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Course syllabus European Security and Crisis Management

Swedish name: Europeisk säkerhet och krishantering

Course code:
2SS069
Valid from semester:
Spring Term 2022
Education cycle:
Second cycle
Scope:
7.5 credits
Progression:
A1F
Grading scale:
Three-grade scale
Main field of study:
Political Science: Security Studies
Department:
Department of Political Science and Law
Subject:
Political Science
Language of instruction:
The teaching is conducted in English.
Decided by:
Forsknings- och utbildningsnämndens kursplaneutskott (KUS)
Decision date:
2022-01-01

Entry requirements

Admitted to the Master Program in Politics and War or to the PhD program in Political Science with a focus on crisis and security.

Course content and structure

The security environment of 21st century is diffuse, complex and unpredictable and threats are often asymmetric and transnational. This course aims to develop an understanding of this environment and the challenges it poses to Europe. It focuses on threats such as climate change, forced migration, neighbourhood conflicts, terrorism, cross-border crime, natural disasters, pandemics, and critical infrastructure disruptions. By introducing the concepts of widening security, transboundary crisis, human security, cyber security and regionalism the course explains the new demands put on European states, the European Union (EU) and other regional organizations such as the UN and NATO.

The course explains the driving forces behind, and the constraints for, the creation of EU diplomatic, security, defense and crisis management capacities. It evaluates the balance between human rights and security measures and the implementation of gender objectives. European experiences are critically analysed in the light of a comparative outlook on regional security cooperation across the globe. The course also studies the relationship between regional organizations and their member states, with a special focus on the EU and Sweden. To inspire the discussions and promote a comprehensive outlook on current threats and capacity challenges, the course includes a simulation exercise on the EU’s role in transboundary crisis.

The course is organized into an introductory lecture followed by four seminars covering the main themes of the course. It ends with a simulation exercise and concluding lecture.

Type of Instruction
  • Seminars
  • Lectures

Objectives

After having completed this course, students will be able to:

  • Account for the main scientific and theoretical issues in the field of regional security and crisis management, including gender questions
  • Problematize the role of European security and crisis management through a comparative perspective
  • Critically analyze opportunities and constraints for the creation of EU diplomatic, security, defense and crisis management capacities
  • Explore various futures of regional security cooperation and crisis management, and discuss Swedish strategies for European security and crisis management
  • Critically analyze the relationship between regional organizations (EU) and their member states (Sweden)
  • Identify and evaluate the key normative and ethical questions in the field

Examination formats

The course is evaluated based on a 3000-word essay and active participation in the compulsory seminars, including written assignments.

The examining teacher may decide to give supplementary tasks in order for the student to achieve a passing grade on the course.

Absence from a maximum of one compulsory seminar may, subject to the examining teacher’s decision, be compensated by submission of a written supplementary task.

Grading
Grading is done according to a three-tiered scale: Pass with distinction (VG), Pass (G), and Fail (U).

To receive a pass the student has to have participated actively in the compulsory seminars and have received a passing grade on the submitted written essay.

To receive a pass with distinction the student has to have participated actively in the compulsory seminars and have received the grade pass with distinction on the written essay.

The grading criteria are listed in the course description.

There is no limit on the total number of examination opportunities.

Transitional provisions

When the course is no longer offered or when the contents of the course have been changed in their essence a student has the right to be examined twice during the same academic year according to this course syllabus.

Other regulations

The course cannot be included in a degree together with a course whose content fully or partly corresponds to the content of this course.

The course is given as an elective course and forms part of the Master’s programme in politics and war. It can also be given as a separate course.

The course is given in English.

  • An evaluation of the course will be made after the conclusion of the course, conducted by the course convenor. The evaluation is the basis of eventual changes to the course.
  • If a student has a decision from the Swedish Defense University on special educational support due to a disability, the examiner may decide on alternative forms of examination for the student.

This is an edited version of the syllabus, created to transfer the original to the education database Ladok education planning. For originals, refer to the archive.
Reading list decided date: 2023-09-28
  • Books

Boin, Arjen, Ekengren, Magnus & Rhinard, Mark (2013) The EU as Crisis Manager: Patterns and Prospects. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. (170 pages)
  • Boin, Arjen, Rhinard, Mark & Ekengren, Magnus (2021) Understanding the Creeping Crisis, London: Palgrave Macmillan. (170 pages)
  • Bossong, Raphael and Rhinard, Mark (2016) Theorizing Internal Security in the European Union, Oxford: Oxford University Press. (190 pages)
  • Hollis, Simon (2015) The Role of Regional Organization in Disaster Risk Management: A Strategy for Global Resilience. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. (180 pages).
  • Keukeleire, Stephan and Delreux, Tom (2022) The Foreign Policy of the European Union, 3rd edition. London: Bloomsbury, chs. 1-8 and 14. (200 pages)

