SS-603 Theory & Dimensions of Contemporary Strategy
This course would enable students to understand the evolution of strategic theory and its contemporary connotations. Students would learn the revolution in the strategic affairs brought about by profound technological changes in the military technology, communication systems and social media that have affected strategic theory and its practice. The nature of war, competition and cooperation would be examined, and students would be able to appreciate and explore the evolving nature of strategic thought and practice in contemporary times.
SS-611 Security and Conflict Analysis
Students would learn the concept of security and conflict. They would be able to analyze conflict by recognizing its causes, context, actors, interests, incompatibilities, resources and motivations inherent in the conflict. The purpose of security and conflict analysis is to assist the students in understanding the structure of conflict and contemplate strategies to manage, resolve or transform the same.
SS-612 Conflict and Cooperation in Global Commons
In this course students would learn the concept, definition and types of global commons: the high oceans, the atmosphere, outer space and the Antarctic. They would understand importance of the global commons for security and development of nations. Study of international regimes governing the commons, and politics of access and exploitation would be a special area of interest. The students would understand how Pakistan should endeavor to optimally use the global commons for economy and security.
SS-627 International Law
Objectives of this course are to generate awareness among the students regarding the nature, evolution, development and application of International Law, upon the members of international community such as states, international institutions and individuals. This course also addresses the issue of practicability of International Law.
SS-631 WMD Proliferation and International Security
This course is designed to help students to understand proliferation dynamics, theoretical and practical aspects of global nonproliferation regime, and its implications for international security. The students would understand the evolution and development of global nonproliferation regime, shaped by several variables, and its likely future. They would understand the political and technical drivers that led to global nuclear proliferation and the efforts towards nonproliferation; familiarize themselves with states’ motivations to acquire nuclear weapons; learn technical aspects of major arms control arrangements; understand current efforts towards nuclear nonproliferation and nuclear security.
SS-702 Evolution of Strategic Thought
This course would enable students to understand the evolution of strategic thought from the times of Thucydides, Sun Tzu, Koteliya all the way to the modern theorists of war and strategy like Clausewitz, Liddel Hart, Bernard Bordie, Andre Beaufre and Colin S. Gray. Students would learn about profound technological changes in the military technology, communication systems and social media that have affected evolution of strategic thought. The transformation of war, competition and cooperation would also be examined to enable the students to appreciate and explore the evolving strategic thought.
SS-704 Seminar on Global Strategic Issues
The principal purpose of this course is to examine and analyze the contemporary global issues. An interactive approach involving interplay of international, systemic and natural phenomenon would be used to understand the dynamics of strategic issues facing the world and Pakistan. This would equip the students with necessary knowledge to secure and safeguard Pakistan’s national interests with regards to the strategic issues, and also help the students to choose their respective area of research.
SS-705 Seminar on Strategic Policies of Great Powers
The principal purpose of this course is to examine patterns of change and continuity in the policy behavior of the great powers of United States, Russia, China, Japan, EU and BRICS. An interactive approach involving interplay of domestic context, regional factors and systemic forces will be used to understand the dynamics of great powers strategic behavior. Students would learn about the nature of great powers and their strategic pursuits. They would appreciate that structure and nature of international system is determined by the concentration of power in states called the great powers; whose strategic policies need to be studied and analyzed. This would equip the students with necessary knowledge to secure and safeguard interests of Pakistan in the prevailing international order.
SS-706 Evolution & Development of Nuclear Strategy
The students would understand the development of nuclear capability, doctrine and strategy during the period of continuing political struggle between the United States and the former USSR. The concept of nuclear deterrence has become crucial in creating the impression that a nuclear adversary state would have little or no chance of victory in nuclear war against another nuclear armed state. The students would understand the doctrines of massive retaliation; flexible response; surprise attack and 'Second Strike' capability along with the concept of mutually assured destruction. Salient characteristics of nuclear strategy in the Second Nuclear Age would also be discussed in this course.
SS-707 National Security Policy and Strategy
This course examines national security policy and strategy as developed and pursued by governments and the civilian sector. The students would understand security policy development process and monitoring, evaluation and implementation role of the government departments, institutions and agencies. , concept of national interests and process of strategy formulation. The students would also be exposed to the concepts of traditional and non-traditional aspects of national security; and to the concept of securitization national security issues. The capacity of a nation for disaster resilience, crisis response and mitigation of pandemic threats to national security would also be examined in this course.
SS-708 Dynamics of Strategic Stability in South Asia
South Asia has three nuclear-armed powers, each with its own strategic objectives and nuclear philosophies, making definition and practice of deterrence a tall order. In this backdrop, the students would be exposed to the significant transformation in the strategic doctrines and force postures of the three principal states of South Asia. The students would explore the future scenarios of deterrence and strategic stability in South Asia and their linkage with global strategic balance.
