Institute for International Relations and Strategic Research
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Security Studies Master's Program (English)

Application

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Aim and Scope

Security perceptions, threats and problems of today's societies are highly complex and diversified. Security threats are not limited to military threats, but have targeted all areas and segments of society. By evolving the concept of security, many types of warfare and security problems have arisen that should be the subject of security studies such as hybrid warfare, asymmetric warfare, proxy war, economic warfare, currency wars, or commercial, biological, and cyber warfare.

In this context, contemporary security studies do not limit security to military security and capacity that only involve hot conflict, but it shows a more inclusive and holistic development. Therefore, demography, migration, environment, economy, finance, health, food, cyber life, energy etc. are used to maximize the safety outcomes of societies. It is essential to address such fields with an interdisciplinary approach and in the context of security studies.

This master's program with thesis, designed within the framework of contemporary security concept, will provide students with the theoretical and practical skills and background that the public and private sector will need at the international level. The program is designed to contribute to the development of students' careers and provide them with the equipment to enable them to serve the security of the country and the world better. The program's mission is to train new generation analysts, academics, decision makers, consultants, and practitioners for the security challenges which societies and governments in today's international environment face with.

The Master's Program in Security Studies is considered as an interdisciplinary master program that interacts with branches of science such as political science, international relations, economics, business, engineering, sociology, history and public health. The program will address security issues with a holistic and interdisciplinary approach. Especially focusing on Turkey's neighboring countries, it is expected that the master's degree program including security issues’ economic, historical, political, military, foreign polical, cultural and health dimensions.

The methodology of the proposed program is different from the existing similar programs. With this interdisciplinary approach, students will be provided with data, evidence, findings and analysis-oriented technical equipment such as statistical / numerical methods, impact analysis / economic evaluation, social network analysis, game theories, decision techniques, geographic information systems (GIS) and artificial intelligence. Thanks to this difference, students will be able to approach national and global security problems with a stronger analytical approach, and have the ability to use rich tools and methods for both analysis and presentation in their studies.

Security Studies Master Program with Thesis

COURSE CODE

SEMESTER

COURSE NAME

CREDIT

ECTS

TYPE

SES 501

FALL

Introduction to Security Studies

3

20

Required

SES 503

FALL

Scientific Research Methods and Ethics in Security Studies

3

20

Required

SES 505

FALL

Emerging Threats in European Security

3

10

Elective

SES 507

FALL

Economics of Defense and Security

3

15

Elective

SES 509

FALL

Maritime Security of Turkey and International Law of the Sea

3

10

Elective

SES 511

FALL

Ethnic Conflict and Civil War

3

10

Elective

SES 513

FALL

Social Network Analysis in Security Studies

3

15

Elective

SES 515

FALL

Economic Approaches to Global Security

3

10

Elective

SES 517

FALL

Organization Theories in Security Studies

3

10

Elective

SES 519

FALL

Systems Engineering in Security Studies

3

10

Elective

SES 521

FALL

Soft Power and Future of Security

3

10

Elective

SES 525

FALL

Humanitarian Action and International Security

3

10

Elective

IRI 501

FALL-SPRING

Specialty Field Course

 

8

Required

IRI 503

FALL-SPRING

Seminar

 

10

Required

 

SES 502

SPRING

Statistics and Quantitative Methods in Security Studies

3

20

Required

SES 504

SPRING

Energy and Environmental Security

3

15

Elective

SES 506

SPRING

Impact Assessment and Policy Analysis in Security Studies

3

15

Elective

SES 508

SPRING

Conflict and Security in the Middle East

3

10

Elective

SES 510

SPRING

International Security

3

10

Elective

SES 512

SPRING

Intelligence Disciplines and Defence Technologies

3

10

Elective

SES 514

SPRING

Political Violence

3

10

Elective

SES 516

SPRING

Contemporary Security Challenges and Turkey

3

10

Elective

SES 518

SPRING

Selected Topics in Security Studies: Health, Food, and Cyberspace

3

10

Elective

SES 520

SPRING

Games and Strategies in Security Studies

3

10

Elective

SES 522

SPRING

Artificial Intelligence and Security

3

10

Elective

SES 524

SPRING

Systems Analysis and Design in Security Studies

3

10

Elective

SES 526

SPRING

American Foreign Policy and Global Security

3

10

Elective

SES 532

SPRING

Asia and Indo-Pacific Security and Strategy

       2

10

Elective

SES 534

SPRING

Sustainable Food Security

3

10

Elective

IRI 506

FALL-SPRING

Thesis

 

30

Required

 

Compulsory and Elective Courses to be Taken with the Total Number of Credits Required to Obtain a Master's Degree

In order to successfully complete the Security Studies program, a minimum of 120 ECTS must be successfully completed, taking nine (9) courses in total (three compulsory and one seminar course). In addition, all students must enroll in a specialty course until they graduate. In addition to the specialization course, students who are at the thesis phase must register to the thesis work course.

