Security & Development POLS7325

Security & Development with Dr Heloise Weber

It has long been recognized that security and development are intricately linked. There are competing approaches to the relationship between security and development, which in turn are contingent upon how security and development are conceptualized. In this course, we familiarize ourselves with new conceptual and methodological approaches aimed at understanding and explaining not only the co-constitution of development and security, but also contexts in which development creates insecurities, or in which security policy has adverse implications for development aspirations. Through investigating case examples from both, historical and contemporary contexts and settings, we critically examine the many connections and tensions between development and security. Among the topics we cover are ‘fragile states’, human security, conflict minerals, privatization of security (the ‘security-industrial complex’) and development contractors, resistance to security/development policies, colonial legacies and continuities, and ‘zapatismo’.
After completing this course you will be able to analyze complex situations in which experiences of (in)security are conditioned by, or condition development aspirations or practices. You will also be in a position to work towards achieving development and security in more just and sustainable ways.

Before you enrol in any course, please check with your Faculty that completion of this course fulfils your program requirements.