Trudeau Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies




Information Video		 Undergraduate Program - Course Syllabus
JUP 460Y - Contemporary Issues in Peace and Conflict
Course Syllabus - Fall/Winter 2004-2005

Security Ontology: Threats, Referents, and Values
University College, Room 148, Wednesdays, 6-8 p.m.

Professor Thomas Homer-Dixon
Room H. 13, Trudeau Centre for the Study of Peace and Conflict
University College, University of Toronto
Phone: 416-978-2486

Office Hours: Wednesday, 12:00-1:30 p.m., plus additional hours each week on a varying schedule. All meetings are by appointment only. Contact Ashllie Claassen at 416-978-2485.

Note: Whenever possible, if you want to discuss matters related to the course, please try to see me in person. If a meeting is not possible, you can reach me by e-mail at .

The course homepage is: http://eres.library.utoronto.ca/coursepage.asp?cid=3233&page=01) . All notices, announcements, assignments, and results will be distributed via e-mail or the Web. To register your e-mail address for course administration purposes, go to the course homepage and click on "Register your e-mail address."

Overview
This is a seminar in the ontology of security. Security is a contested concept, and in this course we ask what it is and how best to pursue it. What do we mean by security? What is its referent? What threatens it? And what values do we wish to secure?

During the first term we discuss a set of readings on a wide range of selected topics. We begin by considering the general debate surrounding the concept of security; we continue with a review of a range of non-traditional threats to security; and we conclude by discussing several alternative security paradigms.

During the second term, you present (and we discuss) your own research on topics of particular interest to you. The range of permissible topics is very wide. Examples include: the sources of intrastate violence, risk assessment, the root cause of terrorism, water scarcity and conflict, food security, cybersecurity, organized crime and security, U.N. peacekeeping, disarmament and arms control, ballistic missile defence, and new requirements for security intelligence.

Requirements
Each member of the seminar will be responsible for leading the discussion of an item on the reading list every few weeks in the fall semester and conducting the class for an hour in the second semester.

There are three written assignments. The first is a concepts paper (with no references or footnotes) of no more than 2000 words on the topic "The Meanings of Security." The second is a 250-word (one-page) proposal on your research topic. The third is the research essay itself, which should be no more than 5000 words long. The topic of your research essay will be the same as the topic of your hour-long presentation in the second semester.

Grades Breakdown and Due Dates
Research proposal 10 percent October 27, 2005
Concepts paper 20 percent November 24, 2005
Research paper 30 percent March 16, 2006
Seminar performance 10 percent per semester  
Research presentation 20 percent  


Rules and Regulations
PLEASE NOTE THE FOLLOWING CAREFULLY.
Registration in the course constitutes your agreement to the following rules.
  • You must submit your papers by the beginning of class on the due date. The late submission penalty is 2 percent per day, weekends and holidays included. To be fair to students who hand in their essays on time, if you hand in your essay once class has begun, I consider it to have been handed in late. There is no grace period, and no allowance for computer problems, printer problems, late buses or trains, etc.
  • You may submit papers early or late, but if you put them in my mailbox or slide them under my door, I will consider it to have been submitted on the day I discover it. It is best to hand them to me directly.
  • You may not submit papers by fax or e-mail.
  • In general, I do not grant extensions, unless you have an acceptable reason that is adequately supported, such as a medical emergency that is documented by a detailed and signed doctor's report. Appropriate documentation must be submitted within one week of the assignment due date.
  • Multiple assignments coming due at the same time, or midterms in other courses, do NOT constitute "acceptable reasons" for an extension. If you have several assignments due at the same time, you should plan ahead so that you finish some of them early.
  • No accommodation will be offered for students who miss an assigned presentation, unless the student has an acceptable reason that is adequately documented, such as a medical emergency that is documented by a detailed and signed doctor's report. Appropriate documentation must be submitted within one week of the missed presentation.
  • You must properly acknowledge the words or ideas of the published works of another individual. If you do not, you are committing plagiarism-a serious academic offense. If you are at all uncertain about what constitutes plagiarism, or what are acceptable forms of citation and referencing, please consult me.
  • Students agree that by taking this course all required papers may be subject to submission for textual similarity review to Turnitin.com for the detection of plagiarism. All submitted papers will be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers. The terms that apply to the University's use of the Turnitin.com service are described on the Turnitin.com web site.

