IR205      One Unit
International Security

This information is for the 2025/26 session.

Course Convenor

Availability

This course tackles questions of war, peace and security from an analytical perspective, by highlighting changes and continuities in international security. What are the causes and consequences of war? What explains the use of violence for the resolution of inter and intra-state disputes? Does the liberal order promote peace and stability? What are the implications of changes in the distribution of power and the world? What renders the threat of force credible? Can intervention in civil wars ever curb violence and bring about peace? Do nuclear weapons make the world less safe? We address these questions through a combination of theoretical discussions and contemporary policy debates. The first half of the course reviews the major theoretical frameworks that have been used to explain the causes of war on the world stage, as well as its character and duration in the international and domestic arenas. We use these theoretical frameworks as a lens through which to examine problems of war and peace, and threats to individual, national and international security in the contemporary era. The second half of the course turns to questions of security more generally. We examine political violence, terrorism, insurgency, humanitarian emergencies, climate change, and other threats to individual and collective security.

10 hours of lectures and 10 hours of classes in the Winter Term.
10 hours of lectures and 9 hours of classes in the Autumn Term.

This course has a reading week in Week 6 of Autumn and Winter Term.

Students will submit one formative essay in AT and one formative essay in WT, each essay up to 1,500 words. Detailed explanations and requirements will be posted on Moodle at the beginning of the academic year.

The formative essays will help students develop a deep understanding of key readings on topics likely to appear in the summative e-Exam. 

James Fearon. 1995. Rationalist explanations for war. International Organization 49(3):379-414.  

Jessica Weeks. 2012. Strongman and straw men: authoritarian regimes and the initiation of international conflict. American Political Science Review 106(2):326-347.  

Tarak Barkawi and Mark Laffey. 2006. The postcolonial moment in security studies. Review of International Studies 32(2): 329-352. 

Lauren Sukin and Woohyeok Seo. 2024. East Asia’s alliance dilemma: public perceptions of the competing risks of extended nuclear deterrence. Journal for Peace and Nuclear Disarmament 7(1): 91-114. 

Hannah C. Hale. 2012. The role of practice in the development of military masculinities. Gender, Work, and Organization 19(6): 699-722. 

Barbara F. Walter, Lise Morje Howard, and V. Page Fortna. 2021. The extraordinary relationship between peacekeeping and peace. British Journal of Political Science 51(4): 1705-1722. 

Lee Ann Fujii. 2008. The power of local ties: popular participation in the Rwandan Genocide. Security Studies 17(3): 568-597. 

Exam (90%), duration: 180 Minutes in the Spring exam period

Course participation (10%)

The exam will be an on campus 'e-Exam'.