Global Security Studies

Syllabus for Global Security Studies at JHU, 2023

Introduction to Global Security Studies

Course Information

Credit Hours: 3

Class Times: Online

Course Location: Online

Course Description:

This course introduces students to the basic concepts of global security studies (GSS), including theories of international relations (IR), perception and misperception, the varying concepts of security, and the elements of national power. It also includes a brief introduction to social movement, gender, and critical theories. It applies these conceptual tools to selected security issues such as international cooperation, global economics, and the causes of war.

About Your Course

Course Structure

During the first half of the course – the first 8 weeks – students will be introduced to the major international relations theories pertinent to the study of global security studies. The second half of the course – weeks 9 through 15 – are designed to offer students with introductions to the major thematic subjects of GSS and the opportunity to apply the theoretical knowledge gained to real-life conflicts.

What to Expect in this Course

This course is 15 weeks in length and includes individual and whole group activities in a weekly cycle of instruction. Each week begins on a Monday and ends on the following Sunday. Please review the course syllabus thoroughly to learn about specific course outcomes and requirements. Be sure to refer to the Checklist each week, which provides a week-at-a-glance and shows targeted dates for the completion of activities.

Program Educational Objectives

By the end of this program, you will be able to:

P1 Critique key international security debates using rigorous theoretical and historical. concepts.

P2 Apply international relations theory to cultivate a thorough understanding of complex. foreign policy challenges.

P3 Examine the processes by which security-related strategies are developed by state and. non-state actors.

P4 Develop a scholarly argument and defend it through an appropriate research methodology.

P5 Produce written academic research consisting of clear, concise, and audience-appropriate. prose.

Course Educational Objectives

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

C1  Explain the difference(s) between international politics and foreign policy;

C2  Apply prominent theories and subjective approaches to the study of International Relations;

C3  Explain the role, structure, and functions of international organizations;

C4  Evaluate the impact of domestic politics and the government processes on foreign policy-making;

C5  Recognize and identify the elements of national power and statecraft brought to bear in international relations;

C6  Evaluate various types of threats in the international system and what can be done to counter them; and

C7   Write for academic and policy audiences.

Required Text and Other Materials (refer to appendix for full reading list)

Textbook(s) or Other Media

No textbooks are required for purchase for this course. All readings are listed in Appendix A.

Other equipment/software/websites/online resources

None.

Evaluation and Grading Policy

In the table below, you will find a brief description of the various course requirements including assignment weights, and frequency.  See Appendix A & B for full course outline and schedule.

Course Requirements

Assignment Value

Critical Comment 1:

Students must develop a 1,000 to 1,200 word (approx. 2-pages) critical comment on a session’s readings of their choice. Students can choose any week’s readings between Week 1 and week 8. The critical comment must apply the reading’s lessons to a real-world development (present or past). The first Critical Comment is due before class session number students assign.

15

Critical Comment 2:

Students must develop a 1,000 to 1,200 word (approx. 2-pages) critical comment on a session’s readings of their choice. Students can choose any week’s readings between Week 9 and week 14. The critical comment must apply the reading’s lessons to a real-world development (present or past). The second Critical Comment is due before class session number students assign.

15

Exam:

The final exam will be posted on Canvas at the beginning of session 16. Students will be expected to complete the examination within the 3 hours duration of class time and submit their exam in Canvass. The exam will include 3 sections:

§  Succinct definitions of key terms – Student will be asked to choose 5 terms out of a list of 10. This will account for 25% of the grade.

§  Short explanation of key research concepts – Students will be asked to provide short (2-3 sentences) responses, explaining key theoretical assumptions/concepts in IR. This will account for 25% of the grade.

§  Two essay questions – Students will be asked to answer 2 essay questions (out of 5 possible prompts) drawing from the literature covered in class. Essays will be no more than 750 words and will require students to specifically draw from scholars and schools of thought studied in class, as well as offer empirical support for their arguments. This will account for 50% of the grade.

30

Posting Weekly Questions:

Students are expected to be prepared to discuss the assigned readings on Canvas each week, and to contribute by posting a comment for each session, drawing from the week’s readings, and showing engagement with the readings. The comments should be about 300 to 600 words. Comments will be graded based on consistent engagement with the class and drawing extensively on each week’s readings.

25

Online Participation:

Student are expected to read and respond to at least 1 classmate’ comments on Canvas for each session. The comments should be about 300 to 600 words. Participation will be graded based on thoughtful and consistent engagement with classmates’ comments, drawing form the sessions readings, including references to course texts when appropriate.

15

Total  

100

Note: Students who choose to write a critical comment for a particular week do not have to

submit responses for that week. The critical comment substitutes for the weekly

discussion in two posts.

