Admission requirements
Course for students enrolled in master program Crisis and Security Management
Description
Security ranks high on both the societal as well as political agenda. The threat of terrorism, transnational organized crime, civil war, urban riots or natural disasters is making headlines almost every day and is a guarantee for political turmoil. Although from a factual perspective the risk of high-end security incidents is in most Western countries low, the risk perception is far more higher. When it comes to security and crisis, risk perception seems to be as important as actual risk assessments.
During the one year multi-disciplinary master program students will become familiar with the political and social dimensions of the governance of (in)security and crises. By analyzing security discourses, security actors, security practices and security outcomes students will become acquainted with the ‘wicked problem’ of security and crises topics in a complex and globalizing world.
As security is no longer a public good solely provided by state actors or public actors but the combined outcome of public actors, private security actors, civil society and citizens as well, the master program will focus on the multiplicity of actors engaged in defining and practicing security.
Further, as a result of the globalized and interwoven world of today in which incidents, images and messages travel within seconds from one part of the world to another part of the world, students will study current security and crisis challenges from a ‘glocal’ perspective: both global and local levels and especially the nexus of those levels.
In the master’s program students will be confronted with the insights of various academic disciplines and a combination of theory and practice and skills relevant for a professional career in public or private security and crisis organizations. Students will become familiar with the causes of different forms of crises and threats to security, with patterns of responses and governance of these phenomena, and policies and strategies to prevent threats, incidents or crises. The Master thesis project provides students the opportunity to specifically focus on one particular type of crisis or security issue and how certain actors deal with it.
Course objectives
Students will be able to identify and qualify the ongoing broadening and deepening of the object of security studies in terms of the involvement of a multitude of security actors, security threats and referent objects of security by studying, reviewing and commenting key texts in security studies.
Students will be able to recognize and apply the multidisciplinary approach towards crisis and security studies by comparing different disciplinary approaches towards current security and crisis situations in terms of differences and similarities between, amongst others, international relations, history, law, public administration, political science, sociology, social psychology and communication studies and their relevance for understanding (in)security by studying, reviewing and commenting key texts in security studies.
Students will be able to map and analyze the (functioning of the) multiplicity of public, private and civic security actors engaged in security practices by using theoretical insights on the governance of security networks on both local as well as national, regional or global levels and will be able to critically analyze the changing power constellations as a result of the emergence of security networks by discussing and analyzing concrete and current examples of security networks.
Students are able to identify some of the main research designs common in security studies, such as case studies, comparative research, historical research and qualitative and explorative research, and some of the main research methodologies common in security studies, such as agenda setting, process tracing, network mapping, social media research, discourse analysis and document analysis, and compare them in terms of feasibility, validity and reliability.
Students will be able as member of a crisis team to solve a specific simulated crisis situation while using relevant academic skills in terms of information processing, information analysis and decision making.
Students will be able to identify and apply the social constructivist dimensions of (in)security by analyzing current security and crisis incidents while relating them to the academic study of security and showing by that their awareness of the political, social, economic and media dynamics inherent in security and crisis discourses and practices.
Timetable
On the Public Administration front page of the E-guide you will find links to the website and timetables, uSis and Blackboard.
Mode of instruction
Six lectures and one session devoted to serious gaming.
This course is compulsory.
Course Load
Total study load 140 hours
Contact hours: 21
Self-study hours: reading, preparing lectures, assignments, etc 119
Assessment method
- Three times ‘CSM today’ – 5% – Four Times Rolling Exam Question – 40% – Evaluation of the Serious Game – 5% – Final Paper – 50%
Failed partial grades weighing less than 30% should be compensated by a passed partial grade weighing more than 30%. The calculated grade must be at least 5,50 in order to pass the course.
You can find more information about assessments and the timetable exams on the website.
Details for submitting papers (deadlines) are posted on Blackboard.
On the Public Administration front page of the E-guide you will find links to the website, uSis and Blackboard.
Resit
Students will be permitted to resit an examination if they have a mark lower than 5.5 or with permission of the Board of Examiners.
Resit written exam
Students that want to take part in a resit for a written exam, are required to register via uSis. Use the activity number that can be found on the ‘timetable exams’.
Blackboard
Yes, course will be available one week in advance.
Reading list
A selection of articles. To be announced on blackboard.
Registration
Use both uSis and Blackboard to register for every course.
Register for every course and workgroup via uSis. Some courses and workgroups have a limited number of participants, so register on time (before the course starts). In uSis you can access your personal schedule and view your results. Registration in uSis is possible from four weeks before the start of the course.
Also register for every course in Blackboard. Important information about the course is posted here.
Contact
All communication should be directed to csm@fgga.leidenuniv.nl.
Remarks
All other information.