This course will introduce the main debates about nuclear weapons and their effects on international security based on the latest findings of scholarship in security studies as well as other disciplines. Every session will be devoted to a crucial problem of the ‘nuclear age' which is still relevant to current and future security policymaking. Is there a “nuclear revolution” and if so, what does it mean? How do nuclear weapons affect military strategy? Do they produce peace or enable aggression and how can we know? What do the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East teach us about the value and effects of nuclear weapons? How to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons? How can we explain nuclear arms races? What is at stake in the debate about nuclear disarmament? Why have nuclear weapons not been used in anger since 1945? These questions will be introduced through the study of concepts as well as historical events and their political operationalization
Objective of the course:
This course intends to develop awareness and critical thinking about contemporary nuclear weapons related issues. As the outline makes clear, the course will be problem based rather than theory-based but theory will be used in order to understand the sources and effects of the knowledge about nuclear weapons related issues. It will provide tools to analyze and understand contemporary debates about nuclear weapons and will offer a detailed understanding of nuclear security policymaking based on historical and current examples.
Learning Outcomes
1) Familiarity with key policy and scholarly debates in nuclear security studies,
2) Knowledge of the mechanics of nuclear governance institutions,
3) Development of critical perspectives on the nuclear condition in connection with non-nuclear debates such as the one about the anthropocene
4) Ability to analyse and assess different nuclear knowledge claims and discourses (diplomatic, expert, from heads of states and governments)
Professional Skills
1) Improve their written analytical skills on assessing the conditions of validity of claims made about nuclear weapons policy (through detailed feedback on two pieces of writing they will submit)
2) Learning to engage with scholarship but also with diplomats and activists (invited for two sessions) on nuclear weapons policy issues.
Most likely, the students will be assessed in two ways.
1. A research question, outline and commented bibliography presenting a review of the relevant literature or sources for your essay 1500 words (40% of the grade)
2. A final paper of 4000 words on the topic of the class (60% of the grade). The book review should participate in the process of writing the final essay and does not need to be disconnected from it.