HRUA01096U Central Asian Security Studies

A study of wider Central Asia from a security perspective and with a focus on past, current and future security issues.

 The course will include discussion of case studies drawn from the states of the entire region, including but not limited to the states of post-Soviet Central Asia, Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan, adjacent or more distant great powers such as Russia, China and the USA as well as various international organisations.

 Among the key issues of the course will be security complexes, threat dynamics and elimination, problems of domestic collapse and state weakness, democratisation and economic development, regional co-operation and interaction with external powers.

This course aims to bring students an understanding of the regional character of wider Central Asia, of the security dynamics and patterns within and among the states of this region as well as outside involvement in local and regional affairs. As part of this, the course aims to enable students to employ a wide variety of central theoretical insights, including security, political and economic theory, into their analysis of the region and to analyse and to critically reflect on the policies of various actors, be these of a local, regional or international nature.