Introduction to International Security

Security studies is an interdisciplinary field examining security dynamics within and between states. It covers traditional military security, non-traditional threats, and human security.

Postwar security studies emerge, focusing on nuclear deterrence and the US–Soviet rivalry. Realist thinkers like Morgenthau and Waltz emphasize power, state interests, and military capabilities.

Examine how the 1960s arms race and balance of power shaped security strategies, contrasting defensive realism with offensive neorealism, and explore détente, crisis management, and the Cuban missile crisis.

Explore nuclear proliferation in the 1970s, including tests by India, Pakistan, and Israel, and the Non-Proliferation Treaty and SALT agreements aimed at reducing the risk of nuclear war.

Trace the end of the Cold War with 1980s détente breakdown and SDI fears. See how Gorbachev's reforms and 1991 dissolution reshaped security studies, embracing regional conflicts and non-state actors.

Reflect on your learning so far and provide feedback on the course, practice tests, and improvements. Consider how to define the current period and characteristics of international security today.

The realist tradition views the international system as anarchic, forcing states to rely on self-help, form alliances to balance threats, with wars persisting due to no higher authority.

Explore the security dilemma and use of force, showing how arms races and military buildup arise from mistrust and fear, while deterrence and realism shape responses in an anarchic system.

Realists view international institutions as tools of powerful states that serve self-interest. Cooperate only when aligned with state interests, and balance-of-power dynamics render peace fragile.

Realists view nuclear weapons as central to deterrence and security, emphasizing Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), incentives and coercive measures, with Ukraine, Russia, Iran as examples.

Emphasizes the liberal approach to international security, with democratic peace theory and interdependence, showing democracies rarely go to war with each other and non-state actors influence state behavior.

The liberal approach to international security stresses multilateralism, diplomacy, and human rights, with international institutions like the United Nations and the European Union building trust to resolve conflicts peacefully.

The liberal approach to international security relies on international organizations and regimes, like the United Nations, non-proliferation treaty frameworks, and the World Trade Organization, to prevent and manage conflicts.

Explore humanitarian intervention from a liberal view, emphasizing the responsibility to protect and the international community's duty to prevent mass atrocities. It contrasts liberalism with realism, discusses legitimacy, and Kosovo.

Explore securitization theory, a social constructivist approach showing how issues become security threats through speech acts by a securitizing actor to justify extraordinary measures, since problems are constructed, not given.

Examine referent objects and securitizing actors, and how speech acts frame issues as security threats. Explore securitization moves, extraordinary measures, and the Copenhagen school's view on environmental security.

Explain how securitization forms issues into security threats through problem formation and speech acts, highlighting audience reception and rhetoric using Russia's Ukraine case.

Researchers examine how climate change and migration are securitized through speech acts and actors, mapping border controls, EU security strategies, and UN Security Council discussions.

Explore human security, shifting focus from states to individuals and communities, detailing economic, food, health, environmental, personal, and community dimensions and protecting people from threats.

Explore the key components of human security—freedom from want, freedom from fear, and dignity—showing how access to food, water, healthcare, and education complements traditional security.

Explore how poverty, income inequality, and lack of economic opportunities undermine human security, and how inclusive growth, food shortages, and health care sustain security across nations.

Explore how human security prevents conflicts by addressing root causes and promoting good governance. Protect vulnerable groups and guide post-conflict reconstruction and peacebuilding via the Responsibility to Protect framework.

Check your progress with practice tests, rate the course, and share feedback via direct message. Reflect on theoretical perspectives in international security and security studies, your favorite one, and why.

Explore realism and liberalism in international security, analyze war as a constant, and trace from interstate and civil wars to post-Cold War shifts, including Ukraine and insurgency.

Explore the political, economic, ideological, and religious motivations behind wars and the different kinds of conflict, with examples like the war in Ukraine illustrating regime change, dominance, and resource access.

War inflicts a human toll with casualties, displacement, and trauma for civilians and combatants. It destroys infrastructure and cultural heritage, fueling global instability and post-conflict peace-building and reconciliation challenges.

Define terrorism as violence by non-state actors to achieve political aims, targeting civilians to instill fear, and explore if states can be terrorists, with Stalinist terror and Russia cited.

Examine political grievances, ideological and religious factors, and economic marginalization as drivers of terrorism, while applying critical judgment to labels of terrorism versus self-determination.

examine two main typologies of terrorism: domestic terrorism within borders and transnational terrorism across borders with a global agenda, including western interests and religious extremism, or challenging the international system.

Assess how to combat terrorism through intelligence, law enforcement, diplomacy, and counterterrorism strategies while weighing ethical dilemmas in human rights, privacy, surveillance, and proportionality.

explore nuclear proliferation and non-proliferation, from the Cold War and Cuban Missile Crisis to post-1990s threats, North Korea and Iran, and the non-proliferation framework centered on the NPT.

The non-proliferation treaty, established in 1970, prevents weapon spread and promotes disarmament, while enabling peaceful nuclear energy with monitoring and five-year review conferences.

Explore why states pursue nuclear weapons for security and deterrence, what moves horizontal vs vertical proliferation, while addressing dual-use challenges and the debates around Iran and North Korea.

Explore nonproliferation strategies, including diplomacy, international agreements, export controls, and IAEA safeguards, while assessing norms, open debates since 2022, and the role of military action as a last resort.

Examine non-traditional security threats—cyber terrorism, cybercrime, environmental degradation, pandemics, and extreme poverty—alongside traditional military risks and the role of non-state actors and societies.

Analyze climate change as a non-traditional security issue, linking resource scarcity, water and food insecurity, and displacement to debates on securitization and human security.

Recognize pandemics as global outbreaks of infectious diseases that affect multiple countries and regions, causing social disruption, economic losses, and loss of life while linking public health to national security.

Critics argue non-traditional security can eclipse state security, urging that security questions remain state-centric while non-traditional threats complement policy; realism and the CNN effect frame the debate.