Teaching

We regularly teach courses at LMU Munich on topics relevant to the project. Below is a list of recently taught courses.

Feel free to contact us via the indicated e-Mail address for further inquiries about syllabi and other teaching material.


MA Seminar, Winter Term 2023/24

Transformations in the Making of European Security

Andreas Kruck

Features of a “regulatory security state” are prevalent in many new and traditional fields of European security such as cybersecurity and armament. However, esp. in the wake of Russia’s war against Ukraine, European policy-makers have stressed the need for building national (and to a lesser extent also supranational) coercive capacities. This renewed emphasis on (state) capacity-building in European security points to the contested nature of the European “regulatory security state” as well as countervailing trends towards the “positive security state” in Europe. In this seminar, we mapped to what extent “regulatory” or “positive” security states have emerged in different polities and various fields of European security policy-making. We analyzed the drivers of and constraints to security state reform in Europe; and we studied the consequences of different types of national and supranational security states for the effectiveness and legitimacy of European security-policy making. Students in this class designed and implemented their own research projects on transformations in the making of European security.

For further request: andreas.kruck{at}gsi.uni-muenchen.de


BA Seminar, Winter Term 2023/24

Cybersecurity

Moritz Weiss

This seminar introduces BA students into a better understanding of how the digital revolution has transformed the provision of security. We address the key challenge for political actors to establish cybersecurity across different domains (e.g. markets, critical infrastructures, inter-state relations). For example, new risks are emerging, but their imputability always remains disputed. This increases the general uncertainty in international relations. In this way, the establishment of cybersecurity gradually changes political processes of different actors in the 21st century. On the one hand, the state builds up new capacities (e.g. in ministries of the interior and defence) and, on the other hand, enacts new regulations that systematically change economic exchange in the market. In addition, international and transnational organisations in particular also play a central role in rule-making. Against this background, numerous questions arise about continuity and change in security policy, but also about similarities and differences in the production of cybersecurity.

For further request: moritz.weiss{at}gsi.uni-muenchen.de


MA Seminar, Winter Term 2022/23

Researching the Regulatory Security State

Andreas Kruck and Moritz Weiss

This seminar, which was conceived as a “research-oriented learning” course, studied the changing role and shape of the state in the provision of European and global security. The participants investigated to what extent, why, and with what consequences a “regulatory security state” has emerged in various fields and polities of European and global security policy making. Unlike the “positive security state”, which relies on political authority and vast state capacities, the regulatory security state governs by rules and heavily draws on epistemic authority (i.e. superior expertise) to make and legitimate security policies. Features of the regulatory security state, such as the power of (state and non-state) experts, rules-based policy instruments and indirect modes of governance, have come to shape many “new” and “traditional” fields of security such as cybersecurity and armament. Participants in this research-oriented seminar studied their manifestations, causes and consequences but also countervailing trends and controversies. After a set of introductory sessions, which took the conceptual apparatus of the “regulatory state” to the field of security and discussed current theoretical debates, students designed and implemented their own research projects on the regulatory security state in particular (established or new) security fields and (national or supranational) polities.

For further request: andreas.kruck{at}gsi.uni-muenchen.de; moritz.weiss{at}gsi.lmu.de


BA Seminar, Winter Term 2022/23

Experts in Global Politics

Andreas Kruck

This seminar studied the role of experts in global politics. Not only in national political systems but also at the international level, public expert bodies such as specialized EU agencies and non-state experts such as networks of scientists, private standard-setters or global tech companies shape the making and implementation of policies in various issue-areas. Much of contemporary global governance is based on epistemic authority, i.e. actors’ recognized claims of superior expertise. At the same time, experts and their authority are often contested and part of deeply political power struggles. What makes experts powerful in global politics? Through what mechanisms do experts shape the processes and outputs of global policy-making? When do policy-makers follow the advice of experts, when do they ignore it? Does expertise-based governance enhance the effectiveness of global policy-making? How legitimate is “expertocracy” in the global realm? To what extent do powerful experts mitigate, reproduce or even reinforce socio-economic, gender-based and postcolonial discrimination? We addressed these (and other) questions from a broad range of both explanatory and critical theories. We looked at various types of public and, in particular, non-state experts in diverse issue-areas (such as security, finance, health, environment etc.), covering several venues of global policy-making such as international organizations, transgovernmental networks and private transnational standardization. In their presentations, participants to this class conducted theoretically informed and methodologically sound case studies.

For further request: andreas.kruck{at}gsi.uni-muenchen.de