This document contains notes from all lectures (1-12) of the Global Security course, which is taught in year 2 of the International Relations and Organizations course.
GS Lecture Notes
Lecture 1: What is global security?
Key concepts: Security; referent object; deterrence
What is (global) security?
What is security?
Security, in an objective sense, measures the absence of threats to acquired values, in a subjective
sense, the absence of fear that such values will be attacked (Wolfers 1962)
Contested concept: Which values need protection? What counts as a threat to these values? Is
security absolute?
Security studies may be defined as the study of the threat, use and control of military force (Walt 1991)
Security as accumulation of power
Security means the absence of threats. Emancipation is the freeing of people from the physical and
human constraints which stop them from carrying out what they would freely choose to do. Security
and emancipation are two sides of the same coin. Emancipation, not power or order produces true
security. (Booth 1991)
Broader conceptualization: security is survival plus freedom, emancipation, dignity; living a good
life, not just surviving
The contested concept of security
An essential contested concept (Buzan) that creates disputes about its proper use (Gallie)
Survival (freedom from life-determining threats) vs survival-plus (freedom to have life
choices)?
Who is talking? A general, diplomat, or activist?
Political concept; part of a political debate
Security is a powerful political tool in claiming attention for priority items in the competition for
government attention (Buzan 1991)
Whose security are we talking about?
The referent object
What is what needs to be made secure?
State, national interest (traditionally)
Individual, ethnic group, society as a whole, the environment, the planet
Not independent of each other
What counts as a security issue?
Issues and threats
Global climate change, the spread of infectious diseases, terrorism, cyberattacks from other countries,
the spread of nuclear weapons, the condition of the global economy, global poverty, etc
,How issues and threats have changed
Traditionally, preference given to external rather than internal threats
But end of Cold War and globalization questioned the preference for external threats
Traditionally, focus on extreme threats and measures (war, violence)
But diversity of approaches in security studies criticized realist approach to the study of security
Types of security threats (Buzan 1991)
Military offensive/defensive
Political stability of states
Economic resources and welfare
Sustainability of societal traditions and customs
Maintenance of the local and plenary biosphere
A matrix of security studies (Paris 2001)
Key points
What is security? An essentially contested concept; it's political
Whose security? State, the individual, the ethnic group, society as a whole, the environment, the
planet
What counts as a security issue? Military, economic, political, societal, and environmental threats
How to achieve security? More or less security, never complete security; marked by tradeoffs
Pursuing absolute security might mean sacrificing freedom (US Patriot Act)
Security studies as a field of study
The Golden Age, 1950-1960
, The two world wars
Civilian contributions to security strategy
Long-term strategy to avoid war
The national interest
Security rather than welfare
The nuclear revolution
Research on deterrence, containment, coercion, escalation, arms control
Belief in deductive, rational thinking
"In IR scholarship, a policy of deterrence generally refers to threats of military retaliation directed by
the leaders of one country to the leaders of another in an attempt to prevent the other country from
resorting to the threat or use of military force in pursuit of its foreign policy goals" (Huth 1999)
Policy of deterrence required calculating costs and benefits of certain actions to anticipate the
actions of other actors
"Nuclear war spurred theorizing because it was inherently more theoretical than empirical: none had
ever occurred" (Betts 1997)
The end of the Golden Age, 1960-1970
Limits to traditional approaches
Not applicable to peasant war in Vietnam
Limited view of politics
Assumes perfect information and constant ability to rationally calculate
Public disinterest in national security
Critique of Vietnam War: security studies becomes unfashionable
Focus on international political economy
The renaissance of security studies, 1970-1990
New data: more systematic use of historical analysis; more access to archives
New methods: structured-focused case comparisons; more diverse social scientific approaches to
explain historic events
New realities: end of Cold War detente; Iranian and Nicaraguan revolution; Soviet interventions in
African states and Afghanistan
Key points
Security studies: focus on avoiding war, not fighting it
Increase in civilian involvement in security studies
Belief in science and rational thinking
Vietnam War questioned the usefulness of knowledge
Renaissance: new data, methods, and applications
Today: many different approaches
Lecture 2: Anarchy, Uncertainty and War
Key concepts: Anarchy; uncertainty; security dilemma; war; peace; great power; rising power
Introduction: The Thucydides Trap
, When one great power threatens to displace another, war is almost always the result
Due to mistrust and misperception
Allison (2017)
Existential features of the international system
Anarchy, uncertainty, distributions of power
What is anarchy?
The absence of government (Waltz 1979)
Lack of a common superior
Horizontal relations between sovereign states
Consequences of anarchy
A system of fear of being attacked and losing power
Uncertainty and mistrust in the international system
Self-help predicament of the state in international affairs
What is uncertainty?
The quality of not being known beyond doubt
An existential condition inherent to all human relations
You can't know all the intentions about other actors; no complete certainty about how they will
behave
Cannot be avoided, but how its perceived, understood and what it results in can vary significantly
Role of national intelligence agencies: supply the top political leadership of a country with
information about: past events, current state of the world, actors' intentions, the likely future state of
the world
Two types of uncertainty
Unresolvable uncertainty, created by:
Material factors: ambiguous symbolism of weapons and their deployment (offensive vs
defensive)
Psychological factors: the "other minds problem" is the limited understanding of the
intentions and motives, hopes and fears, and emotions and feelings on the part of the
decision makers of one state about their counterparts elsewhere
Future uncertainty: assume the worst because the worst is possible (Posen 1993)
Herz
"Groups and individuals who live alongside each other without being organized into a higher unity . . .
must be . . . concerned about their security from being attacked, subjected, dominated, or annihilated
by other groups and individuals. Striving to attain security from such attacks, they are driven to
acquire more and more power in order to escape the effects of the power of others. This, in turn,
renders the others more insecure and compels them to prepare for the worst. Because no state can
ever feel entirely secure in such a world of competing units, power competition ensues, and the
vicious circle of security and power accumulation is on.”
What is the security dilemma?
A two-level strategic predicament in relations between states and other actors
Two dilemmas
Dilemma of interpretation: ambiguous symbolism of weapons
Defensive weapons can be perceived as offensive
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