In view of a changing landscape of threats and an increasingly central role of non-state actors in the post-Cold war era, the notion of societal security shifted the traditional object of security threats – the sovereignty of the nation-state – to society. This course presents a reassessment of societal security in the light of recent events such as the 'refugee crisis', the Paris attacks and ensuing war on the IS, tensions with Russia and the aftermath of the sovereign debt crisis. Lectures investigate key aspects of societal security including resilience, surveillance, institutions and perceptions of security, global finance and ethics. Guiding questions will be to discern how societal security is reconfigurated in open and less visible ways, how technologies impact the securing of society and how the continued relevance of the state can be conceptualized in a paradigm of societal security.
Lecturers include J. Peter Burgess (Free University Brussels), Julian Reid (University of Lapland), Médéric Martin-Mazé (King's College London), Reinhard Kreissl, (Vienna Centre for Societal Security), Nina Boy (Peace Research Institute Oslo, PRIO), Rocco Bellanova (PRIO) and Kristoffer Lidén (PRIO).
For further information about the course program and admission, please visit the research school course page.