Introductory description

Shock, fear, trauma; feelings of being unsafe, unwanted and misplaced; expressions of anger, dismay, and despair; perceptions of assaults on senses of self, identity, and community. In light of phenomena ranging from economic uncertainty to migration crises to terrorist attacks to Brexit to post-truth politics, these descriptors are characteristic of the Zeitgeist in political and public discourse in much of the Western world. They are also at the heart of the Critical Security Studies (CSS) field, which shifts our focus away from statism and traditional security issues. While conventional approaches to the study of security might ask “What are the national security prerogatives of a country, and how do they translate into conduct in the international arena?”, in CSS we pull back the curtain on what security does. As we shall see, life, death, statehood, community, class, race, gender, and individual perspectives are deeply intertwined in any attempt to define of ‘security’.

Zooming in on “What is security?” and equally importantly, “What is critique?”, the module engages with a broad range of ‘critical’ theoretical lenses, methods and techniques of critical analysis. We will discuss how security practices work, what they do, how they shape - and how they are shaped by - discourses, power relations, and different forms of knowledge. To be ‘critical’, first and foremost, means to be open to challenges that disrupt the familiar, and to be willing to explore and experience new perspectives, new ‘truths’, which, while always eye-opening, may not always be comforting and comfortable.

Module web page

Module aims

Outline syllabus

This is an indicative module outline only to give an indication of the sort of topics that may be covered. Actual sessions held may differ.

Week 1: Introduction: The Evolution of (Critical) Security Studies
Week 2: Critical Theory and Security
Week 3: Security and Emancipation
Week 4: Engendering Conflict
Week 5: (Just) Securitization and Desecuritization
Week 6: Reading Week
Week 7: Speaking Security
Week 8: Terrorism, Security, Liberty
Week 9: Security and Exceptionalism
Week 10: Identity and Borders
Week 11: Biopolitics
Week 12: (Re)Creating International Hierarchy
Week 13: Spaces of (In)Security
Week 14: Algorithms and Artificial Intelligence
Week 15: Popular Culture and the Everyday of Security
Week 16: Reading Week
Week 17: Militarism, Memorialisation, and Remembrance
Week 18: Ontological (In)Security
Week 19: Security and Ethics
Week 20: Revision Lecture
Term 3 Revision Materials

Learning outcomes

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate an advanced knowledge of the theoretical and conceptual debates associated with ‘critical security studies’ and their relation to ‘traditional’ security studies
• Assess the strengths and weaknesses of different critical approaches to the study of security
• Locate the critical study of security within broader debates in International Security and International Relations
• Demonstrate familiarity with the range of contemporary issues that could be conceptualised as security threats
• Demonstrate familiarity with contemporary dynamics and politization of security

Indicative reading list

TBC

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Subject specific skills

At the end of the module students should be able to demonstrate knowledge of key issues and conceptual provocations in critical security studies. You should have acquired a hands-on, critical toolkit to analyse and reflect on contemporary security practices and our own involvement in them, such as counter-terrorism, human security, border security, the securitization of migration, or the gendered dynamics of violence and conflict. And you should have gained the ability to reflect on the possibility of change, on how we might think about security differently to transform the status quo of actual security practices and the practice of theorizing.

Transferable skills

Students should also be able to have acquired transferable skills, in particular the ability to: (a) apply CSS methods and techniques to consolidate, extend, and apply your knowledge and understanding of international security; (b) apply detailed critical analysis and interpretation of a variety of primary and secondary sources to initiate and carry out research projects; (c) process complex material and ideas within the broad field of critical security studies, consider unfamiliar ideas, and challenge your existing ways of thinking; (d) synthesize ideas drawn from different branches of the International Security disciplinary field to understand the emergence, dynamics, and implications of security policy agendas; and (e) communicate clearly key information, ideas, and problems in group discussion, as well as in oral and written presentations.