Security Governance: the Euro-Atlantic Space and Beyond (SZF_052)

The aim of the course is to provide a comprehensive review of security governance in the Euro-Atlantic space and beyond. Most of the attention will be devoted to armament and disarmament issues and (re)emerging warfare domains by which scores of other related micro and macro issues of International Security Studies and International Relations will be captured.

As the final semester of the M.A. program is devoted to elaboration and defence of M.A. thesis, this course will begin with a methodical workshop on M.A. thesis. The objective of it is to assist students to further develop their ideas for M.A. research, as well as to introduce to the process of preparation and defence of thesis.
From here on, the course will proceed with a general review of war and peace in retrospective and perspective – armed conflicts of the past and the present, status quo of armed forces at global and regional levels. A particular attention will be devoted to Russia’s war in Ukraine in 2022.
Then the course will move on to a review of International Security Studies from a theoretical perspective. As a part of this block, the main concepts and theories of International Security Studies in a retrospective framework will be reviewed.
The course will enter the next phase with a review of weapons of mass destruction and disarmament & control of such weapons. It will cover biological, chemical, radiological and nuclear weapons, complemented by a review of the often-related control of conventional arms.
The lectures’ part of the course will end with a review of security governance in two (re)emerging domains of warfare – the space and the cyber space. From there on, during the workshops students will present their individual projects on more specific issues discussed as a part of the course.