Module manager: Professor Edward Newman
Email: E.Newman@leeds.ac.uk
Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable
Year running 2025/26
This module is not approved as an Elective
This module explores the key concepts and debates which characterize the evolving international security agenda. It considers how and why our understanding of security, and the ways in which insecurity is addressed, have been transformed in recent decades, and the questions which are raised by this evolution. What is ‘security’ and is it possible to conceptualise this in a universal sense? What threats should define the study and the policies of security? As the security agenda has widened, has the analytical precision of security been undermined? What should the referent object of international security be? What are the ethical, political and social consequences of securitizing challenges? At what cost – in terms of restrictions on personal liberty and rights, and limits to consumption – should security be achieved? To what extent should security be regarded as a political concept, and how does its governance reflect power dynamics? How do the compounding interconnections between multiple, converging security challenges – the ‘polycrisis’ – shape the way that we understand and address insecurity? How are security challenges and threats assessed and measured, and how are the methodologies and knowledge claims associated with this contested?
The module aims to:
• provide students with an overview of key concepts and debates in the study of global security as an academic subfield;
• assist students in developing their theoretical vocabulary by introducing them to a variety of approaches to the study of security;
• challenge students to develop critical analytical and evaluative skills;
• introduce students to the thought and writings of key figures in the development of and contemporary Security Studies;
• encourage students to read and critique the texts of those thinkers;
• enable students to understand and think differently about global security issues of historical and contemporary significance.
By the end of the module students should be able to:
- Demonstrate advanced familiarity with central texts and debates in the study of global security;
- Be able to explain and present this knowledge and understanding in a persuasive and sustained way;
- Analyse and critically evaluate global security issues using a variety of approaches.
- Explain and present this knowledge and understanding in a persuasive and sustained way;
- Demonstrate critical engagement with texts and research;
- Explain and present this knowledge and understanding in a persuasive and sustained way;
| Delivery type | Number | Length hours | Student hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seminar | 11 | 2 | 22 |
| Private study hours | 278 | ||
| Total Contact hours | 22 | ||
| Total hours (100hr per 10 credits) | 300 | ||
Students will be asked to produce a one-paragraph introduction, one-page bullet-point essay plan, and preliminary bibliography of key texts in the middle of the module (focused on the assessment preparation week) in order to receive feedback designed to strengthened their performance in their final assignment. This will not be graded but will set them up for the final, summative essay.
| Assessment type | Notes | % of formal assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Assignment | Coursework | 100 |
| Total percentage (Assessment Coursework) | 100 | |
Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated
There is no reading list for this module
Last updated: 25/06/2025
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