Appendix B

Course Topics & Readings

The following are the selected readings for this course. All readings are required unless noted as optional. All readings unless otherwise noted are available from JHU ARES (eReserves) system.

Week 1: Introduction & Overview

1. Jack Snyder, “One World, Rival Theories,” Foreign Policy 145, November/December 2004, pp. 53-62. [10] 

2. Joseph S. Nye and David A. Welch, Understanding Global Conflict and Cooperation: An Introduction to Theory and History (New York: Pearson Longman, 2013), 1-16, 52-61 [26]. 

3. Stephen M. Walt, “International Relations: One World, Many Theories,” Foreign Policy 110, Spring 1998, pp. 29-46 [17]

Week 2: International Relations Theory: Realism and Neorealism

1. Robert Jackson and Georg Sørensen, Introduction to International Relations: Theories and Approaches, “Realism”, pp. 59-91 [32] 

2. Hans J. Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace (New York: Knopf, 1954), pp. 3-13 [11] 

Week 3: International Relations Theory: Neorealism

1. John Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (New York: W.W. Norton, 2001), pp. 1-28 [27]. 

2. Stephen Kotkin, “Realist World: The Players Change, but the Game Remains,” Foreign Affairs, July/Aug 2018, pp. 10-15 [5]

Week 4: International Relations Theory: Liberalism

1. Robert Jackson and Georg Sørensen, Introduction to International Relations: Theories and Approaches, “Chapter 4: Liberalism”, pp. 95-115.[20] 

2. Steve Chan, “Progress in the Democratic Peace Research Agenda,” International Studies Encyclopedia, 2017. [10 pp + 13 pages of bibliography]. 

3. G. J. Ikenberry, Liberal Leviathan (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2011), pp. 333-361 [28] 

4. Kenneth A. Oye, “Explaining Cooperation under Anarchy: Hypotheses and Strategies,” World Politics, 38:1 (1985), 1-24. [25] 

5. Daniel Deudney and G. John Ikenberry, “Liberal World: The Resilient Order,” Foreign Affairs, July/Aug 2018, pp. 16-24 [8]

Week 5: Constructivism: Ideas, Identity, and Norms

1. Alexander Wendt, “Anarchy is What States Make of It: The Social Construction of Power Politics,” International Organization 46 (1992), pp. 391-425. [35]

2. John Gerard Ruggie, "What Makes the World Hang Together? Neo-utilitarianism and the Social Constructivist Challenge," International Organization 52 (1998), pp. 855-886. [31]

3. Samuel Barkin, “Realist Constructivism.” International Studies Review 5 (2003), pp. 325-342. [17]

4. Nicholas Onuf, “Constructivism: A User’s Manual,” in International Relations in a Constructed World, ed. by Vendulka Kubalkova, Nicholas Onuf, and Paul Kowert, pp. 58–78. [20] (optional).

Week 6: Gender and Feminist Theories in International Relations

1. Enloe, Cynthia (2014) Chapter 1, ‘Gender makes the world go round,’ and Chapter 9, ‘Conclusion: The personal is international’ in Cynthia Enloe Bananas, Beaches, and Bases, University of California Press. [48]

2. M.J. Fox (2004) “Girl Soldiers: Human Security and Gendered Insecurity,” Security Dialogue 35 (4): 465-479. [24]

3. M. Mackenzie (2010) “Securitizing Sex: Towards A Theory of The Utility of Wartime Sexual Violence,” IFJP 12(2): 202-221 [19]

4. Steans, Jill (2013) “Gender in International Relations” and “Feminist International Relations” in Gender and International Relations. Polity, pp. 7-24 and pp. 25-46. [38] (optional).

Week 7: Critical Theory and Post-colonialism

1. Frederick Cooper, Colonialism in Question: Theory, Knowledge, History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2005), pp. 33-55. [22]

2. Edward Said (1978), Orientalism, pp. 9 – 57 (skim) + Required viewing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVC8EYd_Z_g

3. Foucault, Michel (1978), Security, Territory and Population. Online at: http://www.generation- online.org/p/fp_foucault14.htm (selections) 


4. Required viewing: Battle of Algiers. 


5. Fanon, Franz, “The Black Man and Language,” Chapter 1 in Black Skin, White Masks. (Grove Press, 1952), pp 1 – 23.

6. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, “Can the Subaltern Speak?” pp. 66-104. [39] (optional).

