Download Strategic Studies

Strategic and Security Studies
Course outline
Faculty of International Studies / University of Jordan
Dr. Walid Khalid Abu-Dalbouh
Email: [email protected]
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Description:
This course attempts to delineate an overview of various strategic thoughts and
current developments on security issues. It shall provide graduate students an
introduction to a main pillar of the subfield of international relations highlighted
strategic studies and/or security studies. In it, it will try to explore key conceptual
issues surrounding such intricate and controversial concept of international
relations. Hence, the course thoroughly examines the empirical distinctive features
of great power strategy in the nuclear age on the one hand and the reactions of the
strategic options of lesser powers on the other. Given this, the course shall
expectedly browse through multifaceted aspects of recent as well as conventional
dynamics in military know-how. In the same vein, the course shall always bear in
mind that such critical contested discussions shall go in parallel with the
understanding of ultimate potential implications of any given strategy on the field
of international relations as whole.
Grades:
Midterm Exam (25%)
Presentation/discussion (15%)
Essay (20%)
Final Exam (40%)
Teaching Methods
One lecture per week involving student presentations. Each student will choose
one of the topics introduced after the midterm about which he/she will prepare a
written critique, deliver an oral presentation, and lead class discussion.
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Module aims
To introduce and explore the main theoretical perspectives and debates in the
study of Strategic and Security Studies;
To offer an understanding of the origins, development, and global significance of
the of Strategic and Security Studies;
To discuss a series of policy-relevant questions associated with these studies;
To assess contemporary debates about the future of Strategic and Security Studies.
To develop students’ skills in the effective collection and interpretation of
information.
To develop students’ abilities to argue cogently, concisely and critically.
Required Reading
An Introduction to Strategic Studies: Military Technology and International
Relations / Barry Buzan. Basingstoke: Macmillan in association with the
International Institute for Strategic Studies, 1987.
Politics Among Nations: the Struggle for Power and Peace / Hans J.
Morgenthau; revised by Kenneth W. Thompson. New York: McGraw-Hill,
1985.
Kenneth Waltz, the Use of Force: Military Power and International Politics
Lanham; London: University Press of America, c1988.
Suggested Readings:
Armaments, Arms Control and Disarmament/ Unesco Reader, edited by
Mazek Thee, International Peace Research Institute: Oslo.
The Coming Crises: Nuclear Proliferation, U.S. Interests, and World Order
/Victor Utgoff. BCSIA, Studies in International Relations. Massachusetts,
Cambridge, London: MIT Press, 2000.
Topical Course Outline
1. Introduction to Strategic Studies and International Relations
2. Basic Concepts in Strategic Studies
3. Revolution in Military Affairs
4. Nuclear proliferation
5. Arms Race and Arms Dynamics,
6. Deterrence and Responses to Military Means
7. Disarmament, Arms Control and Controlled Arms
8. Introduction to Security Studies
9 Security in the aftermath of the Cold War
10. State Security versus Individual Security
11. War against terrorism
Articles and Journals
Selected articles and online websites will be provided to students via email.
Contents
Part One
Military Technology and Strategy:
1) Introduction to Strategic Studies and International Relations
2) The Global Spread of Military Technology
3) The Special Case of Nuclear Proliferation
Part Two
Understanding Strategic Studies from Theoretical Perspective
1) Realist Perspective
2) Liberal Perspective
Part Three
Strategy Rivalry and Military Technology: The Arms Dynamics:
1) Arms Racing and Arms Dynamics
2) The Action Reaction Model
3) Problems in Studying the Arms Dynamics
Part Four
Deterrence:
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Introduction: Deterrence and Defense
Evolution of Deterrence
The logic of Deterrence
Deterrence versus Defense
Part Five
Responses to the Problem of Military Means
1) Military Means as a Security Problem
2) Disarmament
3) Non-Provocative Defense
Part Six
Arms Control
1) The Military Logic
2) The Economic Logic
3) The Political Logic
Part Seven
Homeland Security: A New Strategic Paradigm
A new Threat?
Communications and Frequency of Power
Part Eight
New Agenda for Security and Strategy
The Need for Conceptual Framework
Populations: The demographics of Global Politics
Common Issues
Direct Environmental Damage
Diseases
Sensitivity and Vulnerability
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