Syllabus
Lesson 1 – Defining the Realm
State, government, nation, nation-state, international relations
Lesson 2 – Contending Theories of International Relations
Realism, idealism, Marxism, constructivism, game theory; globalization
Reading: Kay, Sean, “Globalization, Power, and Security,” in Security Dialogue, Vol. 35, Issue 1, 2004.
Lesson 3 – War and Peace
Ius ad bellum, ius in bello, balance of power, collective security and collective defense, typology of war
Reading: Carr, Edward H., Twenty-year Crisis. (London, 1947), selected passages.
Lesson 4 – Threats and Challenges
Military, economic, environmental, terrorism
Reading: Bezpečnostní strategie České republiky. (Praha: ÚMV, 2001).
Lesson 5 – The Logic of Strategy
“War is always the shock of two hostile bodies in collision, not the action of a living power upon an inanimate mass…” (Clausewitz), paradoxical logic, reversal of opposites, efficiency and the culminating point of success
Reading: Clausewitz, Karl von, On War. (Project Guttenberg, electronic edition), Book 1 Chapter I.: What is War?
Lesson 6 – Five Levels of Strategy
Technical, tactical, operational, theatre, grand strategy
Reading: Luttwak, Edward N., Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace. (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2001), pp. 209-265.
Lesson 7 - Five Levels of Strategy (continued)
Horizontal and vertical interaction, primacy of policy
Lesson 8 – Nuclear Strategy
Deterrence, compellence, first-strike, second-strike, Mutual Assured Destruction, Assured Survival, Arms Control
Reading: Lebow, R.N., Stein, J.G., “Deterrence and the Cold War,” in Political Science Quarterly, Summer 95.
Lesson 9 – Case Study: U.S. National Security Strategy 2002
Ends-means-ways, threat perception, self-perception
Reading: The National Security Strategy of the United States of America, September 2002.
Lesson 10 – Conclusions
Art and science, paradoxical logic, counterintuitive outcomes, pitfalls in analysis
Annotation
Objective: to provide students with acquaintance with basic concepts and theoretical approaches of security studies used for analysis of security and military strategies, illustrated by selected historical examples. The course ought to provide a starting point from which independent survey of particular strategies (of the Czech Republic, U.S.A., E.U., etc.) could be undertaken.