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77770-01 - Seminar: Nuclear Politics (3 KP)
| Semester | Frühjahrsemester 2026 |
| Angebotsmuster | unregelmässig |
| Dozierende | Marzhan Nurzhan (marzhan.nurzhan@unibas.ch, BeurteilerIn) |
| Inhalt | This interactive seminar course is aimed at advanced BA students to gain and build on an introductory level of understanding of nuclear politics. As a point of departure, this seminar considers the interplay of the Global South and Global North power relations in shaping nuclear weapons politics and knowledge(s). In doing so, it expands beyond traditional security literature and also engages with peace research and critical security studies. It connects nuclear weapons scholarship with area studies, focusing on the role of extended nuclear deterrence in the European security architecture and the post-Soviet space environment. Besides, the international and regional context of nuclear politics, the choices for national security and nuclear strategy (grounded in deterrence or disarmament) of European democratic states and the former Soviet states, are to be explored and compared. The course is structured in three parts. Firstly, the role and place of nuclear weapons are situated within an international context of foreign and security policy. Secondly, the politics of nuclear arms are examined from the perspective of a regional (dis)unity: states entering or exiting nuclear-sharing arrangements (the NATO alliance in European security and the CIS/CSTO in the post-Soviet space). Thirdly, nuclear politics are approached from the national contexts, investigating choices of states in favour of or against nuclear arms. Guided by creative teaching methods, the following questions, amongst others, will be addressed: Why do states pursue or forgo nuclear weapons? How and at what costs are nuclear arms governed, built and developed? In what ways are nuclear arms connected with foreign and security policy? Who gets to shape the global nuclear (dis)order? Why does it matter whose nuclear knowledge(s) in the form of policy ideas, research and scholarship are included or excluded in the process of (re)shaping that order? What roles do think tanks, civil society, international organisations and the military-industrial complex play in challenging or sustaining the nuclear order? What are the current nuclear policy debates and discourses beyond the headlines and rhetoric by world leaders? How do the politics of nuclear weapons differ nationally, regionally (NATO in Europe) and historically (post-Soviet context)? |
| Lernziele | -Understanding the basics of politics around nuclear weapons governance, ranging from the state to human security approaches, while considering international, regional and national contexts -Exploring the roles of states and other actors (think tanks, civil society, IOs, the military-industrial complex) in (re)shaping and contesting knowledge(s), rules, norms, agreements to sustain or resist global nuclear (dis)order: (non)proliferation and (dis)armament regimes -Getting familiar with the key political, historical, and socio-cultural legacies of nuclear weapons use, testing and development from the Global North-South perspectives -Applying critical thinking to articulate arguments towards nuclear policy analysis and research, including from interdisciplinary feminist, post/decolonial lenses -Engaging in contemporary scholarly debates and discourses around nuclear weapons policy and research, taking into account contextual awareness, power relations/imbalances and agency of stakeholders |
| Literatur | Braut-Hegghammer, M. (2019). Proliferating Bias? American Political Science, Nuclear Weapons, and Global Security, Journal of Global Security Studies, Volume 4, Issue 3, Pages 384–392. Budjeryn, M. (2022). Inheriting the Bomb: The Collapse of the USSR and the Nuclear Disarmament of Ukraine. Johns Hopkins University Press. Craig, C., & Ruzicka, J. (2013). The Nonproliferation Complex. Ethics & International Affairs, 27(3), 329–348. Egeland, K. (2021). A theory of nuclear disarmament: Cases, analogies, and the role of the non-proliferation regime. Contemporary Security Policy, 43(1), 106–133. Egeland, K., & Pelopidas, B. (2022). No such thing as a free donation? Research funding and conflicts of interest in nuclear weapons policy analysis. International Relations, 39(1), 125-147. Choi, S., Eschle, C. (2022). Rethinking global nuclear politics, rethinking feminism, International Affairs, Volume 98, Issue 4, Pages 1129–1147. Jacobs, R. (2013). “Nuclear Conquistadors: Military Colonialism in Nuclear Test Site Selection during the Cold War,” Asian Journal of Peacebuilding 1, no. 2. Jasper, U. (2012). The Ambivalent Neutral: Rereading Switzerland’s Nuclear History. The Nonproliferation Review, 19(2), 267–292. Kassenova, T. (2022). Atomic Steppe: How Kazakhstan Gave Up the Bomb. Stanford University Press. Pelopidas, B. (2016). Nuclear Weapons Scholarship as a Case of Self-Censorship in Security Studies, Journal of Global Security Studies, Volume 1, Issue 4, Pages 326–336. Sauer, T. (2016). U.S. tactical nuclear weapons: A European perspective. Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 66(5), 65-75. Sagan, S. D. (1996). Why Do States Build Nuclear Weapons?: Three Models in Search of a Bomb. International Security, 21(3), 54–86. SIPRI Yearbook 2025. Chapter on world nuclear forces. van Buuren, S. (2025). The Arsenal and the Ballot Box: Scoping the Incompatibility of Nuclear Weapons and Democracy. Perspectives on Politics, 1–18. |
| Bemerkungen | All seminars in Political Science are graded. The grading scale ranges from 6.0 to 1.0, with 4.0 being a passing grade. For quality assurance reasons, the number of participants is limited. In the case of over-enrolment, students of Political Science have priority. Selection is based on the date of registration. |
| Teilnahmevoraussetzungen | All seminars in Political Science are graded. The grading scale ranges from 6.0 to 1.0, with 4.0 being a passing grade. For quality assurance reasons, the number of participants is limited. In the case of over-enrolment, students of Political Science have priority. Selection is based on the date of registration. |
| Unterrichtssprache | Englisch |
| Einsatz digitaler Medien | kein spezifischer Einsatz |
| Intervall | Wochentag | Zeit | Raum |
|---|---|---|---|
| wöchentlich | Mittwoch | 14.15-15.45 | Bernoullistrasse 14/16, Seminarraum 02.004 |
Einzeltermine
| Module |
Modul: Erweiterung Gesellschaftswissenschaften B.A. (Bachelor Studienfach: Politikwissenschaft) Modul: Regionaler Fokus B.A. (Bachelor Studienfach: Politikwissenschaft) Modul: Vertiefung Politikwissenschaft B.A. (Bachelor Studienfach: Politikwissenschaft) |
| Prüfung | Lehrveranst.-begleitend |
| Hinweise zur Prüfung | Regular course attendance, active contribution to the discussions in class, individual or group project presentation and a short reflection paper. Grading scale 6.0 to 1.0, whereupon 4.0 is a pass. |
| An-/Abmeldung zur Prüfung | Anmelden: Belegen; Abmelden: nicht erforderlich |
| Wiederholungsprüfung | keine Wiederholungsprüfung |
| Skala | 1-6 0,5 |
| Belegen bei Nichtbestehen | beliebig wiederholbar |
| Zuständige Fakultät | Philosophisch-Historische Fakultät, studadmin-philhist@unibas.ch |
| Anbietende Organisationseinheit | Fachbereich Politikwissenschaft |