Security Studies
You need to identify a contemporary political practice, issue or controversy that concerns you. Using at least one of the approaches covered in the course, answer the following question:
“How is your chosen issue a matter of security? How does Security Studies scholarship deepen our understanding of this issue and the implications that it presents? What kind of responses to this issue might we consider?”
Requirements:
– In order to get started, you will need to refine and develop the problem that you want to address. You could focus on a specific empirical case, such as Trident, the use of torture by liberal regimes or even a film (or a set of films).
You could draw on an idea or debate that we have covered in the course, and use this to analyze the political phenomena that interests you.
Further guidance for your essay
· The purpose of the assessment is for you to reflect upon and articulate a research interest in a substantive issue, which can provide you with the basis for further sustained work in the next semester.
· The issue that you choose could be a contemporary headline news issue, but it does not have to be.
· You should feel free to choose any issue that you care about and/or have a particular personal interest in. You may draw on data such as policy reports and political speeches; you may also draw on reputable journalistic sources in addition to academic works.
· The first part of the question asks you to outline why the particular issue is a matter of ‘security’. In your response I am looking for a well-argued and well-informed argument for how the issue can be thought of as a matter of security. Of course, through this course we will think about security in a number of different ways – some more traditional, some more radical.
You can engage with any of these perspectives. avoid flat-assertions or sweeping statements. You should also consult the scholarly literature in order to explain how you understand ‘security’. Here, you need to show an engagement with, an understanding of, and (for higher marks) a critical analysis and evaluation of, the theoretical and conceptual assumptions that underpin your understanding of security.
· In the second and third parts of the question, you are asked to consider how Security Studies scholarship can deepen our understanding of this issue and the implications that it presents, and to reflect on what responses to the issue might we consider based on Security Studies scholarship. As a guide this should take up about two-thirds of your presentation.
In answering this question, you should explicitly draw on at least one of the theoretical approaches covered in this semester. In order to build a strong argument, you may wish to contrast one theoretical approach (or specific scholars) with another in order to show how your issue can be interpreted differently and why you consider one position to be stronger than another.
In this section you should be engaging with the academic literature from this course. You should be able to use the perspectives in this course to advocate for, challenge or question certain responses to your issue. You may advocate certain policy options (such as the renewal or dismantling of trident), you may suggest the need to resist or transform something (like gendered or postcolonial language used in peacekeeping) or you may highlight certain dangers (like the use of the balance metaphor for liberty and security, or a certain practice of human security).
