Law, Politics e Security

Objectives

The connections between Law, Politics and Security are, I believe, obvious. The autonomy of the Law and/or its dependency(ies) in relation to political and other contexts in which discourses and jural acts are brought up and embedded have raised many fascinating academic discussions. That is clearly the case when we look at Security matters and issues - in particular if and when we look at what can and should be seen as wide-ranging security, rather than the classical (and rapidly getting more outdated) security and defence paradigm of old. Complex interdependence and its progressions and regressions raise new security threats, as well as opportunities; mere self-regulation has proved to be sorely insufficient.

Security now includes notions as human security - sometimes perhaps too wide a concept to be analytically useful - ecology, sustainability, gender, the maintenance or creation of an efficacious rule of law, novel takes on the meaning of the old expression of human dignity and the attendant democracy it purports to generate, and the many other often unexpected dimensions we are increasingly facing, unfortunately not always successfully.

General characterization

Code

22121

Credits

10

Responsible teacher

Armando Marques Guedes

Hours

Weekly - 2

Total - 26

Teaching language

English

Prerequisites

All academic backgrounds fit the bill, as far as this discipline is concerned. The program is both socio-legal and transdisciplinary.

Bibliography

From this basic bibliography, a variety of themes may be proposed by students for optional 10-15minute presentations during sessions. Since Doctoral candidates¿ presentations are not obligatory, the themes chosen will be interspersed in the general program of the discipline according to Seminar themes chosen by both external events and candidates presentations as shall be deemed more convenient.

 

Amitav Acharya (2022), "Hierarchies of Weakness. The Social Divisions That Hold Countries Back", Foreign Affairs, Council for Foreign Affairs, Washington, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2022-06-21/hierarchies-weakness-social-divisions#author-info

NATO 2022, (2022), Strategic Concept, https://www.nato.int/strategic-concept/

Armando Marques Guedes (2022), "Russia. What Next", NOVA Assembleia. NOVA School of Law, https://www.academia.edu/76470259/Russia_What_next_NOVA_Assembleia_NOVA_School_of_Law_UNL_April_7th

Andreas Umland (2018), "Russian policies in the Southern Caucasus", Caucasus Watch, pp. 1-10, in www.caucasuswatch.de/news/910.html

David Batashvili (2017), "Russia's cyber war, past, present, and future", in EUObserver, https://euobserver.com/opinion/136909

Michael Connell and Sarah Vogler (2017), "Russia's Approach to Cyber Warfare", CNA's Occasional Paper , Department of the Navy, Washington, https://www.cna.org/CNA_files/PDF/DOP-2016-U-014231-1Rev.pdf

Global Legal Insights (2017), Global Energy Security: new concerns & enduring challenges,  https://www.globallegalinsights.com/practice-areas/energy/global-legal-insights---energy-5th-ed./global-energy-security

Samir Tata (2017), "Deconstructing China's Energy Security Strategy", The Diplomat, https://thediplomat.com/2017/01/deconstructing-chinas-energy-security-strategy/

Bhalla Reva (2015), "Quantum Geopolitics", Geopolitical Weekly, STRATFOR, https://www.stratfor.com/weekly/quantum-geopolitics?utm_source=freelist-f&utm_medium=email&utm_term=Gweekly&utm_campaign=20150728&utm_content=readmoretext&mc_cid=6a57dd2b30&mc_eid=563ccb602e

Edward Lucas (2015), "The Coming Storm. Baltic Sea Security Report," CEPA, Washington DC.

http://www.cepa.org/sites/default/files/styles/medium/Baltic%20Sea%20Security%20Report-%20(2).compressed.pdf

Lucas, Edward and A. Wess Mitchell (2014), "The Case for Strengthening NATOs Eastern Defenses", CEPA, Washington DC, http://www.cepa.org/sites/default/files/The%20Case%20for%20Strengthening%20NATOs%20Eastern%20Defenses-%20(2).pdf

Popescu, Nicu (2014), "The Eurasian Union. the real, the imaginary and the likely", Chaillot Paper 132, EUISS, Paris, http://www.iss.europa.eu/uploads/media/CP_132.pdf

Teaching method

The teaching format is that of interactive academic Seminars. In what concerns the students enrolled in the Law, Politics and Security discipline, the program will include specific texts, which constitute Obligatory Reading., By and by, some of the bibliography will be updated as new developments unfold in our fast-changing world. Supplementary bibliographical refences shall be either provided by me and/or proposed by you, pending approval: finding bibliography for your chosen paper topics is part of the exercise.

Below. I include a few obligatory readings for the elaborations of these texts. At this stage, these are merely indicative, Other academic readings will, predictably, be used if they are considered as relevant.

Evaluation method

Student evaluation will be carried out during the Seminars, both as pertains to presentations made (which will be explained in detail in our first session) and, mostly, via the evaluation of 15 to 25 pp. papers - papers which must be handed in according to Faculty timetables.

Active class participation shall also be taken into account. Doctoral Seminars are far more productive if their formatting approaches collective brainstorming - at least when they are duly organized.

 

Subject matter

A few examples will suffice. The rise and rise of new digital or quantum, or immersive technologies, AI, autonomous weapons, international competition at all levels and the potential recasting of world order, to pick a mere handful of cases, pose new regulatory issues that must be addressed. As noted above, Security, in its wider sense, obviously must include ecological awareness, rendering our increasing demand for energy within a sustainable framework and, both up- and downstream of all that, careful collective planning as well as creativity and innovation. So does gender security. As, indeed, does warfare and geopolitics. So, too, does legal security and political security, if we want to preserve dignity and democracy - always, but specifically as all sorts of threats to them tangibly continue emerging.

Here and there I shall bring in guests - top academics in the domains chosen, domains predictably as yet hard to predict - to participate and give a hand in getting the then current (in the sense of live, in the coming Autumn) Seminar themes we shall be discussing and brainstorming together.

Programs

Programs where the course is taught: