IR4561 Security as Ethics: Rethinking the Global Polity

Academic year

2025 to 2026 Semester 2

Further information on which modules are specific to your programme.

Key module information

SCOTCAT credits

30

The Scottish Credit Accumulation and Transfer (SCOTCAT) system allows credits gained in Scotland to be transferred between institutions. The number of credits associated with a module gives an indication of the amount of learning effort required by the learner. European Credit Transfer System (ECTS) credits are half the value of SCOTCAT credits.

SCQF level

SCQF level 10

The Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) provides an indication of the complexity of award qualifications and associated learning and operates on an ascending numeric scale from Levels 1-12 with SCQF Level 10 equating to a Scottish undergraduate Honours degree.

Availability restrictions

Not automatically available to General Degree students

Planned timetable

1.00 pm Tue

This information is given as indicative. Timetable may change at short notice depending on room availability.

Module coordinator

Prof K M Fierke

Prof K M Fierke
This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module Staff

Prof K Fierke

This information is given as indicative. Staff involved in a module may change at short notice depending on availability and circumstances.

Module description

As the world becomes increasingly interconnected, and faced with new types of threats and insecurities, questions of ethics or how we should act, which rely on some notion of who 'we' are, become more complex. This module seeks to analyse a number of seemingly intractable global security problems, relating, among others, to health, the environment, migration and political violence, from a different angle and to explore the implications for how we should act in the world to ensure a secure and sustainable future. The module will be structured around Burke and Nymans, eds., Ethical Security Studies (2016) and a range of complementary texts.

Relationship to other modules

Pre-requisites

BEFORE TAKING THIS MODULE YOU MUST PASS IR2006

Assessment pattern

Coursework = 100%

Re-assessment

3-hour Written Examination = 100%

Learning and teaching methods and delivery

Weekly contact

1-hour lecture (x 11 weeks), 1-hour tutorial (x 9 weeks) 2 consultation hours with Coordinator (x 12 weeks)

Scheduled learning hours

20

The number of compulsory student:staff contact hours over the period of the module.

Guided independent study hours

280

The number of hours that students are expected to invest in independent study over the period of the module.

Intended learning outcomes

  • understand the distinction between security and ethics and security as ethics
  • understand what is at stake in the shift from an individual to a relational ontology as it relates to models of science and different knowledge traditions;
  • understand the meaning and significance of identity as difference
  • understand the significance of a notion of emotions as relational for the re-narration of the local and global
  • understand the relevance of a relational ontology for rethinking migration, the medicalization of trauma and the disentangling of conflict
  • understand the transformative potentials of a relational approach to the environment and questions of global order