Security Theory (15)

Learning Outcomes

Learning Outcomes

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Identify, analyse and critique the political and/or ethical assumptions underpinning particular security policies and practices.
• Critically assess the applicability of descriptive and normative security theories to past and present political challenges arising in world affairs.
• Identify and explain contending theories of security.
• Demonstrate an ability to integrate theoretical and empirical knowledge when explaining or advancing arguments about security.
• Distinguish between and engage in different modes of theoretical reasoning applicable to claimed security problems.
• Generate new, theory-driven ideas for responding effectively to claimed security problems.

Drawing on ideas and information from within and beyond the academic discipline of International Relations, Security Theory explores the nature and purpose of ‘security’ as a state-of-being or socio-political practice. Through a series of in-depth, research-led seminars, student will have an opportunity to engage critically with a diversity of theoretical perspectives on security in a global political context. Theoretical frameworks to be explored in the module may include: realist and liberal perspectives; Marxist and feminist perspectives; constructivism and securitization theory; risk theory; security as biopolitics; emancipation and the idea of ‘human security’; strategic theory; and Just War theory.

Teaching and learning methods

Student learning will be achieved through a combination of interactive lectures, group-based tutorial discussions and debates, and independent study. Learning activities and assessment tasks are designed to encourage critical thinking, intellectual autonomy, and evidence-based argument.

Resources & Reading list

Journal Articles

Arnold Wolfers (1952). ‘National Security” as an Ambiguous Symbol’. Political Science Quarterly, 67(4), pp. 481-502.

Simon Rushton (2011). 'Global Health Security: Security for Whom? Security from What?’. Political Studies, 4(779-796).

David A. Baldwin (1997). The Concept of Security. Review of International Studies 23, 23(1), pp. 5-26.

Textbooks

Michael Walzer (2006). Just and Unjust Wars: a Moral Argument with Historical Illustrations. New York: Basic Books.

Michael Sheehan (2005). International Security: An Analytical Survey. Boulder: Lynne Rienner.

Ken Booth (ed.) (2005). Critical Security Studies and World Politics. Boulder CO: Lynne Rienner.

David Fisher (2011). Morality and War: Can War be Just in the Twenty-First Century?. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Barry Buzan (1991). People, States and Fear: An Agenda for International Security Studies in the Post-Cold War Era. New York: Harvester Wheatsheaf.

C. A. J. Coady (2008). Morality and Political Violence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Paul D. Williams (ed.), (2013). Security Studies: An Introduction. New York: Routledge.

Alex J. Bellamy (2006). Just Wars: From Cicero to Iraq. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Barry Buzan, Ole Waever, and Jaap de Wilde (1998). Security. A New Framework for Analysis. Boulder: Lynne Reinner.

Columba Poeples and Nick Vaughan-Williams (2010). Critical Security Studies: An Introduction. Routledge: London.

Thierry Balzacq (ed.), (2011). Securitization Theory: How Security Problems Emerge and Dissolve. London: Routedge.

J. Peter Burgess (ed.) (2010). The Routledge Handbook of New Security Studies. London: Routledge.

Myriam Dunn Cavelty and Victor Mauer (eds.) (2010). The Routledge Handbook of Security Studies. London: Routledge.

Annick T. R. Wibben (2011). Feminist Security Studies: A narrative approach. London: Routledge.

Ronnie Lipschutz (ed.) (1995). On Security. Columbia: Columbia University Press.

Ken Booth and Nicholas J. Wheeler (2008). The Security Dilemma: Fear, Cooperation and Trust in World Politics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.

Referral

This is how we’ll assess you if you don’t meet the criteria to pass this module.

Repeat Information

Repeat type: Internal & External