Course Description

This course is taught in conjunction with Security in Context, an international research initiative on peace, conflict and international affairs as they intersect with processes such as climate change, global inequalities, and warfare. Traditionally, security has been understood through the prisms of militaries, policing, borders, and surveillance. However, for many populations around the world, these traditional practices of security lead to insecurity in their daily lives: economic precarity, social dislocation, imprisonment or marginalization. The course will introduce students to alternative notions of security from an interdisciplinary and global South perspective that challenges narrow Western ideas of security. Students will be introduced to the Security in Context network and engage with the work of scholars from around the world. KEYWORDS:International Relations; Global Studies; Critical Security Studies; Global Capitalism

Divisional Requirements

Was course completed satisfactorily?

Yes

Course Fundamentals

Attended class
Participated in class discussion
Participated in in-class or group activities
Completed assignments on time

Learning Goals

Learn to read and interpret intellectual or artistic works
Write critically and analytically
Understand quantitative methods of analysis
Develop creative abilities in expressive modes (e.g. creative writing, visual and performance arts, and music)
Effectively present ideas orally
Conceive and complete project-based work
Understand multiple cultural perspectives on intellectual or artistic subjects

Narrative Description of Student Performance

In this course, students read texts on peace and conflict, critical security studies, and international political economy. They also benefitted from two guest lectures from Professor Michael Klare on United States (US) foreign policy formulation, geopolitics, and artificial intelligence and automated weapons. In addition to several assignments and Moodle posts, students worked in small groups throughout the semester. In one group assignment, students were expected to summarize a major policy document produced by a leading think tank on the international rules-based order. Finally, they were expected to complete a final research paper on a topic of their choice and to present their findings in the last week of the semester.

Ruth Daniel was an outstanding student in this course, who consistently completed high quality work that was among the best in the class, and was a consistent and thoughtful presence in class discussions. Though Ruth entered the class with an interest in right-wing movements, they expanded their knowledge and engaged with questions of US foreign policy, global governance, and the security-development nexus. For their final paper, Ruth summarized the historical rise and eventual convergence of each of the Christian Evangelical movement and the US right-wing extremist movement. Ruth’s essay describes how paradoxically, these movements found common ground in the Trump campaign despite his personality and history of conduct that is on the surface anathema to the expressed values of the Christian Evangelical movement. The essay was beautifully written and engaging, summarizing impressively some complex histories. In addition to an aggressive masculinity, they demonstrated how a chauvinist nationalism, hatred of the left, and a populist politics are also common denominators in both movements. Future research can expand on these convergences and study more the personal attitudes of individuals in those movements or possibly track the divergences between them.