| Course Name | International Security |
| Code | Semester | Theory (hour/week) | Application/Lab (hour/week) | Local Credits | ECTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PSIR 450 | Fall/Spring | 3 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| Prerequisites | None | |||||
| Course Language | English | |||||
| Course Type | Elective | |||||
| Course Level | First Cycle | |||||
| Mode of Delivery | - | |||||
| Teaching Methods and Techniques of the Course | ||||||
| Course Coordinator | - | |||||
| Course Lecturer(s) | ||||||
| Assistant(s) | ||||||
| Course Objectives | International security’s theoretical approaches, as well as international security’s principle current issues and challenges will be analyzed using critical lenses. |
| Learning Outcomes | The students who succeeded in this course;
|
| Course Description | In order to review and scrutinize the more important of international security’s current issues, this course will first be analyzing the theoretical foundations of international security, which shall then be followed by an analysis of today’s and tomorrow’s primary security challenges. The learning systematic of the course would be students reading their assigned readings prior to attending each week’s lectures, followed by lectures structured around the lecturer’s explanations and class discussion with students’ participation. Additionally, each student will prepare and submit a written homework on an international security issue, institution or arrangement. In order to succeed, students would be expected to perform satisfactorily in two (midterm and final) exams, prepare and present a written homework, read the course’s weekly assigned materials, and participate in all lectures and take part in class discussions, both of which will be graded. |
| Related Sustainable Development Goals |     |
|
| Core Courses | |
| Major Area Courses | X | |
| Supportive Courses | ||
| Media and Managment Skills Courses | ||
| Transferable Skill Courses |
| Week | Subjects | Required Materials |
| 1 | Introduction: Course objectives, content, methodology | Presentation and overview of the course. |
| 2 | Conceptual and Theoretical Foundations-I: Understanding International Security, Importance of Paradigms, Realism | Stephen M. Walt, “The World Wants You to Think Like a Realist”, Foreign Policy, 30 May 2018; Paul Poast, “A World of Power and Fear,” Foreign Affairs, 15 June 2022; Joseph Bosco, “A lesson from World War II: Appeasement never works,” The Hill, 14 May 2022;. |
| 3 | Conceptual and Theoretical Foundations-II: International Security as seen by Liberalism, Feminist Security Studies, Constructivism | Stephen M. Walt, “How to get a B.A. in International Relations in 5 Minutes?”, Foreign Policy, 19 May 2014; G. John Ikenberry, “The Next Liberal Order,” Foreign Affairs, July/August 2020; Thoms J.Christensen and Keren Yarhi-Milo, “The Human Factor,” Foreign Affairs, 7 January 2022; Stephen M. Walt, “An International Relations Theory Guide to the War in Ukraine,” Foreign Policy, 8 March 2022; Stephen G. Brooks, “The Trade Truce?” Foreign Affairs, July/August 2024; Michael Doyle, “Why They Don’t Fight,” Foreign Affairs, July/August 2024. |
| 4 | Security Regimes, International Organizations, Collective Security, United Nations | Robbie Gramer and Anushi Rathi, “A Crisis of Faith Shakes the United Nations,” Foreign Policy,19 September 2022; Famaz Fassihi, “The World Has Changed, but Can the U.N.?” The New York Times, 29 September 2023; Richard Gowan, “How the World Last Faith in the UN,” Foreign Affairs, 9 November 2023; Jean-Pierre Lacroix, “Peacekeepers Need Peacemakers,” Foreign Affairs, 2 September 2024. |
| 5 | Human Security; Natural Resources and Environment in International Security, Population Movements | Jim Yong Kim, “The Human Capital Gap,” Foreign Affairs, 14 June 2018; Michael Oppenheimer, “As the World Burns,” Foreign Affairs, November/December 2020; The Economist, “Who counts as a refugee?” , 27 July 2021; Lant Pritchett, “Only Migration Can Save the Welfare System,” Foreign Affairs, 24 February 2020; Kelsey P. Norman, “Rich countries cannot outsource their migration dilemmas,” Foreign Affairs, 5 January 2022. |
| 6 | Changing Face of Conflict (1): Civil/Ethnic Conflicts, “New War”, Failed States, Private Militaries | Amy Mackinnon, “New Report Exposes Brutal Methods of Russia’s Wagner Group,” Foreign Policy, 11 June 2020; Jason K. Stearns, “Rebels Without a Cause,” Foreign Affairs, May/June 2022; The Economist, “The world’s deadliest war last year wasn’t in Ukraine,” 17 April 2023. |