SS 709: A Study of Contemporary War
This course is designed to equip the students with the capability to understand the contemporary forms, concepts, technologies and strategies of war. The students would be made conversant with the on-going and emerging nature of war and conflict in 21st century. The students would appreciate that the nature of war has been transformed in the contemporary times. Apart from the states, many violent non-state actors, MNCs, international non-governmental organizations and ideologues pursue their political agendas through new types of war and conflicts. The multiplicity of political actors, advancement in technologies (including nuclear technology) and the phenomenon of globalization have had profound impact on the approaches adopted by states and non-state actors to achieve their political objectives and to seek security. Revolutions in military and strategic affairs have also brought about different concepts in the conduct of war. This course discusses these factors in shaping the irregular and formless nature of contemporary war.
SS-710 Regions and Powers
The focus of the course would be to understand the securitization and de-securitization processes of states that fundamentally define the regions. Regions are not a fixity and could evolve with the changing interests of regional as well as the external powers, which also play important role in the securitization process of individual states. The understanding of these internal and external dynamics could help the students in developing better understanding of the changing nature of regional and global alliances, and state’s own position in the international system.
SS-713 Conflict and Cooperation in South Asia
The students would learn the geopolitical dynamics of South Asian region; its resources, political landscape and environment. The interstate security cooperation, competition, economic integration and patterns of regional cooperation would be explored by the students. The interests of global powers in the region and its linkage with the dominant state structure would also be examined by the students.
SS-714 Conflict and Cooperation in West Asia
The students would learn the geopolitical dynamics of West Asian region; its resources, political landscape and environment. The interstate security cooperation, competition, economic integration and patterns of regional cooperation would be explored by the students. The interests of global powers in the region and its linkage with the dominant state structure would also be examined by the students.
SS-715 Conflict and Cooperation in Asia-Pacific
The students would learn the geopolitical dynamics of South Asian region; its resources, political landscape and environment. The interstate security cooperation, competition, economic integration and patterns of regional cooperation would be explored by the students. The interests of global powers in the region and its linkage with the dominant state structure would also be examined by the students.
SS-716 Conflict and Cooperation in Central Asia
The students would learn the geopolitical dynamics of Central Asian region; its resources, political landscape and environment. The interstate security cooperation, competition, economic integration and patterns of regional cooperation would be explored by the students. The interests of global powers in the region and its linkage with the dominant state structure would also be examined by the students.
SS-717 Civil-Military Relations: Theory and Practice
The students would be introduced to assumptions of military sociology theory. They would learn the peculiar characteristics of military profession and its relationship with civil society. Various models of civil-military relations would be examined in case-study format. The students would be encouraged to form their own views on the concept and practice of civil-military relations.
SS-718 Dynamics of Conflict Resolution
In order to resolve conflict effectively, it is imperative to have a full understanding of conflict dynamics. In this course, the students would be exposed to drawing lessons from a variety of disciplines, including psychology, sociology and communication to get a wholesome view of the nature and dynamics of conflict and conflict resolution. With a robust understanding of nature of conflict, students would be equipped to attempt to resolve intra-society or international conflict.
SS-719 Economics of Defense and Conflict
The student would explore relationship between conflict and defense from an economic perspective. They would be introduced to economics of conflict and peace and explore relationship between defense spending and conflict and questions about the impact of rising weapons costs and costs of conflict. The students would be guided on issues of conflict economics, and of defense input and outputs.
SS-721 Security, Leadership and Society
It provides innovative approach to the interdisciplinary study of leadership regarding peace and security. The security challenges in the 21st century needs comprehensive understanding of the nature of threat emanating from state as well as non-state actors, from within the society, and the role of leadership in dealing different challenges through graded approach. the students shall be able to Understand the role of society in defining factors behind securitization and desecuritization of a state, and the role of leadership; Identify various security constructs that are created within the society, influenced by historical experiences, or artificially created by various interests groups; and role of leadership that could change the security constructs, both positive and negative.
SS-722 Environment, Politics and Globalization
The students will learn about global environmental changes caused by globalization, and politics guiding national choices of major powers and the emerging industrial states. Reluctance by major industrial states to acknowledge the harmful impact of environment degradation and its impact on global climate change has emerged as a major security challenge that could only be dealt through combined efforts of all countries.
SS-724 Geopolitics, Territory and Security
It is a unique multidisciplinary course that focuses on the territorial aspect of inter-state relations. Students will be able to explore geopolitical and political geographic analysis – contextualized within the wider social sciences – and the relevant aspects of international law to understand the creation and maintenance of international boundaries. After completing this course, the students shall be able to understand emerging trends of geopolitics shaped by different factors; and identify different patterns of enmity and amity shaped by convergence and divergence of interests, and also by geostrategic locations of major actors.
SS-725 Politics and Economics of Energy
The control of natural resources has been one of the major determinants of global conflicts, and has shaped political priorities of major powers. The students in this course will be taught the economics of energy that continue to shape interests of major powers.
