This course provides students with the foundational concepts to understand and analyze the contemporary security environment. While news reports are replete with information on the growth of the Chinese economy, the various endogenous and exogenous challenges to European security, or the development of new military technologies, there is a need to better understand the dynamics underpinning those issues. Therefore, this class will focus on traditional issues in security studies such as power, deterrence, arms control or alliances, and more recent issues such as human security and environmental change. The class will systematically combine conceptual analysis with contemporary empirical examples of the dynamics described, in order for students to develop their analytical skills.