92668 - SECURITY IN THE XXI CENTURY

Academic Year 2019/2020

  • Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
  • Campus: Bologna
  • Corso: Second cycle degree programme (LM) in International Relations (cod. 9084)

Learning outcomes

This is an advanced course of International Relations, which provides students with a comprehensive knowledge of international security in the XXI century. While the course is mainly empirical in its orientation, emphasis is also placed on theory. Students are expected to learn what is security and how it should be examined. At the end of the course, students will be able to analyze the slippery notion of security and its multidimensional nature. Students will also be able to assess some of the impost important security issues in contemporary world politics, understanding how states can be generators of security and insecurity alike. Since students are also expected to actively participate to class discussion and contribute with presentations, they will improve their oral communication skills

Course contents

Class 1: Introduction

No readings

Class 2: Security as a Multidimensional Concept

- Emma Rotschild, “What is Security?,” Daedalus, Vol. 124, No. 3, (Summer, 1995), pp. 53-98.

- John Mueller & Mark G. Stewart, “Terrorism and Bathtubs: Comparing and Assessing the Risks”, Terrorism and Political Violence, published online 28 December 2018.

Class 3, 4 and 5: Inter-state conflicts

- Geoffrey, Blaney, The Causes of War, New York, The Free Press, Ch. 8, 9.

- Azar Gat , “The Changing Character of War”, in Hew Strachan and Sibylle Scheipers (eds)

The Changing Character of War, Ch. 1; available at http://www.oxfordscholarship.com.ezproxy.unibo.it/view/10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199596737.001.0001/acprof-9780199596737-chapter-2

Class 6: US-China Rivalry?

- J. Mearsheimer, “The Gathering Storm: China's Challenge to US Power in Asia," The Chinese Journal of International Politics, 3 (4), 2010, pp. 381-396.

- G. Allison, “The Thucydides Trap”, Foreign Policy, 9 June 2017, available at https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/06/09/the-thucydides-trap/# [https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/06/09/the-thucydides-trap/]

- Suisheng Zhao, “American Reflections on the Engagement with China and Responses to President Xi’s New Model of Major Power Relations,” Journal of Contemporary China, Vol. 26, no. 106, 489–503

Class 7: Civil Wars

- Francesco N. Moro "Civil Wars", in Paul Joseph ed., The SAGE Encyclopedia of War: Social Science Perspectives, Sage 2017.

- Stathis N. Kalyvas, “The Changing Character of Civil Wars, 1800–2009”, in Hew Strachan and Sibylle Scheipers (eds) The Changing Character of War, Ch. 11; available at http://www.oxfordscholarship.com.ezproxy.unibo.it/view/10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199596737.001.0001/acprof-9780199596737-chapter-12

Class 8: (March 30): Genocide

- Adrian Gallagher, Genocide and its threat to contemporary international order (2013), capitolo 5.

- Martin Shaw, Genocide and International Relations: Changing Patterns in the Transitions of the Late Modern World (2013), capitolo 9.

Class 9: From Post-Conflict Stabilization to Sustaining Peace (April 2)

- Agenda for Peace, UN (http://www.un-documents.net/a47-277.htm )

- Understanding Peacebuilding Theory, T. Paffenholz (https://peacemaker.un.org/sites/peacemaker.un.org/files/ConfictTransformation_NewRoutes2009.pdf )

- Conflict Transformation: a circular journey with a purpose, J. P. Lederach and Michelle Maiese (same link as above)

- Conflict, Stability and Development, World Development Report 2009, World Bank (http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/EXTWDRS/0,,contentMDK:23252415~pagePK:478093~piPK:477627~theSitePK:477624,00.html

Class 10: Terrorism

- Isabelle Duyvesteyn, 2010, How New Is the New Terrorism?, Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 27:5, 439-454, DOI: 10.1080/10576100490483750

- Andrew Silke, 2013. “Fire of Iolaus: The role of state countermeasures in causing terrorism and what needs to be done”, in John G. Horgan, Kurt Braddock (eds), Terrorism Studies

A Reader, Routledge: London, chapter 21.

Class 11: Mid-term


Class 12: Insurgency

Mao Tse-Tung, Mao Tse-Tung on guerrilla warfare ; translated by Samuel B. Griffith; available at: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/unibo/detail.action?docID=4809290

Class 13: Counter-insurgency

- D., Galula, Counterinsuregency Warfare: Theory and Practice, Westport, Praeger, Ch. 1, 7.

- L. Zambernardi, “Counterinsurgency Impossible Trilemma”, Washington Quarterly, Vol. 33, n. 3, 2010, pp. 21-34; available at https://csis-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/legacy_files/files/publication/twq10julyzambernardi.pdf.

Class 14: Drone Warfare

- P.W. Singer, “Robots at War: The New Battlefield”, in Hew Strachan and Sibylle Scheipers (eds) The Changing Character of War, 18; available at http://www.oxfordscholarship.com.ezproxy.unibo.it/view/10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780199596737.001.0001/acprof-9780199596737-chapter-19

- G. Chamayou, Drone Theory, London, Penguin.

Class 15: The War in Afghanistan

- M. Barry, Kabul's Long Shadows: Historical Perspectives, Liechtenstein Institute at Princeton, 2011; available at http://www.operationspaix.net/DATA/DOCUMENT/4371~v~Kabuls_Long_Shadows__Historical_Perspectives.pdf

Class 16: Military interventions

- Kaldor, M and Selchow, 2015. From Military to ‘Security Interventions’: An Alternative Approach to Contemporary Interventions. Stability: International Journal of Security & Development, 4(1): 32, pp. 1–12, DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.5334/sta.fu

- Tal Dingott Alkopher, 2016. From Kosovo to Syria: the transformation of NATO Secretaries General's discourse on military humanitarian intervention, European Security, 25:1, 49-71

Class 17 (May 7): Gender in conflict and security

- Segal Lynne 2008, “Gender, War and Militarism: Making and Questioning the Links”, Feminist Review, 88: 21-35.

- Brunner Claudia, 2016, “Expanding the Combat Zone: Sex-Gender-Culture Talk and Cognitive Militarization Today”, International Feminist Journal of Politics, 18(3): 371-389.

Class 18 (May 11): The securitization of education between peacebuilding and counter-radicalisation

- Novelli, Mario (2017) [http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/69183/] Compare: A Journal of Comparative and International Education, 47 (6). pp. 835-851.

- Ervjola Selenica (2018): Education for whom? Engineering multiculturalism and liberal peace in post-conflict Kosovo, Southeast European and Black Sea Studies, Published online: 12 Jul 2018.

Class 19: Security approaches to migration

- Huysmans Jef, 2000, Migration and the Politics of Security. In: Body-Gendrot S., Martiniello M. (eds) Minorities in European Cities. Migration, Minorities and Citizenship. Palgrave Macmillan, London

- Philippe Bourbeau, 2015, Migration, Resilience and Security: Responses to New Inflows of Asylum Seekers and Migrants, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 41:12, 1958-1977, DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2015.1047331 [https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2015.1047331]

Class 20 (may 18): Final Exam

Readings/Bibliography

See above plus, for students not attending classes, Paul D. Williams, Matt McDonald (eds) Security Studies an introduction, Routledge, London, 2018.

Teaching methods

Lectures and seminars

Assessment methods

Written exam and presentation

 

Class Participation: 20%

Presentation: 30%

Final: 50%

Teaching tools

Power point and videos

Office hours

See the website of Lorenzo Zambernardi