AP/POLS 4260 3.00

Contemporary Security Studies

The course examines the understandings of international security which are being produced in the contemporary world. There is an extremely lively debate in security studies about the nature of security and how it can and should be achieved. At the same time, those responsible for providing security globally are grappling with the practical problems of security in a changing world. In this course we will explore both of these sites of developing understandings of security, by asking about the links between them. The course explores these links through an examination of a series of current issues in international security, which may include: culture and security, environmental change, population movements, the future of NATO, communal conflict, and nuclear proliferation.