Contemporary Critical Security Studies

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Security Studies during the Cold War was a rather limited and narrow sub-field of International Relations mainly focusing on state security and defining threat only in military terms. By the end of the Cold War period, new schools of thought have emerged in the field of Security Studies in parallel with the emergence of new kinds of threats against human well-being and security. Today, Contemporary Security Studies represents a large group of scholars, schools, approaches and understandings. This course deals with a number of these schools and approaches. It starts with an introduction to the conventional security (Realism and Liberalism) and explains why these approaches are found unsatisfactory by the academic community at the beginning of the 1990s. Then it explains various theoretical positions from constructivism to Feminism (gender security), Green Theory (environmental security) and Post- Colonialism (security from non-Western perspectives). Then it introduces contemporary concepts like ‘Securitisation’ which is developed by the Copenhagen school. Another relevant contemporary approach is called ‘Human Security,’ and the course explains the development of this concept. In general, the course aims at giving an idea to the students of International Relations how Security Studies has developed as a separate sub-field of International Relations, which was the biggest contribution of the Wales or Aberystwyth schools. The course also discusses several contemporary issues to give a broader understanding to the students of the application of theories and approaches (such as poverty, migration, Responsibility to Protect, Humanitarian Intervention, War Against Terror so on).