University of Galway

Course Module Information

Course Modules

Semester 1 | Credits: 10

Geopolitics is once again the ‘lingua franca’ of global power. Intimately interwoven with its resurgence is an acute sense of vulnerability to international terrorism that has prompted not only renewed forms of Western interventionism ‘overseas’ but also new forms of governmentality at ‘home’. Using a broad range of contexts at multiple scales, this module sets out to explore the interconnections between geopolitical discourse and practices of securitization in our modern world. A particular focus on the US-led war on terrorism aims to critique the abstracted discursive production of geopolitical knowledge by examining the ubiquitous scriptings of insecurity, war and geopolitics in our contemporary moment. A broader concern is to explore how neoliberal practices of intervention, war and reconstruction continue to be based on the mobilization of prioritized geopolitical and geoeconomic discourses. Building on recent work in critical geopolitics, the module seeks to not only interrogate the basis, legitimization and operation of contemporary geopolitics, but also to proffer more humane and nuanced counter-geographies that insist on the spatiality and materiality of global space.
(Language of instruction: English)

Learning Outcomes
  1. recognise the intimate links between geopolitical discourse and practices of securitization in our contemporary world;
  2. comprehend the long-standing equation between ‘security’ interests and ‘economic’ interests at the heart of geopolitical calculation;
  3. see the so-called war on terror in its historic context of a much longer Western concern for military-economic securitization overseas;
  4. appreciate how neoliberal practices of intervention, war and reconstruction have long been based on the mobilization of prioritized geopolitical and geoeconomic discourses.
Assessments
  • Continuous Assessment (100%)
Teachers
Reading List
  1. "Security, Territory, Population: Lectures at the Collège de France, 1977-1978" by Michel Foucault
    Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
  2. "The Colonial Present" by Derek Gregory
    Publisher: Blackwell
  3. "The New Imperialism" by David Harvey
    Publisher: Oxford University Press
  4. "Critical Geopolitics: The Politics of Writing Global Space" by Gearóid Ó Tuathail
    Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
  5. "Culture and Imperialism" by Edward Said
    Publisher: Vintage
  6. "The Endgame of Globalization" by Neil Smith
    Publisher: Routledge
The above information outlines module TI6126: "Critical Geopolitics and Security" and is valid from 2019 onwards.
Note: Module offerings and details may be subject to change.