Duration
30h Th
Number of credits
Lecturer
Language(s) of instruction
English language
Organisation and examination
Teaching in the first semester, review in January
Schedule
Units courses prerequisite and corequisite
Prerequisite or corequisite units are presented within each program
Learning unit contents
This course introduces students to the social and political life of weapons. Weapons are the means through which the immeasurable human suffering and environmental destruction of war have shaped modernity. They have likewise been central to state-building, particularly in the West, where the state emerged through the acquisition of vast arsenals - from so-called "conventional" systems (artillery, explosive bombs, machine guns) to "non-conventional" armaments (chemical and nuclear, among others). Weapons must therefore be understood both in terms of why they exist and in terms of the regulatory efforts - imperfect, but real - that seek to limit their destructive power.
More than this, weapons are often presented as the "tragic but necessary" product of inter-state competition. The course returns to this claim at length, showing that the arming of the world is less a matter of tragedy than of choices made, and of epistemic and legal mechanisms and the interests of specific actors (the military-industrial complex).
The course surveys the socio-political life of a range of weapons systems, from their development in the second half of the nineteenth century to more contemporary developments linked to the militarisation of artificial intelligence.
Learning outcomes of the learning unit
By the end of the course, students will be able to:
- analyse weapons as socio-political objects rather than neutral instruments, and explain how their design and use shape war, the state and the environment;
- trace the historical trajectory of a given weapons system, from the late nineteenth century to the militarisation of artificial intelligence;
- assess the scope and limits of arms control and disarmament regimes, and account for why regulation succeeds in some cases and fails in others;
- mobilise this framework in concrete case studies, written and argued to master's standard.
Prerequisite knowledge and skills
A good general knowledge of the modern and contemporary history of international relations, and of IR theories (realism, neoliberalism constructivism, etc.)