Articles

  • Alexander-Shaw, Kate, Ganderson, Joseph, Kyriazi, Anna (2023) “Mapping Crisis Contestation: taking constructions seriously in the age of permament crisis”, paper for EGPP annual conference: Multidimensional crises and their impact on European politics and governance. (28 pages)
  • Baker-Beall, Christopher and Mott, Gareth (2022) “Understanding the European Union’s perception of the Threat of Cyberterrorism: A Discursive Analysis”, Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol 60, No 4, pp. 1086-1105. (19 pages)
  • Biscop, Sven (2023) Entering the Game of Geopolitics – Must the EU draw New Battlelines or Keep an Open Door?, Report, Egmont Institute.
  • Biscop, Sven (2023) “European Defence: No Zeitenwende Yet”, Defence and Peace Economics, Online 10 April 2023, pp. 1-5. (4 pages)
  • Boin, Arjen (2018) “The Transboundary Crisis: Why we are unprepared and the road ahead”, Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, 1-6. (6 pages)
  • Boin, Arjen, Rhinard, Mark & Ekengren, Magnus (2020) “Hiding in Plain Sight: Conceptualizing the Creeping Crisis”, Risks, Hazards & Crisis in Public Policy, Vol. 11, No. 2, pp. 116-138. (22 pages)
  • Boin, Arjen and Rhinard, Mark (2023) “Crisis management performance and the European Union: the case of Covid-19”, Journal of European Public Policy, Vol 30, No 4, pp 655-675.
  • Buzan, Barry, “Rethinking Security after the Cold War” (1997) Cooperation and Conflict, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 5-28. (22)
  • Carrapico, Helena and Farrand, Benjamin (2020) “Discursive continuity and change in the time of Covid-19: the case of EU cybersecurity policy”, Journal of European Integration, 42:8, 1111-1126, DOI: 10.1080/07036337.2020.1853122 (16 pages)
  • Council of the European Union, Internal Security Strategy for the European Union: Towards a European Security Model, 2010.
  • European Union (2022) A Strategic Compass for Security and Defence, European Union External Action Service, Brussels. [https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/strategic-compass-security-and-defence-1\_en](<https://www.eeas.europa.eu/eeas/strategic-compass-security-and-defence-1_en>)
  • Dunn Cavelty, Myriam (2018) “Europe's cyber-power”, European Politics and Society, 19:3, 304-320, DOI: 10.1080/23745118.2018.1430718 (17 pages)
  • European Union, Shared Vision, Common Action: A Stronger Europe. A Global Strategy for the European Union’s Foreign and Security Policy (EUGS). June 2016.
  • Ekengren, Magnus (2018) “A return to geopolitics? The future of the security community in the Baltic Sea Region”, Global Affairs, Vol. 4, Issue 4-5, pp. 503-519. (16)
  • Ekengren, Magnus and Hollis, Simon (2019) “Explaining the European Union’s Security Role in Practice”, Journal of Common Market Studies, published on line 28 august, pp. 1-20. (20)
  • Fiott, Daniel (2023) In every crisis an Opportunity? European Union integration in defence and the War on Ukraine”, Journal of European Integration, Vol 45, No 3, pp. 447-462. ((15 pages)
  • McWilliams, Ben, Sgaravatti, Giovanni, Tagliapietra Simone, Zachmann, Georg (2023) “How would the European Union fare without Russian energy?”, Energy Policy, 174, 113413 (10 pages).
  • Melhuish, Francesca and Heath-Kelly, Charlotte (2022) “Fighting terrorism at the local level: the European Union, radicalization, prevention and the negotiation of subsidiarity”, European Security, VOL. 31, NO. 2, pp. 313–333. [https://doi.org/10.1080/09662839.2021.2009458](<https://doi.org/10.1080/09662839.2021.2009458>). (20 pages)
  • Niemann, Arne & Zaun, Natascha (2023) “Introduction: EU external migration policy and EU migration governance: introduction”, Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 49:12, 2965-2985, DOI: 10.1080/1369183X.2023.2193710 (20 pages)
  • Prevezianou, Maria F. (2021) “Beyond Ones and Zeros: Conceptualizing Cyber Crises”, Risks, Hazards and Crisis in Public Policy, Vol. 12, No. 1, pp. 51-72 (11)
  • EU counter terrorism
  • Rogge, Karoline S. et al. (2023) “Fit for social innovation? Policy reflections for EU energy and climate policy making”, Oxford Open Energy, No 2, pages 1–9.
  • Taylor, Paul (2023) After the war: how to keep Europe safe, European Defence Study, Friends of Europe, June, Brussels. (107 pages)
  • Stretea, Andreea (2023) “EU’s enlargement towards the Eastern Partnership. The Integration of Ukraine in the Midst of the Crisis”, ONLINE Journal Modelling the New Europe. (54 pages)

Total: 1150 pages