International Security (POLS90022)

This subject provides students with a critical understanding of the changing concepts and practices of security in a globalised and dynamic world. The subject contrasts traditional state-centric, military based, and external-oriented national security thinking and policy with non-traditional, critical, and human security approaches. The subject explores key relationships between: the state, society and security, including in 'failed states'; international intervention and security, including the 'responsibility to protect' doctrine; weapons and security, including nuclear weapons; and considers the particular insecurities of marginalised groups, such as forcibly displaced populations. The subject then explores globalised forms of insecurity including information and cyber threats, transnational terrorism and organised crime, global health pandemics, and the nexus between climate change, natural resources, and conflict.