Universität Heidelberg
Heidelberg
Deutschland
Students will learn to study security concepts commonly attributed to the “Global South” (fragile statehood, hybridity, civil strife) in a cross-regional comparison. Through a local security lens, students will learn how comparable human behaviour from a micro perspective is – thereby de-essentialising common ascriptions to the “Global South”. The aims of the course are threefold: understanding concepts, using qualitative methods, and comparing cases. From a conceptual standpoint we will focus on essentialisation, security arenas, hybrid orders and “fragile” statehood. Methodologically, students will get an introductory glimpse at using interviewing techniques. For the comparison we will emphasize six cases: Germany, France, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Central African Republic, Somalia/Somaliland, and South Sudan. At the end, students should be able to write an unbiased, methodologically and conceptually sound term paper on local security comparisons.