The course focuses on the transformation of the international order, especially in the field of security. Order transformation is one of the most disruptive types of change in international relations, often associated with contestation, conflict, and often war. Despite its significance, order transformation is difficult to detect, as it starts with small changes, whose impact only becomes clear in hindsight. Yet order transformation affects all levels of policy, institutions, and social practices with significant consequences for security, politics, and governance. The course approaches global security from the perspective of the crisis of the liberal international order. It analyses the features of that order and the phases, causes and implications of its unravelling. It examines the characteristics of the current international system as well as how resilient institutions and forms of global and regional governance might be built in this context. We will then analyze specific empirical cases that highlight the two key concepts studied in this course: order transformation and resilience. These include great power rivalry, European and Euro-Atlantic security, the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, and the energy transition. In the final part of the course, we will work on strategies to grapple with order transformation and build resilience. The course encourages the development of students’ analytical tools for the study of the global security environment, combining conceptual and policy lenses. Students will gain both topical insights into the current security environment and a preparedness to approach them with both academic and practice-relevant skills.

This course aims to study the multifaceted and complex relationship between Europe/the European Union and the states of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Starting with the history of European colonialism in the Middle East, the course will examine the post-colonial policies of single European states towards the region, together with the declarations, policies and practices of the European Community, and later European Union, from the 1970s onwards. Suggesting a widely overlooked degree of interconnectedness between Europe and the Middle East, special attention will be paid to Europe-Middle East relations in the realms of trade, migration and border control, security cooperation and democracy promotion. The conceptualisation of the policies of the EU and of single MENA states, together with questions pertaining to power relations, interdependence and leverage in Europe-Middle East relations will also be discussed.

Energy, climate change and the energy transition are upending international relations. Rising temperatures and extreme weather events are generating new security risks and threats, while also impacting food security, migration and development. At the same time, rising geopolitical tensions, and in particular great power rivalry is reducing the ability of multilateral fora, such as the Conference of the Parties, to move forward global climate mitigation and adaptation. Energy, on its side, represents the dominant factor driving climate change. The energy transition towards green and clean energy therefore represents the key, albeit not the only one, to ensure the world reaches net zero by 2050. However, much like the fossil fuel-dominated energy system influenced international relations for decades, so does the transition to clean and green energy. Europe, deeply affected by climate change and at the forefront of climate diplomacy and the energy transition, is at the crux of these dynamics.