Dr Kate Millar

This course is available on the BSc in International Relations, BSc in International Relations and Chinese, BSc in International Relations and History, BSc in Politics and International Relations, Erasmus Reciprocal Programme of Study and Exchange Programme for Students from University of California, Berkeley. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit. This course is available with permission to General Course students.

This course has a limited number of places (it is capped).

This course tackles questions of war, peace, and security from an analytical perspective, tracing the changes and continuities that have shaped international security from the Cold War to the present. What causes war — and what ends it? What explains the use of violence to resolve disputes between and within states? Does the liberal order actually deliver peace and stability? What makes the threat of force credible? Can outside intervention in civil wars ever reduce violence? Do nuclear weapons make the world safer or more dangerous?

We approach these questions through established theoretical frameworks and critical perspectives - asking not just how security works, but for whom, and at whose expense. The course takes seriously the distinction between state security and individual security and recognizes that not all individuals are equally positioned with respect to threat, protection, and vulnerability. Race, gender, and global inequality shape whose security is prioritized and whose is overlooked.

The first half of the course examines the major theories used to explain the causes, character, and duration of war at both the international and domestic levels. The second half broadens the lens to explore security in the contemporary era, including political violence, terrorism, insurgency, humanitarian emergencies, climate change, and the growing role of technology — from surveillance and autonomous weapons to cyber conflict — in reshaping what security means and how it is pursued.

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

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

Students will submit one formative essay (1,500 words) in AT and sit a mock e-Exam in class in WT. 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%).