Department of European Studies & Modern Languages, Unit Catalogue 2006/07

EU50661 International security

Credits: 6

Level: Masters

Semester: 1

Assessment: EX100

Requisites:

Aims: This unit aims to:
* Identify and analyse the main currents in the academic and policy debate on international security;
* Study and assess the viability of different approaches to international security;
* Examine to what extent international organisations and individual state and non-state actors contribute to international (in-) security;
* Discuss the main security challenges faced by the EU and the organisation's preparedness to confront them;
* Develop skills in comparative political analysis, in preparing briefing papers on case studies, and in conducting seminars.
Learning Outcomes:
Students who complete the unit successfully will be able to demonstrate that they:
* Have acquired knowledge of the key concepts in the study, understanding, and analysis of international security issues;
* Are aware of major academic and policy debates about the nature of international security and contemporary threats to it;
* Can apply this knowledge and awareness to a wide range of international security-related issues and write sensibly and critically about them.
Skills:
The key skills the unit will hone and further develop are:
* Advanced research skills in identifying, locating and exploiting a wide range of descriptive, evaluative and theoretical literature.
* Intellectual skills of conceptual, original and independent thinking, critical analysis, synthesis and reasoned argument.
* Skills of assessment and judgement in relation to the soundness of competing arguments and scenarios, including the reporting and assessing of qualitative and quantitative data.
* Generic and transferable skills related to the oral and written presentation of ideas.
* Skills of self-direction, self-evaluation and time management.
Content:
Part I: Security and the International System
* The Nature of International Security
* Great Power Politics and International Security
* International Institutions as Providers of Collective Security
Part II: Contemporary Security Threats
* Ethnic Conflict
* Terrorism
* Organised Crime
* Migration
Part III: The EU and International Security
* The European Security Architecture
* European Security Challenges
* The EU's Capabilities (1): ESDP
* The EU's Capabilities (2): Justice and Home Affairs.

University | Catalogues for 2006/07