Security and Insecurity in Global Politics (L2061N)

15 credits, Level 5

Spring teaching

Security is key to international relations. The United Nations states its purpose as maintaining ‘international peace and security’. Its most powerful organ is the UN Security Council. But what is security in global politics? Who or what needs to be secured? Against which insecurities? And how?

On this module, you'll study different analytical approaches to navigate such question by focusing on developing global insecurities such as:

• war
• terrorism
• technology
• pandemics
• climate change.

You'll also learn to critically assess different policy approaches for dealing with these issues, including by international organisations, states and non-state actors.

Contact hours and workload

This module is approximately 150 hours of work. This breaks down into about 22 hours of contact time and about 128 hours of independent study. The University may make minor variations to the contact hours for operational reasons, including timetabling requirements.

We regularly review our modules to incorporate student feedback, staff expertise, as well as the latest research and teaching methodology. We’re planning to run these modules in the academic year 2024/25. However, there may be changes to these modules in response to feedback, staff availability, student demand or updates to our curriculum.

We’ll make sure to let you know of any material changes to modules at the earliest opportunity.