POLIS 7026 - International Security

This course explores the transforming paradigm of international security. We engage with the latest debates, theories and essential concepts in the field of security studies, and apply these against existing and emerging transnational security dilemmas that affect nation-states and international organisations alike. We commence by interrogating prevailing notions of national security, sovereignty, and human security. Central to these notions are the preservation of stability and human freedoms amid (or in the absence of) inter alia wars, conflicts, emancipatory struggles, colonialism, the Cold War and the establishment of international system. The course encourages discussion of these issues through the lens of dominant theoretical frameworks including (neo)realism, liberalism and constructivism. These frameworks inform our substantive investigation, of designing effective international institutions and norms, particularly those relating to conflict resolution, humanitarian intervention, human rights and displaced peoples. We then consider how the concepts of 'national' or 'international' security are fundamentally transformed by (i) transnational dilemmas that undermine long-standing principles of sovereignty, independence and border integrity, and (ii) states’ weakening capacity to deliver security outcomes. Thus, we consider how traditional state-based threats interact with the incipient rise of non-traditional security challenges, from the terrorist attacks of 9/11 and fragile/fragmenting states, to new technologies of violence, maritime security in the Indo-Pacific, and proliferating cyber assaults on infrastructure and democratic processes. Throughout the course, we reflect on the debates between mainstream and critical security perspectives on the state: querying how security is constituted; why and how policy issues come to be framed as security issues; and the ethical repercussions and ramifications for democracy.