Università Roma Tre

The course focuses on the most important aspects that security has assumed in the international system since the end of the Second World War. In adopting a historical approach, it intends to offer the students a general survey and understanding of a process that becomes the effect and the producer of frames of political action. The end of the Second World War has been selected as the starting point of analysis, mainly because it marked the beginning of the era of security studies in the United States and the Western world. Indeed, that field of studies developed after the failure of the attempt made at that time to establish an effective collective security within the United Nations. That failure coincided with the beginning of the nuclear era, which, in turn, dominated the Cold War. The time period characterized by bipolar confrontation represents a good deal of the focus of the course because it allows to examine the specific dynamics of that confrontation and the related developments concerning nuclear deterrence and proliferation. Still, in spite of the Cold War demise, the security discourse is still looming large in the contemporary international system, not only for the risk of nuclear proliferation, which seems growing after the end of the Cold War, but also because of the so-called securitization of many international issues, like environment, migration and access to resources. The course, therefore, aims at helping the students historicize the notion of international security and familiarize them with the main components of the contemporary international security agenda.
COURSE OBJECTIVES: The course aims at highlighting the crucial turning points in the evolution of security as an internationally relevant matter, and, at the same time, at making the students aware of the most important developments in the field of security studies, since the end of the Second World War. The course adopts a historical perspective in order to provide the students with crucial tools of analysis and understanding of the contemporary debate about security, and the major challenges to the international order. However, the students will also engage with some relevant theoretical works in the field, as they need to familiarize with the process of production of frames of political action.
- Part I: (first 5-6 weeks) After having introduced the meaning of security studies in the United States and the Western world, a good deal of attention is devoted to understanding the failure of the attempt made immediately after the second World War to establish an effective collective security within the United Nations, and its later evolution. Then, the focus shifts on the hallmarks and meaning of international security in the bipolar world, when military conflicts were bound to remain limited, as more or less limited was the room for maneuvering that most of the states inside and outside of the principal military alliances might reasonably expect to gain. Inter alia, Western Alliance is examined also to emphasize that, because of the threat of a nuclear holocaust, it has gradually turned out to be the venue for devising a shared security agenda and, through that, a curtailed version of collective security. The era of bipolar confrontation is also examined from the standpoint of the development of nuclear deterrence and proliferation as the two sides of the (nuclear-tinged) security coin

- Part II: (second 5-6 weeks) The second part of the course concentrates on some of the most relevant challenges to international security characterizing the post-Cold War world, wherein globalization has been coexisting with a growing and widespread securitization of a series of international and transnational matters. Through the adoption of a historical perspective, the students are encouraged to reflect on and discuss about the transformation that the concept of international security has undergone over the last decades. Thus, class discussions are organized with the purpose of favoring a deeper analysis and debate on the various issues singled out as significant, and each student is required to present a short paper on one of those issues, using the bibliographical material suggested or provided by the professor

REQUIRED READINGS:

- Mary Kaldor and Iavor Rangelov (edited by), The Handbook of Global Security Policy, Wiley Blackwell, 2014 – excluding the following chapters: 4, 8, 9, 12, 13, 15, 17, 19, 26
- Mark Mazower, Governing the World. The History of an Idea, Penguin Books, 2012 – pp. 191-342

For the in class discussions, students will have to read the following essays:

- Fiona B. Adamson, “Crossing Borders: International Migration and National Security”, International Security, 31: 1 (Summer 2006), pp. 165-199
- David A. Baldwin, “The Concept of Security”, Review of International Studies, Vol. 23, n. 1, (January 1997), pp. 5-26
- Frank Boesch and Rudiger Graf, “Reacting to Anticipations: Energy Crises and Energy Policy in the 1970s. An Introduction”, Historical Social Research, 39: 4 (2014), pp. 7-21
- Madeline Carr, “Public-Private Partnerships in National Cybersecurity Strategies”, International Affairs, 92: I (2016), pp. 43-62
- Colin S. Gray, “What Rand Hath Wrought”, Foreign Policy, 4 (Autumn 1971), pp. 111-129
- Excerpts of the Human Development Report 1994, Published for the United Nations Development Programme
- Michael MccGwire, “Deterrence: The Problem- Not the Solution”, International Affairs, Vol. 62, n. 1, (Winter, 1985-1986), pp. 55-70
- Scott M. Thomas, “A Globalized God. Religion’s Growing Influence in International Politics”, Foreign Affairs, Vol 89, n. 6, Nov-Dec 2010, pp. 93-101
- David S. Yost, “NATO’s Evolving Purposes and the Next Strategic Concept”, International Affairs, 86:2 (March 2010), pp. 489-522.