Introduction to International Relations and Global Security

This course provides an introduction to International Relations (IR) with a focus on global security, conflict, and cooperation in world politics. The course introduces students to core theoretical approaches in IR, including realism, liberalism, constructivism, and others, and examines their central assumptions, analytical strengths, and limitations.

The course connects these theoretical frameworks to empirical developments in international politics. Contemporary global challenges and ongoing political conflicts are used as illustrative cases to demonstrate how IR theories help interpret larger patterns of international politics. These can include great-power relations, foreign policy decision-making, international institutions, and violent conflict, as well as selected ongoing wars and crises. The course does not aim to provide comprehensive country-specific coverage, but rather to use empirical examples to illustrate theoretical debates.

In addition to interstate relations, the course places an emphasis on intrastate conflict and political violence. Students engage with research on civil wars, insurgency, and terrorism, and examine how international actors respond to internal conflicts. Empirical examples from different regions and historical periods are used throughout to anchor theoretical arguments.

The course equips students with core conceptual and analytical tools in International Relations and prepares them for further study in international politics, security studies, and conflict research.

Students who have completed the course should have the following learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills, and competences.

Knowledge

This course will give the students:

• An understanding of key debates on war, peace, cooperation, and global security
• Knowledge of the causes and dynamics of interstate and intrastate conflict
• Familiarity with how IR theories are applied to contemporary global developments
• Knowledge of selected empirical cases in the study of International Relations

Skills

Students who complete this course will be able to:

• Explain and compare major theoretical approaches in International Relations
• Apply IR theories to empirical cases in international politics
• Critically assess academic texts in International Relations

Competence

This course aims to equip the students with the following abilities:

• Analytical reasoning about global political problems
• The ability to link theoretical perspectives to empirical developments

Autumn

The course is not offered every semester.