SS-728 Diplomacy
Diplomacy is an important means by which sates execute policies. It is largely designed to enable states to secure the objective of their foreign policies by interacting with the other states preferably without a resort to force in war. The main purpose of this course is to acquaint the students not only about the linkage between foreign policy and diplomacy of a country but also to teach them about the means and methods of achieving the aims and objectives of foreign policy through various kinds of diplomacy. In addition, important matters related to diplomacy will be covered in the course in its theoretical and applied dimensions.
SS-732 Arms Control and Nonproliferation
This course is designed to help students to understand the evolution of arms control and nonproliferation efforts and the contemporary issues that continue to influence the global arms control regime. The students will be taught the genesis and theory of the nuclear nonproliferation regime and the challenges faced due to conflicting interests of major powers and rest of the international community. Over the past several decades, the arms control and nonproliferation efforts have expanded in scope and objectives due to the changing nature of threat and the emergence of new technologies, which require students to remain abreast with new challenges and opportunities in this field.
The understanding of arms control and nonproliferation regime will help students to apply the acquired knowledge in analyzing the nature of international system, its working, and how formal and informal arrangements that comprise of multilateral and bilateral treaties, initiatives, etc., are used by states to promote and protect their national interests. This knowledge could be useful in exploring job opportunities in various national and international organizations.
SS 733 Emerging Technologies and International Security
The course aims to develop understanding of what all technologies constitute as emerging technologies and how these could influence and impact the international security. The fast pace of developments in the field makes it important for the students to remain abreast and to understand its impact on conventional and nuclear deterrence. Some of the basic questions that this course would aim to discuss is whether new technologies would make the world safer or riskier, especially with the advent of AI based decision making processes? How these technologies could possibly narrow the power gap between states thus further complicating the international security environment, and what could be the potential incentive that could possibly help the international community to develop international norms and best practices in the emerging fields.
SS-734 Cyber Warfare
The course aims to familiarize students to the basics of cyber security, cyber warfare, cybersecurity ecosystem, and role of entities involved in this ecosystem. To educate students about the common attacks and their treatment. Students will learn policies, standards needed to be followed in cyber security and warfare. Students will gain knowledge about techniques and approaches to achieve and maintain security. Students are expected to become familiar with cyber warfare’s and cyber security’s core concepts, terminology, history, technologies, and skills. Students will be imparted with necessary knowledge and basic skills to defend information assets; resident or transient data and infrastructure carrying it from cyber threats and attacks. To introduce both the offensive side of cyber security such as surveillance, exploitation, hacking, malwares attack, social engineering; as well as its defensive side such as vulnerability assessment, network defense, passwords, firewalls, VPNs, incident response, intrusion detection and prevention, etc. To introduce the concept of digital forensics and its various techniques. Crucial issues from industrial espionage, sabotage, IoT security to cyber bullying. Learn some of the basic cryptographic protocols, computer attacks and counter measures.
SS-735 Media and National Security
This course analyzes how governments formulate and implement their national security policies by examining the various factors that comprise its strategic decision making, and what role the media plays in this process. In recent history, the mass media has been more persuasive in both influencing the public as well as decision-makers. However, the relationship between the media and security institutions is by nature of tension, due to their differing institutional cultures and goals. Nevertheless, the media and security sector are mutually dependent and must cooperate to educate the public and hold government accountable for its security policy. Therefore, national security and media go hand in hand when formulating and implementing national security policies. This impels us to analyze how and why the mass media is being used for national security goals. While the media have a vital role to play in monitoring security institutions and helping citizens make informed decisions regarding the security sector journalists often encounter numerous obstacles and challenges in reporting on the security sector and performing their watchdog function. Governments may restrict access to information or seek to co-opt journalists, while the media may risk internalizing official perspectives on perceived threats to national security.
SS-736 Politics of Space
The course aims to provide the understanding about space and its politics. To provide the knowledge about civilian, commercial, and military use of outer space. To help student in getting knowledge about the militarization and weaponization of outer space. To provide the students understanding about the reluctance of states to negotiate global treaty or arrangement to prevent monopoly of the few. To provide the knowledge about space law and space arms control regimes. To provide the understanding of the new form of warfare and the need to take collective measures to deal with this new threat. To help students to understand the space policies of spacefaring states.
SS-741 Research Methodology
The purpose of this course is to equip the students with advance practice of research in Strategic Studies. It would develop the skills to review the literature and also help the students in data collection, analyzing and evaluating research. This course would enable MPhil scholars to apply qualitative and quantitative methods in their area of work. Research methods and various instruments of gathering qualitative/quantitative data in systematic, scientific and ethical ways will be discussed. In addition, the student will be guided for tools of data collection, data analysis and data interpretation. Software for qualitative/quantitative data analysis and generating references will be briefly discussed.
SS-799 MS Thesis
Students have to opt for thesis after successfully completing one year of Couse Work comprising of 24 credit hours. Students can select a topic of his/her choice and write a valid thesis.