This course is designed to introduce students to the purpose, theories, and methods of security studies. It is a selective overview of a field that is broad in scope, and it does not attempt to treat all of the ideas associated with some definitions of “security studies.” The course will emphasize the assessment of military forces (functions, capabilities, and costs) and the examples will be drawn largely, though not exclusively, from Asian cases. The course is divided into five parts, which will correspond, roughly, to the five meeting days that are devoted to it: theories of international relations; deterrence theory and the security dilemma; conventional forces analysis; nuclear forces and strategy; and European and Asian security issues.
Eric Heginbotham is political scientist specializing in East Asian security issues. He has co-authored or edited several books, most recently Chinese and Indian Strategic Behavior: Growing Power and Alarm (Cambridge University Press, 2012), and has published articles on Japanese and Chinese foreign policy and strategic issues in Foreign Affairs, International Security, Current History, and The National Interest.