Browse Hierarchy GEG6130: Geopolitics post-9/11: War, Security, Economy

Subsequent to the introductory lecture, the module is divided into three sections. The first main section provides an historical and political overview of the 'war on terror' in relation to thinking about other types of wars. It considers how the prosecution of the war on terror has come to shape not only military, but also legal and governmental discourse and practice in the post 9/11 era. The second section invites students to consider ideas and practices of security as a central feature of this. It will consider the rise of private military contracting, immigration, humanitarianism, urban geopolitics, and the overlap between health and security concerns. The third section focuses on the political-economic underpinnings of many of these developments and challenges students to think of conflict as an embedded social phenomenon: as much a part of contemporary discourses on the economy as it is something with merely economic implications. The final, concluding lecture will examine alternatives to the dominant framings of modern conflict that have been put forward and critiqued thus far.