Since the end of the Cold War, the logic and rationale of the Security-Development Nexus (SDN) have dominated the fields of aid, development and security. The idea that security and development affect each other is not new. Indeed, it arches back to at least colonial times. But the logic and rationale of a ‘nexus’—of them being inexorably linked and mutually constitutive—re-emerged very strongly after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, when it became apparent that security could no longer be understood in military terms alone. Threats such as internal conflict, transnational crime and pandemics, among others, came into focus. The policy relevance of the SDN increased further following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The attacks contributed to reconceptualising donors’ engagement in ‘fragile’ or ‘failed’ states not only from a humanitarian perspective but mainly through the lens of security. What followed was, first, an increase and a normalisation of Western countries’ coercive and non-coercive interventions in the Global South, and then a broadening of such interventions also by non-Western countries. This reshuffling of the norms and practices in global politics has led to heated debates on the SDN's ideological, political, and policy implications. This course joins such a debate.
This course has two aims. The first aim is to provide students with the academic tools to engage at an advanced level with the politics of the SDN, mainly from international relations, international political economy and security studies perspectives. The second aim is to provide students with tools useful for their transition into professional roles in humanitarian, aid and development, and security fields. The dual aims are mutually reinforcing, as explained below and further elucidated in the course aims, objectives and learning outcomes.
There are three parts to this course.
The first part (weeks 1-3) engages with the concepts underpinning the debate on the SDN. This part is essential for students to appreciate the contested nature of the ‘nexus.’ We will also study and debate the ideological, political and policy ramifications of different understandings of ‘security’ and ‘development.’ This first part of the course is thus foundational.
The second part (weeks 5-6) of the course introduces the main approaches to state interventions. Students will debate the pros and cons of coercive interventions and engage with the different modalities of peacebuilding, statebuilding, and state transformation typologies of interventions.
The third part (weeks 7-10) engages with some of the most important contemporary manifestations of the SDN in global politics. Students will debate the political and policy implications of the state fragility label, the externalisation approach to counter irregular migration, the different framing of climate change, and the pandemic’s response and preparedness. Students can showcase their accrued learning in these last weeks by leading the seminars.
The course also includes two seminars allocated to in-class conflict analysis exercises (weeks 6 and 11) and a recap of the learning content (week 12)