POL 571 - Global Security

The objective of this course is to have students understand the context of security. Various perspectives on security and varieties of conflict will be scrutinized to understand the how the context of security has been transforming. In this context, this course aims to enhance students’ skills for the following objectives:

•    Understand security concepts

•    Recognize the complexity of security and its transformation

•    Develop skills to think critically, systematically and comparatively about emerging security concepts and practices,

•    Evaluate different approaches and models to interpret security conceptualization

•    Examine contemporary security readings

The course will cover a wide range of themes those appear to be what the changing nature of the security from hard to soft contextualization. This is an introductory course to the multidisciplinary conceptualization of security. This course introduces the fundamental concepts, theoretical frameworks and practical applications of security. The course is designed to introduce students to academic thinking about security readings in various contexts. Students will get familiar with the transformation of the concepts, key theorists and important debates within the field. Practical applications of the knowledge that is produced in the field and major securitization approaches will be briefly introduced. The course will also discuss the relevance and practical utility of the concepts and processes within different real-life contexts.

The weekly courses will be performed in two phases of which are student presentations and discussions through seminar and my contribution to present the conceptual framework / further discussions.

The overall course is organized along two parts; the first part will cover the main concepts and witnessed transformation of security while the second part will be built on term papers prepared by the students. The expected mood is not only focus on concepts but also practices.

Each student will respond the submitted question of every week, prior to the class but based the weekly readings. (!!!) Discussions will be built on the findings of the students based on their readings and drafted outlines. The outlines must be at least one-page-length see the basic structures of the articles other than the outline on the weekly question.

There will be a mid-term examination at the 8^th week. You will write an essay in the classroom based on submitted question. (1200-1500 words)

Students are required to draft a term paper as an academic essay, which will be counted as final exam sheet. The topics will be proposed by you at the third week. The essay will be 5000-7000 words in length and must be based on research, ethical rules and reference system (APA-6). Each student will present his/her essay after 11^th week and turn in the essay at the 15^th week.

The curriculum is in English. Turkish papers and discussions will not be accepted.