| 7 | Changing Face of Conflict (2): Technological Warfare, Arms Trade | Tanisha M. Fazal and Sarah Kreps, “The United States’ Perpetual War in Afghanistan,” Foreign Affairs, 20 August 2018; Nan Tian, et.al. “The Great Global Rearmament,” Foreign Affairs, 7 July 2022; Cullen Hendrix, “Russia’s Boom Business Goes Bust,” Foreign Policy, 3 May 2023; The Economist, “The war in Ukraine shows how technology is changing the battlefield,” 3 July 2023 Edward Luttwak, “Why Ukraine’s offensive has stalled,” Unherd.com, 10 August 2023; Franz Stefan-Gady, “Israel’s Military Tech Fetish Is a Failed Strategy,” Foreign Policy, 26 October 2023. |
| 8 | Midterm Exam | |
| 9 | Weapons of Mass Destruction | Melissa Gillis, Disarmament – A Basic Guide, 3rd ed., p.17-27, 39-49; The Economist, “Could the war in Ukraine go nuclear?” 29 September 2022; Andrew Metrick, “A World Full of Missiles,“ Foreign Affairs, 28 March 2024. |
| 10 | Military Security – I: Russian and Western security before, during, after Cold War | Dara Massicot, “What Russia Got Wrong,” Foreign Affairs, March/April 2023; The Economist, “Russia’s war on Ukraine is changing Europe,”7 June 2023; The Economist, “NATO is drafting new plans to defend Europe,” 2 July 2023; Tatiana Stanovaya, “Putin’s Age of Chaos,” 8 August 2023; Chung-in Moon, “America: The Biggest Danger to the Security of the World,” Hankyoreh, 7 September 2023; Svtelana Shkolnikova, “Germany would need up to 100 years at current rearmament pace to deter Russia, report says,” Stripes.com, 9 September 2024. |
| 11 | Military Security –II: Security in Asia-Pacific and China | Elizabeth C. Economy, “History With Chinese Characteristics”, Foreign Affairs, 13 June 2017; Kevin Rudd, “How Xi Jinping Views the World”, Foreign Affairs, 10 May 2018; Jonathan Tepperman, “China’s Dangerous Decline,” Foreign Affairs, 19 December 2022; Stephen M. Walt, “Can China Pull Off Its Charm Offensive?” Foreign Policy, 23 January 2023; Richard Fontaine, “The Myth of Neutrality,” Foreign Affairs, 12 July 2023; Colin Clark, “New Chinese 10-Dash map sparks furor across Indo-Pacific,” Breaking Defense, 1 September 2023; Michael J. Green, “Never Say Never to an Asian NATO,” Foreign Policy, 6 September 2023. |
| 12 | Terrorism | Raphael Minder, “Crackdowns on free speech rise across a Europe wary of terror”, The New York Times, 24 February 2016; Barbara F. Walter, “The Jihadist Threat Won’t End With ISIS’ Defeat”, Foreign Affairs, 22 December 2017; Robert Malley and Jon Finner, “The Long Shadow of 9/11”, Foreign Affairs, 14 June 2018; Cynthia Miller-Idris, “From 9/11 to 1/6,” Foreign Affairs, September/October 2021; The Economist, “Beware, global jihadists are back on the march,” 29 April 2024. |
| 13 | Cyber Security | David E. Sanger, “U.S. and China Seek Arms Deal for Cyberspace”, The New York Times, 19 September 2015; Amy Zegart, “The NSA Confronts a Problem of Its Own Making,” The Atlantic, 29 June 2017; Sydney J. Freedberg, “Calling SolarWinds Hact ‘Act of War’ Just Makes It Worse,” C4ISR, 21 December 2020; John Mueller, “The Cyber-Delusion,” Foreign Affairs, 22 March 2022; The Economist, “What is a responsible cyber power?” 5 April 2023; Elizabeth Dwoskin, “Sy vs. spy: How Israelis tried to stop Russia’s information war in Africa,” The New York Times, 21 October 2023; David A. Sanger, “U.S. Indicts Members of Russian Military Intelligence Over Cyberattack on Ukraine,” The New York Times, 5 September 2024; Thomas Newdick, “Hezbollah’s Exploding Pagers Could Be As Monumental a Cyber-Espionage Operation As Stuxnet,” The War Zone, 17 September 2024. |
| 14 | Shape of Future: New Concerns, New Risks, New Conflicts | Stephen M. Walt, “What Will 2050 Look Like?”, Foreign Policy, 12 May 2015; Kevin Drum, “Tech World,” Foreign Affairs, 14 June 2018; The Economist, “In 2022 a Moonrush will begin in earnest,” 1 January 2022; The Economist, “Killer drones pioneered in Ukraine are the weapons of the future,” 10 February 2024. |
| 15 | Review of the Semester | |
| 16 | Final Exam |
| Course Notes/Textbooks | This course does not have a specific book. Instead, there will be weekly reading assignments comprising articles, book chapters, op-eds, reports and news stories drawn from various academic journals, magazines and newspapers (*). List of material under the Syllabus’ Weekly Subjects is preliminary and may be subject to revisions throughout the semester. Therefore, all students enrolled in this course will be expected to visit the course’s Blackboard page before each week’s lecture, so as to check, download and read the assigned reading in preparation for the lectures. * All assigned readings will be available to students on the course’s Blackboard page for downloading.
