The security challenges confronting the Asia Pacific – both states and peoples – involve more than traditional dimensions of threat and insecurity. This course introduces students to the conceptual literature on non-traditional security and explores those themes as they relate to the Asia Pacific. It begins with an overview of concepts and debates associated with non-traditional security. The second part of the course examines how these issues have been taken up within the Asia Pacific region with a particular focus on regional institutions. The third section of the course examines a series of NTS challenges in the Asia Pacific, including environmental and climate security, food security, transnational organized crime, health security, and irregular migration.

Students will be able to:

• demonstrate a sound knowledge and a critical understanding of the key themes and concepts of non-traditional security in the Asia Pacific including their relationship with debates about the nature of security within the discipline of International Relations
• apply those themes and concepts to a case study of contemporary NTS issues in the Asia Pacific
• communicate their critical understanding of global environmental politics in a clear and concise way through a series of assignments and participation in seminars and workshops

• Short essay, 1000 words, 20%
• Two reading reviews, 800 to 1000 words each, 20% each
• Long essay, 3000 words, 40%