COURSES

 

FALL SEMESTER

SES 501 – Introduction to Security Studies- 20 ECTS

In this course, the major theories in international security studies will be discussed critically, from realism to post-modern approaches. In the course, basic security concepts and theories will be explained and students will be provided with analytical and critical thinking skills on security issues.

SES 503 – Scientific Research Methods and Ethics in Security Studies- 20 ECTS

This course aims to introduce students to research methods in social sciences and to gain research ability. The course aims to equip students with topics such as philosophy of science, scientific writing, citation, scientific ethics and scientific publication preparation.

SES 505 – Emerging Threats in European Security- 10 ECTS

The aim of this course is to provide students with the ability to analyze based on a new generation of threats threatening European security. Highlights of these ongoing threats can be concluded as follows: cross-border hybrid threats, global terrorism, mass migration movements, infectious diseases, financial crises, etc.

SES 507 –Economics of Defense and Security- 15 ECTS

This course focuses on the generating and financing of defense and security services. The course analyzes the effects of natural resources distribution, interest rates, exchange rates, trade deficits, migration waves on the security of countries and regions. The course aims to help students understand the relationship between international security, trade wars and economic structure by examining the effects of economic factors on current global security theoretically and empirically.

SES 509 – Maritime Security of Turkey and International Law of the Sea- 10 ECTS

This course is an introduction to the maritime security of Turkey and international law of the sea and is intended to cover fundamentals and introduce a great number of selected topics for more advanced study. The course will focus on some important maritime security subjects and international law of the sea subjects, including today’s some of the leading issues. These selected topics include maritime security, development of the international law of the sea, legal Regime of the Turkish Straits, the security of the Turkish Straits, delamination issues regarding Turkey’s jurisdiction in the Eastern Mediterranean, maritime security of Turkey, maritime cybersecurity. These topics provide opportunities for students to analyze and synthesize the role of international law of the sea for maritime security at an advanced level.

SES 511 –Ethnic Conflict and Civil War- 10 ECTS

After the cold war, the number of interstate wars decreased dramatically, while the number of civil wars and ethnic conflicts increased. Such wars can be quite difficult to solve depending on the number of actors involved, and offer difficult options for post-war reconstruction, justice and peace. This course will deal with ethnic conflict and civil wars in different aspects and in the light of different cases.

SES 513 – Social Network Analysis in Security Studies- 15 ECTS

Within the scope of this proposed course, it is aimed that the students have a theoretical background regarding the basic assumptions of social network analysis on security issues and learn the basic application areas of theoretical framework through programs. The course focuses on the analysis of interactions between decision-making units and actors in terms of frequency, distance, weakness / strength.

SES 515 – Economic Approaches to Global Security- 10 ECTS

This course aims to integrate economics as a science into security discourse and to consider it as a determining factor in security studies. In addition, it aims to provide the students with the ability to apply mathematical economic models in solving certain problems that can be associated with concepts such as security, conflict and threat.

SES 517 – Organization Theories in Security Studies -  10 ECTS

This course aims to enable students to define the concepts of organization and theory and to summarize the development process of organizations in the field of security, the reasons for the existence of organizations and the development of the organization research area, and to learn different perspectives of organizations. The course deals with the organizational forms of the units that can be the subject of security studies within theoretical frameworks.

SES 519 – Systems Engineering in Security Studies -  10 ECTS

This course explains what chaos and system are. It shows the philosophical relationship and transitions between them. The system identifies the crisis and chaos processes and reveals the logical connections between them. For this reason, the course explains different system approaches.

