF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY.
Knowledge and Learning

2. DEVELOP ANALYTICAL SKILLS THROUGH AN INDEPENDENT AND CRITICAL APPRAISAL OF CURRENT CASE STUDIES IN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY
Analysis, Enquiry, Problem Solving, Reflection

3. PROVIDE WELL-RESEARCHED AND DEVELOPED PIECES OF WORK IN APPROPRIATE ACADEMIC STYLE Application and Communication

The participation grade encourages engaged and consistent learning. This builds up subject-knowledge as well as enhancing communication and analysis skills.

The policy brief will require students to distil complex information into a short, well-structured document that can be absorbed by practitioners and policymakers. It aims to stimulate students to engage in an integrative approach between analysis, enquiry, knowledge, and problem-solving.

The essay is designed to enhance practical research skills (problem-solving and application). It will also require the application of a theoretical approach to an issue area of International Security (enquiry; knowledge and learning; analysis).

This module will provide an advanced understanding of international security as a subfield of International Relations. The module will explore the meaning and use of security in international relations and engage with mainstream theoretical approaches of the discipline and newer conceptions of security, such as gender and post-colonial security. Students will apply these theoretical frameworks to a range of empirical case studies with a particular focus on the changing logic of security since the end of the Cold War. The module will examine security in relation to cooperation and conflict between states and interrogate a number of issue areas, including terrorism, intra-state violence and post-conflict peacebuilding.

The main focus will be on self-instruction, within a tightly structured framework and relying largely (but not exclusively) on materials supplied. Week by week students will work through course material (delivered via blackboard) which provides the framework and focus for reading key texts and articles relevant to the weekly lecture schedule. Students will also undertake specific written tasks on a discussion board in response to set questions to fulfil the participation element of assessment. This work will be undertaken on an individual basis but students will also be expected to interact and share materials and ideas with other students. They will be expected to drive discussions based on their reading and weekly written tasks in seminars.

Alan Collins (2018) (ed), Contemporary Security Studies, 5th edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Paul Williams (2018) (ed), Security Studies: An Introduction, third edition, Routledge, London.

Columba Peoples and Nick Vaughn-Williams (2015), Critical Security Studies: An Introduction, 2nd edition Routledge, London.

Peter Hough, Shahin Malik, Andrew Moran, and Bruce Pilbream (2015) (eds), International Security Studies: Theory and Practice, Routledge, London.

Students’ own textbooks; supplied course packs of readings; e-books; e-journals; relevant websites.
Blackboard VLE
Computer with internet access

Admissions requirements BA 2.2 or relevant work experience