Write an essay responding to one of the following:

What do you consider to be the most important security issue in global politics today?

or

Explain the merits and disadvantages of a particular security studies approach.

                          Assessment criteria

1. Harvard Reference. (Outstanding reference detailed and in depth discussion of the theory beyond the prescribed texts.
2. Connecting theory and practice. (Outstanding linkage between the theories and practice, supported by clear and strong examples and relevant literature.
3. Use of resources. (Minimum use of six additional external references/academic journal articles.
4. Presentation. ( Excellent standard of presentation, outstanding communication of ideas and strong connection to the learning materials.

One of major topics is:

Major security threats – Environmental insecurity, resource wars, food and energy security.

In recent years, climate change, food and energy security, and wars over resources have been hailed as the next big threat. How has this come about? Scholars have long debated the role of resources for economic development and human survival, with the general argument being that as extraction and consumption rates increase, the horizon of scarcity shortens.

… armed conflict was more likely in places where resources were abundant and economic options limited, than in places of scarcity. The combination of fears of disruptions, … environmental changes causing conflict and the … necessity to rethink security after the Cold War gave rise to … environmental security.Dalby (2013, p. 312)

Signs that environmental and resource scarcities were contributing to security threats emerged in scholarly research in the late 1970s, finding their voice throughout the 1980s and 1990s before global attention was well and truly focused on the issue at the turn of the century. While Africa has long been recognised as a hotbed of resource-based violence, there is an increasing global spread in the violence, with Asian and South American states succumbing to violent conflicts on these grounds. As Homer-Dixon (1994) argues, scarcity of resources has three main sources:

• environmental change
• population growth
• unequal distribution of resources.

Energy security

When, in March 2001, then US President George W Bush declared that “energy security should be a priority of our foreign policy” (cited in Klare 2012), the world was alerted to new security phenomenon. Until then, ‘energy security’ had been the concern of security scholars and specialised analysts. What was it that triggered this shift? Think about the context of Bush’s statement:

With the turn of the millennium, energy security has risen inexorably up the security agenda. In the late 1990s, two decades of cheap energy prices and abundant supply had erased the memories of the oil crises of the 1970s and fostered a belief that the age of ‘cheap oil’ would extend indefinitely into the future (Jaffe & Manning 2000). But instead of the $5 per barrel which some predicted, crude oil prices rose fivefold from 2000 to 2008, reaching well over $100 per barrel. Oil was now more expensive than it had ever been, greater even than the period of the Iranian Revolution and the second oil crisis in 1979-80. During this period of sharply rising oil prices, geopolitical tensions and conflicts increased significantly between the West and key oil-producing states. Dannreuther (2010, p. 144)

This week, we will examine these issues from a variety of perspectives and assess the potential impact of such threats for current and future generations.

Dalby, S 2013, ‘Climate change and environmental security’, in P Williams (ed.) 2013, Security Studies: An Introduction, 2nd edn, Routledge, London, pp. 311-323.

Homer-Dixon, TF 1994, ‘Environmental scarcities and violent conflict: evidence from cases’, International Security, vol. 19, no. 1, pp. 5-40.

Klare, MT 2013, ‘Chapter 35 Energy security’, in P Williams (ed.) 2013, Security Studies: An Introduction, 2nd edn, Routledge, London, pp. 535-552.

Dannreuther, R 2010, ‘Chapter 15 Energy security’, in JP Burgess (ed.) 2010, The Routledge Handbook of New Security Studies, Routledge, London, pp. 144-153.