Readings
NOTE: All readings are available at the U.C. Library unless otherwise indicated. The following journals may be of special interest: Alternatives, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, European Journal of International Relations, International Security, World Politics, International Organization, International Studies Quarterly, Review of International Studies, Global Environmental Politics, Foreign Policy, Foreign Affairs, Population and Development Review, Environment, and Survival.
  1. Introduction
    15 September
    A general discussion of the aims and scope of the course, including a preliminary study of of the value of security as it relates to other things people value (e.g., freedom, civil rights, quality of life, etc.).

  2. Security as a Speech Act
    22 September

  3. Threat: Demographic Imbalances
    29 September
    • Jagdish Bhagwati, "Borders Beyond Control," Foreign Affairs 82, 1 (January/February 2003): 98-104. Abstract and article (for purchase) available at: http://www.foreignaffairs.org/20030101faessay10225/jagdish-n-bhagwati/borders-beyond-control.html.
    • Ellen Brennan, "Population, Urbanization, Environment, and Security: A Summary of the Issues," Comparative Urban Studies: Occasional Paper Series, No. 22 (Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 1999).
    • Richard Cincotta, Robert Engelman, and Daniele Anastasion, in The Security Demographic: Population and Civil Conflict after the Cold War (Washington, D.C.: Population Action International, 2003).
    • Paul Demeny, "Population Policy Dilemmas in Europe at the Dawn of the Twenty-First Century," Population and Development Review 29 1 (March 2003).
    • Samuel Huntington, "The Hispanic Challenge," Foreign Policy (March/April 2004): 41. Available at: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/files/story2495.php.

  4. Threat: Energy Shortages
    6 October
    • R.W. Bentley, "Global Oil & Gas Depletion: An Overview," Energy Policy 30 (2002).
    • Colin Campbell and Jean Laherrère, "The End of Cheap Oil," Scientific American 278 3 (March 1998).
    • David Goodstein, "Chapter 1: The Future" and "Chapter 2: Energy Myths and a Brief History of Energy," Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil (Norton, 2004), pp. 21-56.
    • Julio Friedman and Thomas Homer-Dixon, "Out of the Energy Box," Foreign Affairs (November/December 2004).
    • John Holdren, "Environmental Change and the Human Condition," Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 57, No. 1 (Fall 2003): 24-31. Available at: http://www.amacad.org/publications/bulletin/fall2003/holdren.pdf.

  5. Threat: Environmental Change
    13 October
    • Daniel Deudney, "The Case Against Linking Environmental Degradation and National Security," in Millennium 19, No. 3 (1990), 461-476.
    • Thomas Homer-Dixon, "Chapter 3: Two Centuries of Debate," "Chapter 5: Interactions and Social Effects," and "Chapter 7: Violence," in Environment, Scarcity, and Violence (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999), pp. 28-46, 73-106, and 133-176.
    • Colin Kahl, "Population Growth, Environmental Degradation, and State Sponsored Violence: The Case of Kenya, 1991-1993," International Security 23, No. 2 (Fall 1998): 80-119.

  6. Threat: Disease
    20 October
    • Laurie Garrett, "Chapter 16: Nature and Homo Sapiens," in The Coming Plague: Newly Emerging Diseases in a World out of Balance (New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux), pp. 550-91.
    • Andrew Price-Smith and the John Daly, "Downward Spiral: HIV/AIDS, State Capacity, and Political Conflict in Zimbabwe," Peaceworks No. 53 (Washington, D.C.: United States Institute of Peace, 2004).
    • Mark Smolinski, Margaret Hamburg, and Joshua Lederberg, eds., "Executive Summary," "Chapter 1: Introduction," and "Chapter 2: Spectrum of Microbial Threats," in Microbial Threats to Health: Emergence, Detection, and Response (Washington D.C.: The National Academies Press, 2003), pp. 1-52.
    • John Brower and Peter Chalk, "Chapter 1: Disease and Human Security" and "U.S. Security and the Risk Posed by Infectious Diseases," in: The Global Threat of New and Reemerging Infectious Diseases: Reconciling U.S. National Security and Public Health Policy (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2003), pp. 1-13 and 61-74.

