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Challenges and Opportunities in Global Security

Module description

This is the compulsory introductory module to the MSc in Global Security Studies. The module will provide you with an engaging overview – academically rigorous yet practically applicable – to key topics in the study of global security, including pressing challenges and potential opportunities for their resolution/mitigation.

No prerequisite modules are required, but students will be expected to complete POLM023 and POLM886 subsequently; it is not available via interdisciplinary pathways.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims to provide you with:

• An introduction to the genesis and logic of strategic thought as applicable to global security;
• An understanding of key fault-lines the theoretical and corresponding policy debates;
• A sense of the enduring relevance – or otherwise – of strategic thought on the contemporary international system;
• An ability to apply theoretical ideas to real-world problems of national and international security.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Demonstrate in-depth knowledge and understanding of key issues involving global security and statecraft, as applied in the contemporary international system.
• 2. Critically apply knowledge of strategic theory and associated empirical evidence to contemporary problems of interstate cooperation, competition, and conflict, as well as policy responses thereto.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Display an understanding of the evolution of international relations and strategic theory, and their utility for contemporary decision-making.
• 4. Exercise informed judgement about change and continuity in global security and world politics.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Conduct independent research, exercise critical judgement, and write clearly and persuasively.
• 6. Identify spurious conclusions and distinguish rigorous from merely persuasive argument.

Syllabus plan

While the content of this module is likely to change from year to year, to reflect advances in the field, it is envisaged that we will cover some or all of the following topics:

• The historical genesis of the contemporary global security environment;
• Theories of international politics and states’ strategic behaviour;
• The implications of different theoretical logics for enduring questions of global security, such as the causes of war, the components and uses of national power, prospects for international cooperation, and so forth; and
• The applicability of such arguments to contemporary security challenges, such as NATO-Russian relations, the rise of China, the demise of US global preponderance, UK/allied national security policy, the enduring relevance of nuclear weapons and other potentially revolutionary technologies, non-state actors’ resort to violence (including terrorism), the prospects/limitations of international law and institutions, states’ pursuit of hegemony and imperial domination, debates about the wisdom/otherwise of humanitarian intervention, the international politics of environmental protection, states’ strategic and diplomatic choices, and so forth.

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 50%) you will be required to redo the assessment(s) as defined above. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 50%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Dale C. Copeland, The Origins of Major War (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000)
• John J. Mearsheimer, ‘The False Promise of International Institutions’, International Security (19:3), Winter 1994-1995, pp. 5–49
• Stephen G. Brooks and William C. Wohlforth, World Out of Balance: International Relations and the Challenge of American Primacy (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008)
• Patrick Porter, The Global Village Myth: Distance, War, and the Limits of Power (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2015)
• Stacie E. Goddard, When Right Makes Might: Rising Powers and World Order (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2018)
• Keir A. Lieber, War and the Engineers: The Primacy of Politics over Technology (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005)
• Daryl G. Press, Calculating Credibility: How Leaders Assess Military Threats (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005)
• Keren Yarhi-Milo, Knowing the Adversary: Leaders, Intelligence, and Assessment of Intentions in International Relations (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014)
• Robert Jervis, ‘Cooperation Under the Security Dilemma’, World Politics 30:2 (January 1978), pp. 167-214.
• Robert Jervis, The Meaning of the Nuclear Revolution: Statecraft and the Prospect of Armageddon (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1989)
• Thomas C. Schelling, Arms and Influence (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1966 [New Ed.])
• John J. Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (New York: Norton, 2001)
• David Blagden, ‘When does Competition become Conflict? Technology, Geography, and the Offense-Defense Balance’, Journal of Global Security Studies (6:4) December 2021
• Patrick Porter, The False Promise of Liberal Order: Nostalgia, Delusion, and the Rise of Trump (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2021)

Indicative learning resources - Other resources

• Students should familiarise themselves with the outputs of leading national and international security think-tanks, specialist blogs, and major newspapers’ defence/security/diplomatic commentary.

Key words search

Security (National and International), International Relations, World Politics, Strategy, Power, Foreign Policy, Defence, Military Doctrine and Capabilities, Economic Influence, Diplomacy, International Institutions, International Law, Nuclear Weapons, Environmental Politics, Emerging Technology, Humanitarian Intervention, Terrorism, Hegemony and Empire