Week 8: Social Movements: Mobilizing for Change Within and Across Countries

1. Marco Giugni. 1998. Was it worth the effort? The outcomes and consequences of social movements. Annual Review of Sociology 98: 371-93. [22]

2. Adam Roberts. 2010. Introduction, in Adam Roberts and Timothy Garton Ash, eds. Civil resistance and power politics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 1-24. [24]

3. Erica Chenoweth and Jay Ulfelder. 2017. Can structural conditions explain the onset of nonviolent uprisings? Journal of Conflict Resolution 61, no. 2 (January): 298-324. [26] 

4. Rodney Stark, “Social Change and Social Movements,” Sociology, 4th ed. (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 1992), 611-632. [22] (strongly recommended).

Week 9: Spring Break

1. Prepare for the second part of the course.

2. Feel free to schedule office hours with the instructor as need be.

Week 10: Perceptions and Decision Making in Global Relations

1. James Goldgeier and Philip Tetlock, “Psychology and International Relations Theory,” Annual Review of Political Science 2001, vol 4, pp. 67-92. 

2. Alastair Johnston, “Thinking About Strategic Culture,” International Security ,Spring 1995.  

3. Robert Putnam, "Diplomacy and Domestic Politics: The Logic of Two-Level  Games," International Organization 42:3 (Summer 1988).

4. Robert Jervis, “War and Misperception,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Vol. 18, No. 4, 1988, pp. 675-700. [25].

Week 11: Strategic Use of Military Force

1. Lynn-Jones, Sean M. "Offense-defense theory and its critics." Security Studies 4.4   (1995): 660-691.

2. David. Edelstein, “Occupational Hazards: Why Military Occupations Succeed or  Fail,” International Security, 49-91.

3. Thomas Schelling, “Arms and Influence,” in Strategic Studies: A Reader, Second Edition, Thomas G. Mahnken and Joseph A. Maiolo eds. (New York: Routledge, 2014), 105-129 [25]

4. Kroenig, Matthew. "Exporting the bomb: Why states provide sensitive nuclear   assistance." American Political Science Review 103.1 (2009): 113-133.

Week 12: Types of International Cooperation

1. Jervis, Robert. "Cooperation under the security dilemma." World politics 30.2 (1978): 167-214.

2. Robert Keohane and Lisa Martin, “The Promise of Institutionalist Theory,” International Security 20, No. 1 (Summer, 1995), pp. 39-51. [13] 

3. Kent, Ann E. “Introduction: Compliance and Cooperation in a Changing   World” in Beyond compliance: China, international organizations, and   global security: Stanford University Press, 2007.  

4. Victor, David G. "Toward effective international cooperation on climate change: Numbers, interests and institutions." Global environmental politics 6.3 (2006): 90-103.

Week 13: Diplomacy and Soft Power

1. Nye Jr, Joseph S. "Public diplomacy and soft power." The annals of the American   academy of political and social science 616.1 (2008): 94-109.

2. Goddard, Stacie E. "When right makes might: how Prussia overturned the   European balance of power." International Security 33.3 (2009): 110-142.

3. Simonyi, András, and Judit Trunkos. "Eliminating the Hard/Soft Power   Dichotomy." Smarter Power (2014): 13 

4. Robert J. Art, “Coercive Diplomacy: What Do We know?”, in Robert J. Art and Patrick M. Cronin, eds, The United States and Coercive Diplomacy, U.S. Institute of Peace, Washington, DC, 2003, pp. 359–420.[61] Skim (Strongly recommend).

Week 14: Great Power Competition: The Case of China

1. Christensen, Thomas J. "Fostering stability or creating a monster? The rise of China and US policy toward East Asia." International security 31.1 (2006): 81-126.

2. Friedberg, Aaron L. "The future of US-China relations: Is conflict inevitable?." International security 30.2 (2005): 7-45.

3. Schweller, Randall L., and Xiaoyu Pu. "After unipolarity: China's visions of international order in an era of US decline." International Security 36.1 (2011): 41-72  

4. Liff, Adam P., and G. John Ikenberry. "Racing toward tragedy?: China's rise, military competition in the Asia Pacific, and the security dilemma." International Security 39.2 (2014): 52-91.

Week 15: Nation States and Human Security within GSS

1. Human Security at the UN. September (2012). Briefing on the Report of the Secretary-General on Human Security. A/66/763. Online available at: http://www.un.org/humansecurity/sites/www.un.org.humansecurity/files/n1228537.pdf 

2. Robert I. Rotberg, “Failed States, Collapsed States, Weak States: Causes and Indicators” in State Failure and State Weakness in a Time of Terror, Washington D.C.: Brookings, 2003, pp. 1-25.

3. Weiss, Linda. "Globalization and the Myth of the Powerless State." New left Review 225 (1997):3.

Week 16: Final Exam.