International Studies

This course introduces students to security policy and strategic thinking and to gives a thorough familiarity with the key concepts within this field. It combines theory and case studies and also covers the main actors and institutions in security governance (NATO, UN, US). The course opens with a theoretical focus on the scope of security studies and on approaches to its study. The scope then narrows to military security issues (security and defense proper), discussing the two types of conflicts, conventional and asymmetric. It seeks to streamline a theoretically focused approach to the empirical material, revisiting theory towards the end of the course. It also has a case on African conflicts and one on Norwegian security policy.

This course explores what human rights are and the different explanations of where rights come from. How human rights have changed and become imbedded in international law since World War II is explored. An understanding of the political advantage governments seek through violating human rights is sought and the economic and social consequences of repression, examined. Whether previous cycles of repression - like slavery, for example - make countries more likely to use violence today, are considered. Real-world examples are used to test and illustrate the arguments made in the literature - the conflicts in Syria and Iraq, and the former conflicts in Sri Lanka and the United Kingdom and Northern Ireland are a few examples. 

This course provides a study of the principal characteristics of present-day international society and the effects of its structure and inner tensions in the creation and application of public international law. It critically examines the foundations of the international legal system, as well as the interactions between the international and national regulatory spheres and the legal consequences of including public international law in the Spanish legal system.

This course addresses the transformation of world order which underlines a return to great power competition. It examines how the inertia of international structures is met with a deregulation of competition, inside and outside of the boundaries of international law. The course investigates the global struggle between peer and near-peer competitors expressed at the world level and its impacts on regional and local stability. It addresses the growing phenomenon of assertive emerging powers encountering self-questioning Europe and the United States and the return of political rivalry and military frictions. The course analyzes its historicity, comprehends its current trends, and projects its prospects through an inter-disciplinary approach.