From week to week, International Security will introduce you to some of the key theories and major issues in international security, broadly defined to include less state-centric human and environmental security concerns as well. Some examples of weekly subjects include:

1.National Security Cultures

2.Institutions of Security Governance

3.International Humanitarian Law

4.Post-Conflict Reconstruction

Formative Assessment:

You will submit a policy briefing update report, which reflects industry-standard practices in informing stakeholders of the progress and likely findings of a piece of commissioned research.

Assessment 1: Human Security Presentation

You will give an individual presentation to the remaining group, on a particular area of human security. Your presentation should last 8 minutes. You must respond to questions following the presentation, this question-and-answer session will last 3 minutes. There will be an emphasis on having relevant knowledge to hand regarding your chosen topic. A short piece (approximately 500 words) of written reflection on one’s performance during the presentation will be submitted following delivery. The presentation, question and answer session, and reflective commentary together comprise Assessment 1 and will be assessed holistically.

Assessment 2: Policy Brief

You will produce a briefing-style document which informs and – importantly – advises the reader on a policy area in international security. Emphasis will be on concision, presentational clarity, and viability of policy advice to the specific notional stakeholder.

Scheduled learning and teaching sessions will include a mixture of lecturing, all-group discussion, and smaller group work. In lecturing hours, special emphasis will be on introducing students to both narrow and broad academic definitions of security and the management thereof. In group discussions and activities, students will be encouraged to explore specific case studies in the sub-discipline, and to specialise in a particular facet of human security that will become the focus of their formative and summative assessments.

1. Adapt your academic knowledge and insight to a non-academic professional client or audience seeking practical application for your research in a real-world professional setting.

Personal Development & Entrepreneurship

2. Amass and convey detailed empirical knowledge on a major issue in human security.

Knowledge & Understanding

3. Calibrate your communication style to match an appropriate stakeholder or academic audience.

Communication

4. Critically reflect on your performance under pressure when delivering large quantities of information pertinent to the field of international relations.

Reflection

Alan Collins (ed) Contemporary Security Studies, (7th ed) OUP, 2025

Baylis, Wirtz, Cohen & Gray (eds) Strategy in the Contemporary World, (7th ed) OUP, 2022

Smith, M.E., 2017. International Security: Politics, Policy, Prospects 2nd edition. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, Hampshire England; New York.*

Williams, P.D. (ed), 2023. Security Studies: An Introduction, 4th edition. Routledge, London; New York

*The Smith text, being slightly older, is a useful exemplar of how the field of International Security has changed in the past decade(s), and so is included as a point of reference to older standards in the field.

This module will provide you with 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.