Gwybodaeth Modiwlau

Module Identifier
IPM5120
Module Title
Security and Global Health
Academic Year
2014/2015
Co-ordinator
Dr Christian John Enemark
Semester
Semester 2
Other Staff
 

Course Delivery

Delivery Type Delivery length / details
Seminars / Tutorials 20 Hours (10 x 2 hours)
 

Assessment

Assessment Type Assessment length / details Proportion
Semester Assessment 1 x 2,500 word essay  40%
Semester Assessment 1 x 3,500 word essay  60%
Supplementary Assessment 1 x 2,500 word essay, if essay element failed  40%
Supplementary Assessment 1 x 3,500 word essay, if essay element failed  60%

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this module students should be able to:

1. Identify and explain disease-related security issues, drawing on fields of knowledge including international relations, applied ethics, law, microbiology, and public health.
2. Explain, apply and critique theoretical principles that link health and security.
3. Analyse and critique the assumptions underpinning security-oriented policies on public health and scientific research.
4. Evaluate and generate ideas for responding to disease-based security challenges.
5. Demonstrate empirical knowledge of a range of past, present and potential disease risks.

Brief description

This module explores the security significance of infectious disease threats to human health. Historical experiences with smallpox and plague, and the contemporary challenges posed by AIDS and pandemic influenza, show that pathogenic micro-organisms can exercise a powerful influence over human civilization. Incorporating global and local perspectives, the module examines: the problem of biological weapons; the securitization of naturally-occurring disease outbreaks; security risks and ethical dilemmas arising from laboratory research; and the relationships between disease patterns, public health capacity, state functioning, and violent conflict

Content

1 Security theory, disease risks, and public health
2 Disease and armed conflict
3 HIV and AIDS
4 Tuberculosis
5 Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS)
6 Pandemic Influenza
7 Biological weapons (I): science and history
8 Biological weapons (II): state and non-state actors
9 Biosecurity, scientists and the law
10 The dual use dilemma in the life sciences

Aims

The module aims is to provide you with a stronger understanding of the political and scientific dimensions of a range of deliberately-caused and naturally-occurring disease risks, and of the conceptual and empirical connections between them. At a time of increasing concern worldwide about emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases and the harmful misuse of biotechnology, this module provides an opportunity for you to synthesise knowledge of international politics, microbiology, ethics, and public health.

Module Skills

Skills Type Skills details
Application of Number N/A
Communication By communicating research findings succinctly via a well-written and word-limited essay.
Improving own Learning and Performance By writing a second essay that improves upon the first because it is responsive to feedback.
Information Technology By using online platforms to conduct research for and submit essays.
Personal Development and Career planning By engaging in learning activities designed to develop students’ intellectual autonomy.
Problem solving By advancing an argument, in essays and in seminar exercises, in response to a question.
Research skills By conducting research using well-selected library and internet-based resources.
Subject Specific Skills N/A
Team work By engaging in group exercises in seminars.

Notes

This module is at CQFW Level 7