|
| Suggested Readings/Materials | Reputable journals, magazines, newspapers and websites covering current issues of international security. |
| Semester Activities | Number | Weighting |
| Participation | 1 | 20 |
| Laboratory / Application | ||
| Field Work | ||
| Quizzes / Studio Critiques | ||
| Portfolio | ||
| Homework / Assignments | ||
| Presentation / Jury | ||
| Project | ||
| Seminar / Workshop | ||
| Oral Exam | ||
| Midterm | 1 | 40 |
| Final Exam | 1 | 40 |
| Total |
| Weighting of Semester Activities on the Final Grade | 3 | 60 |
| Weighting of End-of-Semester Activities on the Final Grade | 1 | 40 |
| Total |
| Semester Activities | Number | Duration (Hours) | Workload |
|---|---|---|---|
| Course Hours (Including exam week: 16 x total hours) | 16 | 3 | 48 |
| Laboratory / Application Hours (Including exam week: 16 x total hours) | 16 | ||
| Study Hours Out of Class | 16 | 4 | 64 |
| Field Work | |||
| Quizzes / Studio Critiques | |||
| Portfolio | |||
| Homework / Assignments | |||
| Presentation / Jury | |||
| Project | |||
| Seminar / Workshop | |||
| Oral Exam | |||
| Midterms | 1 | 28 | |
| Final Exams | 1 | 28 | |
| Total | 168 |
| # | Program Competencies/Outcomes | * Contribution Level | ||||
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | ||
| 1 | To be able to use the theoretical and practical knowledge acquired in the areas of Political Science and International Relations. | X | ||||
| 2 | To be able to have the basic knowledge of, and make use of other disciplines which contribute to the areas of Political Science and International Relations. | |||||
| 3 | To be able to distinguish the differences between classical and contemporary theories and to assess their relationship. | X | ||||
| 4 | To be able to recognize regional and global issues, and develop solutions based on research. | X | ||||
| 5 | To be able to assess the acquired knowledge and skills in the areas of Political Science and International Relations critically. | |||||
| 6 | To be able to transfer ideas and proposals on issues in the areas of Political Science and International Relations to other people and institutions verbally and in writing. | X | ||||
| 7 | To be able to identify the historical continuity and changes observed in the relations between the actors and institutions of national and international politics. | X | ||||
| 8 | To be able to examine concepts, theories, and developments with scientific methods in the areas of Political Science and International Relations. | X | ||||
| 9 | To be able to take responsibility as an individual and as a team member. | |||||
| 10 | To be able to act in accordance with the scientific and ethical values in studies related to Political Science and International Relations. | |||||
| 11 | To be able to collect data in the areas of Political Science and International Relations and communicate with colleagues in a foreign language ("European Language Portfolio Global Scale", Level B1). | |||||
| 12 | To be able to speak a second foreign at a medium level of fluency efficiently. | |||||
| 13 | To be able to relate the knowledge accumulated throughout human history to their field of experience. | |||||
*1 Lowest, 2 Low, 3 Average, 4 High, 5 Highest
