Brief description
The study of security can be defined as an examination of the institutions, ideas, and instruments of organized violence. This module examines the relationship between culture and security. Viewing organised violence as a socially embedded set of political practices, the module inquires critically into the relationship between different systems of thought, social structures, and technologies of control, destruction, and representation in the constitution and exercise of different forms of violence in world politics.

Aims
This module examines the historically shifting nature of the 'subject' of security (who or what is being secured, from what, and how). It seeks in particular to develop an understanding of the social constitution of forms of organized violence, and their transformation and operation in contemporary world politics.

Objectives
At the end of the module students should be able to:

• Assess the multiple sources and structures of violence in contemporary world politics
• Demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between specific knowledge structures, the constitution of specific social forms and structures of political authority, and the structures of violence they entail and make possible
• Discuss the technologies of violence in their historical and political context
• Examine the shifting structures of conflict, violence, and security in international politics