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Global Security (6442HGS) - Lecture Notes (1-12)

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Complete notes on lectures (and guest lectures) 1-12 of the course Global Security (6442HGS). Total: 65 pages.

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  • March 26, 2023
  • 65
  • 2022/2023
  • Class notes
  • Dr. jonah schulhofer-wohl
  • All classes
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IRO ‘23: Global Security - Lecture Notes


Lecture 1: What is Global Security?
Key Concepts: security; referent object; deterrence

1. Defining Security

Wolfers, 1962: Security, in an objective sense, measures the absence of threats to acquired
values. In a subjective sense, measures the absence of fear that such values will be
attacked.

● Broad, designed to cover many areas: different states place more/less value on
certain aspects of security.

Security: A ‘Contested Concept’ → creates disputes about proper use.

● What values need protection?
● What counts as a threat to these values?
● Is security absolute?

Narrow vs Broad definitions?
● “Survival” = freedom from life-determining threats.
● Or, “survival-plus” = freedom to have life choices.

Meaning defined by whom? (generals, diplomats, activists, academics, policymakers?) →
can also become politicised; it matters to know how people use the term.

The Referent Object

What is it that needs to be made secure?

● State, national interest (typically)?
● Individuals, ethnic groups, society as a whole, the environment, the planet?
→ These all are not necessarily independent of one another; i.e. hard to think of a
country preserving national interest without safety for their society.

Key Dimensions of Security (Buzan, 1991)

● MIlitary – offensive & defensive capabilities and consequences.
● Political – state stability, system of government.
● Economic – resources and welfare.

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● Social sustainability – maintenance of traditions and customs.
● Environmental sustainability – maintenance of the local and planetary biosphere.

Issues & Threats

In perceptions of security, there is a way that we have our views of priorities, but they are
socially constructed phenomena that evolve with time and ongoing discussions.

As of 2023

● Increasing perceptions of political polarisation within countries.
● Increasing perceptions of threats to democracy, within countries and internationally.

A Matrix of Security Studies (Paris 2001)




2. How Can Security Be Achieved?

“The search for perfect security … defeats its own ends. Playing for safety is the most
dangerous way to live.”

3. Security Studies as a Field of Inquiry?

The Golden Age – 1950-1960

First and Second World Wars
● Civilian contributions to the study of strategy.
● Long-term strategy to avoid war.

The national interest
● Security rather than welfare

, 3


The nuclear revolution
● Seminal research on deterrence, containment, coercion, escalation, arms control.
● Belief in deductive, rational thinking.

The End of the Golden Age – 1960-1970

Limits to traditional approaches
● Not applicable to the peasant war in Vietnam.
● Limited view of politics (only military balances, not beliefs and perceptions).
● Assumes perfect information and constant ability to rationally calculate.

Public disinterest in “national security”
● Critique of the Vietnam War made security studies an unfashionable subject at
universities.

→ 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 détente; Iranian and Nicaraguan revolution; Soviet interventions in
African states and Afghanistan.

Changes Due to the End of the Cold War?

In the character of warfare

● For civil wars, “new wars”:
- Civilians as targets (as opposed to well-ordered battles between soldiers in
uniforms);
- Criminalisation of violence (as opposed to state-building enterprises;
- Identity-based wars (as opposed to forward-looking transformative ideological
agendas).

● For international wars: Hybrid wars? Grey-zone warfare?

→ There are strong disagreements among researchers about whether there have in fact
been changes.

, 4


Changes After the September 11th 2001 Attacks?

● The “Global War on Terror”.
● Greater international interventionism?
● Conflicts are more complex, multi-layered?
● Growth in multi-party conflicts?
● Possible challenges to the post-Cold War unipolar balance of power?

Approaches Can Shape What We Pay Attention To




Problem-Solving vs Critical Theory

Problem-solving theory
● “Takes the world as it finds it, the prevailing social and power relationships and the
institutions into which they are organised as the given framework for action.”

Critical theory
● “Does not take institutions and social and power relations for granted but calls them
into question (...) Critical theory is directed to the social and political complex as a
whole rather than to the separate parts.”

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