Summer Course – CPS 101 | Introduction to International Peace and Security (IPS)

Introduction to International Peace and Security (IPS)

Summer Course – CPS 101

July 26–August 12, 2021

Organised by: The Centre for International Peace and Stability (CIPS), NUST, Islamabad

1. Introduction and Objectives

International peace and security have a different meaning for different states. Each state views security issues from its own peculiar geo-strategic and geo-political perspectives and priorities. While the era in the aftermath of the establishment of United Nations witnessed relative peace yet the current security environment marked by civil wars, terrorism, organized crime, the current pandemic, the rise of nationalism, mistrust in global institutions, natural and man-made disasters and effects of climate change, is threatening to upend the global order and undermine the world peace. Since these threats transcend national boundaries, today more than ever before, there is a demand for the greater level of cooperation among states – through regional and global multilateral institutions.

In this backdrop, from the academic point of view, a multidisciplinary approach is imperative to understand the causes and consequences of threats to national and international peace and security. Thus, there is a genuine relevance of this course for students and professionals, having backgrounds in social and administrative sciences and in the disciplines such as engineering, science and technology, and every other discipline that can rationalise with the idea of peace and security.

The course aims to provide students with the knowledge and necessary skills to understand and critically analyse the existent pandemic and numerous other contributing factors – challenging contemporary international peace and security. It will help students to understand both the theoretical and historical background of peace and war issues and their interplay in shaping as well as threatening the global order of today.

2. Course Outcomes

After the successful completion of this course, it is expected that the students will be able to:

• Understand the nature of threats to global peace and stability;
• Understand the role of international organizations in world governance and shaping up the current rules-based global order;
• Understand the role of great powers in propelling globalization as well as the backlash against it;
• And understand impediments to cooperation among states in the contemporary world.

3. Course Contents

The following topics will be covered during the study period:

i) APPROACHES AND THEORIES OF PEACE & CONFLICT STUDIES

• Theoretical approaches to understand state conduct in conflict and peace in International Relations
• Conflict analysis tools
• Understanding pandemics and their impacts on the global order
• Role of technology in modern warfare
• Rethinking security: traditional and non-traditional perspectives

ii) PEACE AND CONFLICT CHALLENGES FACING PAKISTAN AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD

• Governance issues in Pakistan and national harmony
• Roots of conflict between India and Pakistan – Kashmir issue and water sharing
• Afghanistan after the withdrawal of foreign troops
• CPEC and its potential for the regional connectivity

iii) POLITICS OF AID AND ROLE OF UN IN INTERNATIONAL PEACE AND SECURITY

• The geopolitics of pandemic
• The role of global and regional organizations in curtailing the pandemic
• UN’s role in maintaining international peace and security with particular reference to conflict prevention, peacekeeping and peacebuilding.

4. Grading

• Students of NUST, on successful completion of the IPS Summer Course, will be awarded 2.0 credit hours.

5. Course Registration Fee

• For NUST students: 4,000 PKR
• For Non-Nustians: 6000 PKR

6. Credit Hours: 2.0

7. Format of the Course

The course will be conducted in hybrid mode (in person as well as online lectures).

8. Suggested Readings

• Henry Kissinger, World Order (New York: Penguin, 2014)
• Francis Fukuyama, Identity (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2018)
• John Mearsheimer, The Great Delusion (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2018)
• Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan beyond Crisis State (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2011)
• Ilhan Niaz, The Culture of Power and Governance of Pakistan, 1947-2008 (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2011)
• Ilhan Niaz, Old World Empires (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2021)
• Malcolm N Shaw, International Law, 6^th edition (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008)
• “The Rise of Nationalism,” Foreign Affairs, March/April Issue, 2019
• Peter Bergen, Talibanistan: Negotiating the Borders Between Terror, Politics, and Religion (Oxford University Press, 2013)
• Burke and Ziring, Pakistan’s Foreign Policy:An Historical Analysis (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 1990)
• Dixit, India’s Foreign Policy & its Neighbours (New Delhi: Gyan Books, 2001)
• Rachel Ehrenfeld, Narco Terrorism (New York: Basic Books, 1992)
• Feroz Khan, Eating Grass: The Making of the Pakistani Bomb(Stanford Security Studies, 2012)
• Riaz Khan, Afghanistan and Pakistan: Conflict, Extremism, and Resistance to Modernity (Washington: John Hopkins University Press, 2011)
• DavidPatrikarakos, Nuclear Iran: The Birth of an Atomic State (London: I.B. Tauris, 2012).
• Abdul Sattar, Pakistan’s Foreign Policy 1947-2012 (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2012)
• Tughral Yamin, The Evolution of Nuclear Deterrence in South Asia (Islamabad: Army Press, 2014)
• Tughral Yamin, Cyberspace CBMs between Pakistan and India (Islamabad: NUST Publications, 2014)
• Cogan, Hurd, and Johnstone, The Oxford Handbook of International Organizations (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017)

Registration Link: https://forms.gle/GjdRwAFcrZc4N7Cu8

Timetable 2021

[1] As part of the term examination, participants are required to write an essay on given topic(s). The examination will be attempted on LMS and at campus.