Security studies

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Aims and scope: 

This inter-disciplinary course will introduce students to the concept of human security. Human security refers to the security of individuals and communities as opposed to the security of the state. It combines physical security and material security; freedom from fear and freedom from want. The course will introduce students to the debates about the concept and its relevance in the contemporary era. It will combine political, military, legal and economic approaches to human security implementation. The course will cover topics including:; intellectual foundations and debates over the concept of human security; new and old wars; persistent conflict; just war thinking and whether it can be applied to human security; international humanitarian law and human rights law; humanitarian intervention and the Responsibility to Protect; international capabilities for human security; counterinsurgency, stabilisation, and statebuilding; transitional justice.

Indicative reading: 

Mary Kaldor, New and Old Wars: Organised Violence in a Global Era, Polity Press, 2006; Shannon Beebe and Mary Kaldor, The Ultimate Weapon is no Weapon: Human Security and the New Rules of War and Peace, Public Affairs, 2010; Ruti Teitel, Humanity's Law, Oxford University Press, 2011; Marlies Glasius and Mary Kaldor, eds, A Human Security Doctrine for Europe, Routledge, 2005; World Development Report 2011: Conflict, Security, and Development, World Bank, 2011; Human Security Report 2005, University of British Columbia, 2005; Human Security Now: Report of the Commission on Human Security, Co-Chairs S Ogata and A Sen, United Nations, 2003; A Human Security Doctrine for Europe: The Barcelona Report of the Study Group on European Security Capabilities, Barcelona, 2004; G. Evans, M. Sahnoun, et al., The Responsibility to Protect: Final Report of the International Commission on Intervention and State Sovereignty, Ottawa, 2001; Independent International Commission on Kosovo, The Kosovo Report, Oxford University Press, 2001.

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