European Security after the Cold War
The purpose of this course is to enable participants to better understand the conceptual foundations of international security policy, the positive and negative developments in the area of security since the end of the Cold War, and the main institutions relevant to security in Europe.
1. Basic Security Strategies:
- collective defence
- collective security
- cooperative security
- neutrality
2. European Security after the Cold War, “9/11” and the Global Economic Crisis:
The new structure of the international system: between unipolarity and non-polarity.
- good news including:
- the peaceful end of the Cold War
- the new pan-European value platform
- progress in the areas of European integration and security cooperation
- arms control and steps towards disarmament
- bad news including:
- cyber (in)security
- new dimensions of terrorism and organized crime
- ecological security: climate change as a security problem
- energy security
- food security
- failed states
- the return of piracy
3. Global, Transatlantic and European Security Institutions:
- the UN: its mixed record after the Cold War
- NATO: the “new NATO” – its litmus test in Afghanistan?
- the EU: economic giant – political and military dwarf?
- the OSCE: the possibilities and limitations of pan-European cooperative security
Requirements: Students will have a choice between a final oral or written exam on which the final grade will be mainly based; participation in class during the course will also be taken into account.
