32504

WiSe 22/23: Armaments and International Relations

Lucas Hellemeier

Kommentar

This course seeks to introduce students to the academic debates on the role of armaments in international relations (IR). In most IR theoretical schools, the availability of arms and a corresponding defense industrial base is a key determinant of the global distribution of power. The United States is the most important player in the global arms market reflected in reports like the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s (SIPRI) Yearbooks. After the Cold War, the United States emerged as the unipolar military power. Already during the previous era of bipolarity, it played an overarching role in shaping the global arms market. The course seeks to unearth the dynamics that shape the global distribution of arms, the availability of defense industrial capacity, and the role the United States plays in these dynamics. The first part of the course is a review of the IR canon and its different schools of thought with a focus on the role of armaments and military technology. We will identify where conclusions derived from armaments dynamics differ between the theoretical schools. In the second part, we will discuss the role of arms in crisis stability drawing on offense-defense theory, deterrence theory, and Robert Jervis’ spiral model. We will also examine what role military technology plays in conventional war and nuclear strategy. Finally, the last part of the course will focus on the political economy of armaments production and examine how contemporary phenomena like globalization, the arms trade, increased technological complexity, and – most importantly, war – affect these processes. Schließen

16 Termine

Regelmäßige Termine der Lehrveranstaltung

Mo, 12:00 - 14:00 16 Termine

Mo, 17.10.2022 12:00 - 14:00

Dozenten:
Lucas Hellemeier