Unit information: Theoretical Approaches to Security in 2020/21

Unit name	Theoretical Approaches to Security
Unit code	POLIM0029
Credit points	20
Level of study	M/7
Teaching block(s)	Teaching Block 1 (weeks 1 - 12)
Unit director	Professor. Joseph
Open unit status	Not open
Pre-requisites	None
Co-requisites	None
School/department	School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies
Faculty	Faculty of Social Sciences and Law

Description including Unit Aims

This unit provides students with an understanding of international security by means of a variety of methodological and theoretical approaches. The unit defines international security to include threats to groups as well as nations, to the biosphere as well as the polity, and from military to political, economic and environmental security. The unit therefore provides an introduction and overview to key theoretical, historical and policy issues in international security debates. It goes on to analyse how security has traditionally been treated by different academic and policy communities during the cold war, and examines the changing nature of security in a post Cold War context. It therefore provides a theoretical and conceptual foundation for the MSc in International Security.

Aims:

This unit aims to provide students with a theoretical and empirical understanding of security issues and debates. The principal aim of the unit is to equip students to understand and analyse security challenges from different theoretical perspectives and assess the core assumptions as well as advantages and disadvantages of these approaches The unit will therefore develop the student’s interest in and knowledge and understanding of the role of security actors at the international, national and sub-national levels; theories of how ‘new’ security challenges emerge and are advanced or dismissed and why; and theories of international relations in which security debates are located.

Intended Learning Outcomes

At the end of this unit students will:

• acquire knowledge of security issues at the international, national and sub-national levels;

• be able to understand and critically evaluate key debates in international security.

• understand how ‘new’ security challenges emerge and are advanced or dismissed and why.

• be able to apply knowledge to ‘key issues’ in international security.

• be able to use knowledge acquired in the unit as a foundation for optional units in the MSc programme

Teaching Information

The unit will be taught through blended learning methods, including a mix of synchronous and asynchronous teaching activities

Assessment Information

The final grade for the course will be based on the following:

Final Paper (4,000 words in length) 100% of mark

The assignment will address all the learning outcomes

Reading and References

• • Bourbeau, Phillippe (ed.) Security: Dialogue Across Discipline, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  • Campbell, D. (1998) Writing Security: United States Foreign Policy and the Politics of Identity, revised edition, Manchester: Manchester University Press.
  • Fierke, K.M. (2007) Critical Approaches to International Security, Cambridge: Polity.
  • Krause, K. and Williams, M.C. (eds.) (1997) Critical Security Studies. Concepts and Cases, London: Routledge.
  • Huysmans, J. (1998) ‘Security! What do you mean? From concept to thick signifier’, European Journal of International Relations, 4:2, pp.226-255.
  • Peoples, C. and Vaughan-Williams, N. (2014) Critical Security Studies: An Introduction, 2nd edition, London: Routledge.
  • Sheehan, M. (2004) International Security: An Analytic Survey, London: Lynne Rienner.
  • Shepherd, L.J. (2013) Critical Approaches to Security, London: Routledge.
  • Smith, S. (1999) ‘The increasing insecurity of security studies: Conceptualizing security in the last twenty years’, Contemporary Security Policy, 20:3, pp.72-101.
  • Weldes, J., Laffey, M., Gusterson, H., Duvall, R. (eds) (1999) Cultures of Insecurity: States, communities, and the production of danger, Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
  • Williams, P. (ed.) Security Studies. An Introduction, 2nd edition, London: Routledge.
  • Zalewski, M. (1996) ‘All these theories yet the bodies keep piling up’: theories, theorists, theorising’, in Steve Smith, Ken Booth and Marysia Zalewski (eds) International Theory: Positivism and Beyond, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.340-353.