Principles of International Security
Dr. Carl Rihan
This course is expected to provide students with foundations in the field of international
security and the highly-related field of foreign policy. It will seek to provide students with the
“essentials toolbox” that would allow them to make analytical sense of the current and
emerging international challenges and their impact on the peace, stability, and security of
States, societies, and ecosystems. The course will address the theoretical underpinnings of
security studies and the ensuing practice, before exploring the causes of wars, key notions such
as Grand Strategy and Doctrine, classical approaches to State security such as military
effectiveness, classical and post-classical deterrence, nuclear weapons, and collective security.
The course will then explore a first generation of challenges that conventional approaches to
security have faced, ranging from the role of decolonization and interventionism in the creation
of world systems and unconventional logics of violence including proxy warfare, insurgency
and counter-insurgency. Students will ultimately explore the second generation of challenges
which relate to the post-1990 period including “Pax Americana”, the notion of “imperial
overstretch”, terrorism and the “War on Terror”. The course will conclude with an exploration
of emerging challenges including illicit financial flows (IFFs), the financing of terrorism, the
changing nature of intelligence and surveillance, cybersecurity, and cryptocurrencies.
- Teacher: Carl Rihan