  7. Threat: Nuclear Proliferation
    27 October (Research proposal due in class)
    • James G. Blight and David A. Welch, "Risking 'the Destruction of Nations': Lessons of the Cuban Missile Crisis for New and Aspiring Nuclear States," Security Studies, vol. 4, no. 4 (Summer 1995), pp. 811-850.
    • Matthew Bunn and Anthony Wier, "Executive Summary," "Introduction," "Updating the Threat," and "Recommendations: A Security First Agenda," in Securing the Bomb: And Agenda for Action (Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and the Nuclear Threat Initiative, May 2004), pp. vii-39 and 101-10. Available at: http://bcsia.ksg.harvard.edu/BCSIA_content/documents/securing_the_bomb.pdf.
    • The National Security Strategy of the United States of America (September 2002). Available at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss.pdf.
    • Scott D. Sagan, "Chapter 5: Learning by Trial and Terror" and "Chapter 6: The Limits of Safety," in The Limits of Safety: Organizations, Accidents, and Nuclear Weapons, (Princeton, N.J., Princeton University Press, 1993) pp. 204-79.
    • Kenneth N. Waltz, "More May be Better," Chapter 1 in Scott D. Sagan and Kenneth N. Waltz, eds. The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: A Debate (New York: Norton, 1995).

  8. Threat: Poverty and Inequality
    3 November
    • Robert Frank and Philip Cook, "Chapter 1: Winner-Take-All Markets" and "Chapter 2: How Winner-Take-All Markets Arise" in The Winner-Take-All Society: Why the Few at the Top Get So Much More Than the Rest of Us (New York: Penguin, 1995), pp. 1-44.
    • Edward Luttwak, "Chapter 1: Winners and Losers," "Chapter 2: What is Turbo-Capitalism?" and "Chapter 6: The Era of Unemployment," in Turbo Capitalism: Winners and Losers in the Global Economy (New York: HarperPerennial, 1999), pp. 1-53 and 102-126.
    • Joseph Stiglitz, "Chapter 4: The East Asia Crisis: How IMF Policies Brought the World to the Verge of a Global Meltdown," in Globalization and Its Discontents (New York: Norton, 2002), pp. 89-132.
    • United Nations Human Settlements Program, "Key Findings and Messages" and "Chapter 3: Cities and Slums within Globalizing Economies," in The Challenge of Slums: Global Report on Human Settlements 2003 (London: Earthscan, 2003), pp. xxv-xxviii and 34-55.
    • World Bank, "Chapter 1: The Nature and Evolution of Poverty," "Chapter 2: Causes of Poverty and a Framework for Action," and "Chapter 3: Growth, Inequality, and Poverty," in World Development Report 2000-2001: Attacking Poverty (Washington, D.C.: World Bank, 2001), pp. 15-60.

  9. Threat: Terrorism
    10 November
    • Martha Crenshaw, "The Logic of Terrorism: Terrorist Behavior as a Product of Strategic Choice," in Origins of Terrorism: Psychologies, Ideologies, Theologies, States of Mind, ed. Walter Reich (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), pp. 7-24.
    • Thomas Homer-Dixon, Thomas, "The Rise of Complex Terrorism," Foreign Policy (January/February 2002): 52-62. Available online through UTL (ProQuest).
    • "Chapter 1: Continuity and Change: Products and Producers" and "Chapter 3: Big Issue, Big Problem? MANPADS," in Small Arms Survey 2004 (Oxford: Graduate Institute of International Studies, Geneva, 2004), pp. 7-42 and 77-98.
    • Jessica Stern, "Part I: Grievances that Give Rise to Holy War," in Terror in the Name of God: Why Religious Militants Kill (New York: HarperCollins, 2003), pp. 1-138.
    • Jessica Stern, "Dreaded Risks and the Control of Biological Weapons," in Michael Brown et al. eds., New Global Dangers: Changing Dimensions of International Security (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2004), pp. 180-214.

