Euroatlantic Community and Strategic Culture - JPM570

• Title: Euroatlantic Community and Strategic Culture
• Guaranteed by: Department of Security Studies (23-KBS)
• Faculty: Faculty of Social Sciences
• Actual: from 2016
• Semester: winter
• E-Credits: 6
• Examination process: winter s.:
• Hours per week, examination: winter s.:1/1, Ex [HT]
• Capacity: unknown / unknown (25)
• Min. number of students: unlimited
• 4EU+: no
• Virtual mobility / capacity: no
• State of the course: not taught
• Language: English
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Teaching methods: full-time
• Note: course can be enrolled in outside the study plan; enabled for web enrollment; priority enrollment if the course is part of the study plan
• Guarantor: PhDr. JUDr. Tomáš Karásek, Ph.D.
• Incompatibility : JPM175
• Is incompatible with: JPM175

Annotation

Last update: PhDr. JUDr. Tomáš Karásek, Ph.D. (23.09.2013)

The course examines recent developments in the security and defence policy of the Euro-Atlantic community. It focuses on the issue of counterinsurgency as one of the approaches to crisis management. This issue is explained in the context of strategic culture as an overarching concept for understanding societal and ideational impulses shaping decision-making with military implications.

Aim of the course

Last update: PhDr. JUDr. Tomáš Karásek, Ph.D. (23.09.2013)

Recent military interventions by the U.S. and its Allies in Afghanistan have brought to the forefront the issue of insurgency and counterinsurgency. This course attempts to answer the question whether the decision to apply the methods of counterinsurgency (COIN) in both cases amounts to a paradigmatic shift in the strategic culture of the members of the Euro-Atlantic community. Its focus is not so much on what the Allies have been doing in Afghanistan and/or Iraq, but rather why they have been doing it and what the implications of their actions are for their security and defense policies as members, and as a community.

The course focuses on three major topics. Firstly, it outlines and explains the concept of strategic culture - its theoretical foundations, evolution and application to specific cases. Secondly, it deals with the practice of expeditionary warfare since the end of Cold War, especially in the Euro-Atlantic context. Finally, it examines the concept of counterinsurgency, its evolution and application in contemporary operations of Euro-Atlantic allies. The case of counterinsurgency will be used to present the ‘ultimate’ form of contemporary expeditionary warfare waged by NATO member countries, and demonstrate its impact on strategic culture(s) of the states involved.

Literature

Last update: PhDr. JUDr. Tomáš Karásek, Ph.D. (23.09.2013)

Please see the syllabus.

Teaching methods

Last update: PhDr. JUDr. Tomáš Karásek, Ph.D. (23.09.2013)

The course will rely on extensive reading of suggested literature (available online or in SIS) by participating students. Lectures are conceived as an interactive dialogue between the tutor and the students, structured by the discussion topics listed below. In lesson G, a panel presentation and discussion on the development of transatlantic strategic culture will be held.

Requirements to the exam

Last update: PhDr. JUDr. Tomáš Karásek, Ph.D. (13.01.2015)

CREDIT REQUIREMENTS:

• active participation in class discussions (20 points)
  • based on required reading materials  - available either in SIS or in Charles University online databases (JSTOR, EBSCO)
• participation in a panel discussion - lesson G (30 points)
  • group presentation on a selected topic
  • participation in subsequent discussion on the development of transatlantic cooperation in expeditionary warfare since the end of Cold War
• final paper (to be presented no later than January 30, 2015) (50 points)
  • 3000 words
  • based on the topics discussed throughout the course
  • consulted with the tutor prior to writing
  • students who miss the deadline will not be allowed to pass the course!!!
  • note on plagiarism:
    • presenting a paper which does which uses sources without making a proper reference to them will lead to an expulsion of a student from the course
    • same procedure will be applied if a student presents a paper which he or she already presented in another course

 

GRADING:

• 100 - 90 points                 ...            excellent
• 89 - 70 points                   ...            very good
• 69 - 55 points                   ...            good
• 54 points and less           ...            fail

Syllabus

Last update: PhDr. JUDr. Tomáš Karásek, Ph.D. (26.09.2015)

Introductory lesson (1.10.)

 

Lesson A/ Transatlantic security consensus: reality or mirage? (8.10.)

Lesson B/ Strategic culture: an evolution of the concept (15.10.)

Lesson C/ U.S. strategic culture: current developments and their determinants (22.10.)

Lesson D/ Strategic cultures in Europe (Britain, France, Germany, Poland) (29.10.)

Lesson E/ EU and defence: towards a European strategic culture? (5.11.)

Lesson F/ Peacekeeping, stabilization operations, expeditionary warfare etc.: mapping the conceptual boundaries of expeditionary warfare (12.11.)

Lesson G/ Out-of-area conflict management in transatlantic strategic culture post-Cold War (panel discussion) (19.11.)

Lesson H/ From Galula to Petraeus: the evolution of the concept of counterinsurgency (3.12.)

Lesson I/ Case-study I: U.S. counterinsurgency strategy in Iraq (10.12.)

Lesson J/ Case-study II: NATO and counterinsurgency in Afghanistan (17.12.)