Please note, that the course will start on 5th April!
Please fill in this survey not later than 1st April 2022 to enrol into the course: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe7-9kNNO4Lyu_KX1DuFlIrfjbFaqVyEhI0Gwh072sRPAg8GA/viewform
Responding to this survey is a condition for enrolment into the course, so please fill it out ASAP and not later than 1st April 2022. I will treat your responses as confidential and won’t share your personal information.
This Circle U.-Team aims to explore how national security policy and security sector governance are used to undermine or re-strengthen liberal democracy in Europe. The assumption behind the design of this course is that security governance is an inevitable target of autocratisation, for three purposes: (a) guaranteeing impunity for those abusing power, (b) selective enforcement of rules by police and judiciary on the behalf of 'wannabe' autocrats, and (c) legitimisation of elite and governance through securitisation. Besides focusing on problems of autocratisation, the course will also examine how security sector reforms and civic engagement can be used to counter autocratisation and strengthen (re-) democratisation. In this way, the students will be able to get an understanding of the complexity of security as a public good and the political and practical challenges to the provision of human and national security while attending to the basic fundaments of democracy.
The course's empirical focus is on security governance within both 'old democracies' and post-communist countries, as well as on insights gained from European history of autocratisation and re-democratisation in 20th and 21st centuries. The active participation of students is envisaged through a combination of reflective and research assignments (Country Case Studies), discussion classes and two hands-on workshops: (a) how to research security and (b) how to be a policy advisor on security reforms. Selected assignments of this course will be shared at the web portal of the Centre for International Security (CIS) of the Faculty of Political Science, University of Belgrade.
This course aims for students interested in exploration of how democratic values are discarded through security governance and how they may be reversed through political and civic engagement. It is offered to Master's students of social sciences, in particular of political science, international relations, security studies, media studies, and sociology, as well as of humanities, including literature and film studies.