  10. Referents and Values: Human Security
    17 November
    • Lloyd Axworthy and Sarah Taylor, "A Ban for All Seasons: The Landmines Convention and Its Implications for Canadian Diplomacy," International Journal 53, No. 2 (Spring 1998): 189-203. Available online through UTL (CBCA fulltext).
    • Canada, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, "Freedom from Fear: Canada's Foreign Policy for Human Security." Available at: http://www.humansecurity.gc.ca/Freedom_from_Fear-e.pdf.
    • Fen Osler Hampson and Dean F. Oliver, "Pulpit Diplomacy: A Critical Assessment of the Axworthy Doctrine," International Journal 53, no. 3 (Summer 1998), pp. 379-406. Available online through UTL (CBCA fulltext).
    • Miguel de Larrinaga and Claire Turenne Sjolander, "(Re)Presenting Landmines from Protector to Enemy: The Discursive Framing of a New Multilateralism," Canadian Foreign Policy 5, No. 3 (Spring 1998): 125-146.
    • "New Dimensions of Human Security," in United Nations Development Program, Human Development Report 1994 (Oxford: Oxford University Press), pp. 22-40. Available at: http://www.undp.org/hdro/hdrs/1994/english/94ch2.pdf.
    • Roland Paris, "Human Security: Paradigm Shift or Hot Air?" in Michael Brown et al. eds., New Global Dangers: Changing Dimensions of International Security (Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 2004), pp. 249-64.

  11. Referents and Values: Sustainable Development
    24 November (Concepts paper due in class)
    • Lynton K. Caldwell, "Sustainable Development: Viable Concept and Attainable Goal?" Environmental Conservation 21, No. 3 (Autumn 1994), 193-195.
    • Stephen Dovers and John W. Handmer, "Ignorance, the Precautionary Principle, and Sustainability," Ambio, vol. 24, no. 2 (March 1995), pp. 92-97.
    • L. Hunter Lovins and Amory B. Lovins, "Pathway to Sustainability: Natural Capitalism Offers Our Best Hope for Achieving a Sustainable Future," Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy, vol. 15, no. 4 (Winter 2000), pp. 13-22. Available online through UTL (ProQuest).
    • Richard Harris and Melinda J. Seid, "Introduction to Special Issue on 'Critical Perspectives on Globalization and Neoliberalism in the Developing Countries'," Journal of Developing Societies, vol. 16, no. 1 (2000), pp. 1-26. Available online through UTL (follow link to the journal "Perspectives on Global Development and Technology," the new name for the Journal of Developing Societies).
    • Bill Witherell and Maria Maher, "Responsible Corporate Behaviour for Sustainable Development," OECD Observer, 13 July 2001, pp. 62-64. Available online at http://www.oecdobserver.org/.

  12. Referents and Values: Feminism, Patriarchy, and Peace
    1 December
    • Judith Butler, "Contingent Foundations: Feminism and the Question of 'Postmodernism'," in Feminists Theorize the Political, ed. Judith Butler and Joan W. Scott (New York: Routledge, 1992), pp. 3-21.
    • Carol Cohn, "Sex and Death in the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals," Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 12 (1987), 687-718.
    • Anne Runyan and V. Spike Petersen, "The Radical Future of Realism: Feminist Subversions of International Relations Theory," Alternatives 16 (1991), No. 1.
    • Ann Tickner, "Feminist Perspectives on 9/11," International Studies Perspectives 3, No. 4 (November 2002): 333-350.
    • Marysia Zalewski, "Feminist Theory and International Relations," in William C. Olson, ed., The Theory and Practice of International Relations (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1994), pp. 17-27.

  13. Referents and Values: Ecology and Gaia
    8 December
    • Daniel Deudney, "In Search of Gaian Politics: Earth Religion's Challenge to Modern Western Civilization," in Bron Raymond Taylor, ed., Ecological Resistance Movements: The Global Emergence of Radical and Popular Environmentalism (Albany: SUNY Press, 1997), pp. 282-299.
    • C. S. Holling, "Understanding the Complexity of Economic, Ecological, and Social Systems," Ecosystems 4 (2001): 390-405.
    • James E. Lovelock, "Hands Up for the Gaia Hypothesis," Nature 344, March 8, 1990, 100-102.
    • Arne Naess, "The Deep Ecological Movement: Some Philosophical Aspects," pp. 64-84, in George Sessions, ed., Deep Ecology for the 21st Century (Boston: Shambhala, 1995).
    • Jerry A. Stark, "Postmodern Environmentalism: A Critique of Deep Ecology," pp. 259-281, in Bron Raymond Taylor, ed., Ecological Resistance Movements: The Global Emergence of Radical and Popular Environmentalism (Albany: SUNY Press, 1997), pp. 259-81.
    • Michael Zimmerman, "Deep Ecology and Ecofeminism: The Emerging Dialogue," in Irene Diamond and Gloria Orenstein, eds., Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism (San Francisco: Sierra Club, 1990), pp. 138-154.