SES 521 – Soft Power and Future of Security -  10 ECTS

SES 525 – Humanitarian Action and International Security -  10 ECTS


SPRING SEMESTER

SES 502 – Statistics and Quantitative Methods in Security Studies- 20 ECTS

This course aims to help students who specialize in security studies by making use of statistics and quantitative methods, to predispose to express their security issues in digitized ways. Throughout the course, topics such as creating research questions, developing hypothesis, choosing methodology, collecting data, data management, data analysis, inference, quoting, referencing techniques, ethics in research are explained in a theoretical and practical way. Data sets and examples to be used in the lesson will cover more security issues.

SES 504 – Energy and Environmental Security- 15 ECTS

The distribution of energy resources and transfer routes are one of the areas that have important effects on global security. This course aims to teach students the relationship between energy and environmental issues in the current global system through their effects on the international security system.

SES 506 – Impact Assessment and Policy Analysis in Security Studies - 15 ECTS

This course includes systematic comparison approaches to identify the most valuable uses of scarce resources. It will enable students to assess the potential and predicted impacts of a policy or project in policymakers and decision makers in the field of security, and to acquire the knowledge and skills to which extent relevant decisions meet / can meet the objectives. Thus, actors, processes and possible results can be evaluated together.

SES 508 – Conflict and Security in the Middle East- 10 ECTS

The aim of this course is to make students aware of major conflicts and security issues in the Middle East. Within the scope of the course, the background, current situation, the positions of the parties and the discussions in the literature will be discussed.

SES 510 – International Security - 10 ECTS

This course aims to enable students to grasp and discuss current issues in international security literature and practice. The course addresses international security issues around historical and current case studies.

SES 512 – Intelligence Disciplines and Defence Technologies - 10 AKTS

This course aims to enable students to learn and follow new technological developments in defense and intelligence technologies. The course deals with intelligence and defense technologies around historical and current case studies.

SES 514 – Political Violence - 10 ECTS

This course examines the different reflections and types of what we call political violence. The course discusses whether terrorism is the only form of 'political' violence and whether we should update what we understand from 'political'.

SES 516 – Contemporary Security Challenges and Turkey- 10 ECTS

Turkey must overcome serious safety problems due to its geopolitical position. This course is designed to discuss and show the reflections of Turkey’s contemporary security issues.

SES 518 – Selected Topics in Security Studies: Health, Food, and Cyberspace - 10 ECTS

This course deals with security studies around health, food and cyberspace. Life safety is ultimately about health and quality of life. Food and information security is also an important part of quality life. In this context, the course addresses security issues in health, food and cyberspace within the framework of selected issues.

SES 520 – Games and Strategies in Security Studies - 10 ECTS

Game theory is about analyzing strategic situations that are defined as situations of interdependence among rational agents. Game theory can be applied to many real-world cases, such as interstate conflicts, resolution of trade disputes, and efforts to prevent climate change. Throughout this course, game theory will be linked to strategic situations in the real world. Thus, connections between abstract game theory and international political economy, international public policy and international security practices will be established.

SES 522 – Artificial Intelligence and Security - 10 ECTS

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an important subject of national and international political debates today as it is the main driving force of changes in economy, society and the state. Besides the effects of artificial intelligence on foreign policy and defense, the effects on internal security cannot be ignored. In particular, AI-based applications contain the expected risks of conflict and even war, caused by competition on AI technology and the resulting power changes, the regulation and governance of AI, and changes in the activities of the intelligence services. This lesson plan includes theoretical and applied materials on artificial intelligence, national and international security policies.

SES 524 - Systems Analysis and Design in Security Studies – 10 ECTS

The system tells the analysis of crisis and chaos processes by using different methods. It investigates the relations of the system with other systems and evaluates whether a system studied is a system of systems. It uses various approaches and methods for these evaluations. It shows how an existing system can be repaired and improved. Although a new system will be installed, it tells how to install it step by step from the foundation.

SES 526 - American Foreign Policy and Global Security - 10 ECTS

The objective of this course is to introduce the main factors, debates and actors in American Foreign Policy. Questions we will analyze include: What are the origins of the American Foreign Policy? What is the role of American Foreign Policy in international crises? What is the role of the international community in preventing crises from escalating to war? What are the relationships of American Foreign Policies and international organizations such as UN, NATO, EU, OSCE in maintaining world peace and managing complex relations among states?

SES 532 - Asia an Indo-Pacific Security and Strategy - 10 ECTS

SES 534 - Sustainable Food Security - 10 ECTS