Resolution Crisis and Post-conflict Reconstruction

Recommended Prerequisites

Not applicable.

Teaching Methods

Teaching methodologies include interactive sessions and participative involvement of the students in in-class discussions. Sessions will include an introduction to the main topics, that are explored through the analysis and discussion of recommended readings, bringing out different approaches and allowing extensive discussion of theories and practice. Students are evaluated according to: in-class discussion (30%), presentation and discussion of previously assigned research work (30%), written essay (40%).

Learning Outcomes

Overall objectives
The Seminar aims at analysing different theoretical approaches to international security, both regarding positivist perspectives and post-positivist approaches, looking at the evolution of this field of studies and pointing at future directions.The students should be able to discuss the main lines of theoretical debate resulting from the evolution of studies in this area, apply different theoretical frameworks to the analysis of international relations, clarify the agency-structure relations in these processes,and how these imply in the theorization and conceptualization of international security
Specific objectives
Analyse different security approaches and discuss their implications in the readings of the international system;apply concepts and theories to the analysis of specific case studies
Generic competencies
Critical analysis and conceptualization capacities related to a consistent integration of theoretical approaches with the international system dynamics

Work Placement(s)

No

Syllabus

1. Conceptualizing international security: what? Who? How? For whom?

2. The agency-structure debate: relevance and implications for international security studies

3. Positivist approaches to security: realism and liberal institutionalism

4. Post-positivist approaches to international security: mapping critical security studies

- Constructivism, Critical theory, post-colonialism, feminist approaches and post-structuralism

- Paris School, Copenhagen School and Aberystwyth School

5. Analysis of case-studies.

Head Lecturer(s)

Maria Raquel de Sousa Freire

Assessment Methods

Assessment
Presentation and discussion of research work : 30.0%
Recommended readings discussion : 30.0%
Research work: 40.0%

Bibliography

Booth, Ken (2008) Theory of World Security. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Brown, Michael E. and Lynn-Jones, Sean M. (1995) Perils of Anarchy: Contemporary Realism and International Security. The MIT Press.  

Buzan, Barry and Hansen, Lene (2009) The Evolution of International Security Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Buzan, Barry and Waever, Ole (1997) Security: A New Framework for Analysis. Lynne Rienner Pub.

Hough, Peter; Malik, Shahin; Moran, Andrew and Pilbeam, Bruce (2015) International Security Studies: Theory and Practice. London: Routledge.

Sohlstrom, Ola (2008) Bridging Aberystwyth and Copenhagen: (de)securitising emancipation. VDM Verlag.
Smith, Michael E. (2010) International Security: Politics, Policy, Prospects. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

Vaughan-Williams, Nick and Peoples, Columba (2015) Critical security Studies: An Introduction. New York: Routledge.