Introductory description

Since the end of the Cold War the security agenda of international politics has expanded dramatically. Traditional concerns with the balance of power, narrowly defined conceptions of the national interest and a focus on strategic issues of war and peace have been complemented with a much wider range of concerns also increasingly seen as fundamental for maintaining international peace and security.

This module provides an introduction to the development of security debates on a range of these so-called 'new security challenges', central to which increasingly is a shift away from narrower concerns of state security towards broader conceptions of societal security. However, the 'security-ness' of issues such as migration, climate change, resources, culture and borders, health and development, or various aspects of the global commons is often highly contested, deeply political and raise considerable ethical concerns for how security is understood and sought in the contemporary environment.

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: What is security?
Week 2: Migration and security
Week 3: Development and security
Week 4: Health and security
Week 5: Energy security and resource conflict
Week 6: Reading Week
Week 7: The Global Commons I: The Environment and Global Climate Change
Week 8: The Global Commons II: Outer Space, the High Seas and Antarctica
Week 9: Borders and Global Cultural Heritage
Week 10: Cyber security

Learning outcomes

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

• Appreciate the politically contested nature of the concept of security.
• Identify core debates about the changing nature of security in the contemporary age, the processes that underpin them, and their potential implications.
• Interrogate those claims with a particular emphasis on their political and ethical dimensions and with respect to how debates about security are inherently politicised.
• Engage with policy debates about pertinent approaches to tackling a range of diverse security issues.
• Effectively communicate and debate arguments about the contemporary broadened international security agenda.

Indicative reading list

 Booth, K. (ed.) (2005) Critical Security Studies and World Politics (Lynne Rienner).
 Bourne, M. (2014) Understanding Security (Palgrave Macmillan)
 Browning, C. S. (2013) International Security: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press).
 Buzan, B. et al., (1998) Security: A New Framework for Analysis (Lynne Rienner).
 Buzan, B. and L. Hansen (2009) The Evolution of International Security Studies (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)
 Collins, A. (ed.) (2010) Contemporary Security Studies (Oxford: Oxford University Press) Second Edition.
 Dannreuther, R. (2007) International Security: The Contemporary Agenda (Cambridge: Polity).
 Fierke, K. (2007) Approaches to International Security (Cambridge: Polity).
 Hough, P. (2004) Understanding Global Security (London: Routledge).
 Hough, P. et al (2015) International Security Studies: Theory and Practice (London: Routledge).
 Jarvis, L. and J. Holland (2015) Security: A Critical Introduction (Palgrave).
 Kay, S. (2006) Global Security in the Twenty-First Century; the quest for power and the search for peace (Roman and Littlefield).
 Mabee, B. (2009) The Globalization of Security (Palgrave).
 Peoples, C. and N Vaughan-Williams (2010) Critical Security Studies: An Introduction (London: Routledge)
 Sheehan, M. (2005) International Security: An Analytical Survey (Lynne Rienner).
 Terriff, T.; S. Croft, L. James and P. Morgan (1999) Security Studies Today (Cambridge: Polity).
 Williams, Paul (ed.) (2013) Security Studies: An Introduction (London: Routledge).

View reading list on Talis Aspire

Subject specific skills

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

• Appreciate the politically contested nature of the concept of security.

• Identify core debates about the changing nature of security in the contemporary age, the processes that underpin them, and their potential implications.

• Interrogate those claims with a particular emphasis on their political and ethical dimensions and with respect to how debates about security are inherently politicised.

• Engage with policy debates about pertinent approaches to tackling a range of diverse security issues.

• Effectively communicate and debate arguments about the contemporary broadened international security agenda.

Transferable skills

Critical analysis
Presentation and communication
Argument and debate