LPINT7266 Human Security: Cyber, Environmental and Beyond

Course Overview

This course will further the study of security and stability as concepts within International Relations. The course will focus on security as a human condition, rather than taking a reductionist state-centric approach. The course will focus on how the changing nature of International Relations – which relates to the impact of globalisation on key political issues such as authority, sovereignty, governance and democracy – shapes our understandings of human security. The course looks beyond military and armed conflicts (i.e. how countries use war to achieve security) and engages with topics linked to human security such as minority rights, terrorism, migration, poverty, environmental degradation, organised and cyber-crime, and other international problems. Particular attention will be given to environmental threats and how these are intrinsically related to processes of economic development and growth, thus reflecting the focal engagement of the programme with sustainable development. In short, security will not be understood solely as a concern pertaining to states, but also as a core value and an individual right. Given the scope of the topics covered, the course will act as a bridge between International Relations, Comparative Politics and Political Thought.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

Knowledge and Understanding

Subject Specific Skills

Transferable and Professional Skills

Teaching and Learning

This course has a dedicated Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) page with a syllabus and range of additional resources (e.g. readings, question prompts, tasks, assignment briefs, discussion boards) to orientate and engage you in your studies.

The scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course are:

• Interactive teaching sessions
• Office hours
• Revision session

Students can expect to receive a minimum of 16.5 scheduled hours per 15-credit course.

Faculty hold regular ‘office hours’, which are opportunities for students to drop in or sign up to explore ideas, raise questions, or seek targeted guidance or feedback, individually or in small groups.

Students are to attend and participate in all the scheduled teaching and learning activities for this course and to manage their directed learning and independent study.

Indicative total learning hours for this course: 150

Employability Skills

• Communication Skills
• Presentation skills
• Work independently, creatively, and to deadlines
• Conduct specialised independent research and explore relevant existing knowledge
• Analyse, contextualise, and interpret complex policy issues and multiple sources of evidence
• Synthesise and evaluate information against a backdrop of uncertainty
• Develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills whilst working under pressure.
• Develop planning and organisational skills

Assessment

Formative

Students will be formatively assessed during the course in seminar activities and by means of assignments that offer opportunities to develop, practise and refine the same skills in research, writing, presentation and communication that will be assessed in the summative assessment elements for the course. These assessments have been designed to foster engagement with society and the world, the ability to intervene in political activities and the making of policy, and cooperation with relevant actors, institutions, organisations and industries. Formative assessments do not count towards the end of year results, but will provide students with regular developmental feedback.

Summative

Both the examination and the written assignment will be assessed in accordance with the assessment aims set out in the Programme Specification.

Feedback

Students will receive formal feedback in a variety of ways: written (including via email correspondence), oral (e.g. on an ad hoc basis) and indirectly through discussion during group sessions. Feedback on examinations is provided through generic internal examiners’ reports and are made available to the student on the VLE. For all other summative assessment methods, feedback is made available to the student either via email, the VLE or another appropriate method. 

Indicative Reading

Note: Comprehensive and current reading lists for courses are produced annually in the Course Syllabus or other documentation provided to students; the indicative reading list provided below is used as part of the approval/modification process only.

Books

Battersby, P., and Siracusa, J. M. (2009). Globalization and Human Security (Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield).

Browning, C. S. (2013). International Security: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

Chomsky, N. (1999). The New Military Humanism: Lessons from Kosovo (London and New York: Pluto Press).

Collins, A. (ed.) (2016). Contemporary Security Studies, 4th ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press).

Kaldor, M. (2007). Human Security (London: Polity Press).

Kaldor, M. (2012). New and Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era, 3rd ed. (London: Polity Press).

Klein, N. (2015). This Changes Everything (London: Penguin Random House).

Miller, C. (2022). Chip War: The Fight for the World’s Most Critical Technology (London: Simon and Schuster).

Romaniuk, S. N., and Manjikian, M. (Eds.). (2021). Routledge Companion to Global Cyber-security Strategy (New York: Routledge).

Solar, C. (2022). Cybersecurity Governance in Latin America: States, Threats, and Alliances (New York: State University of New York Press).

Trejo, G and Ley, S. (2020). Drugs and Violence: The Political Logic of Criminal Wars in Mexico (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).

Journals

Journal of Human Security

International Organization

Development and Change 

International Security

Latin American Perspectives 

Third World Quarterly 

Review of International Studies

International Journal of Peace Studies

International Studies Perspectives

Electronic Resources

UNDP Library

Available from: https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/librarypage.html

World Bank eLibrary:

Available from: https://elibrary.worldbank.org/

IMF eLibrary:

Available from: https://www.elibrary.imf.org/

Indicative Topics

• What is security and how it relates to current debates?
• The nation and the state as security arrangements
• Globalisation and changes in IR: the demise of multilateralism?
• Theories of the state and human security: from Liberalism to Marxism
• Democracy, legitimacy and security
• Evolving notion of Human Security: From war to terrorism to cyber-crime
• Environmental and economic security: towards sustainable development
• Responsibility to Protect and Human Security

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