Politics, Security and Crisis – two-year master’s programme

This course leads to a Master’s Degree in Political Science with focus on Crisis Management and Security; a degree course which is the only one of its kind available in Sweden. Students who so choose may complete the programme in one year to receive a one-year master’s degree . All tuition is given in English.

The programme also gives you the opportunity to take part in international student exchanges at highly reputed universities in Europe via the Erasmus programme, and you will also be able to enter the internship programme which provides relevant practical experience at public agencies, international organisations and private sector security companies.

Of all the academic institutions in Sweden, the Swedish Defence University (SEDU) is the only one that offers the master’s programme Politics, Security and Crisis. Our students move on to careers in relevant fields in public agencies and government departments, such as ministries for foreign affairs, defense research agencies, and agencies and organisations involved in civil contingencies work. Other potential employers are organisations involved in total defence, local crisis and risk organisations, and national and international organisations such as the EU, UN and various international aid organisations. In addition to jobs as analysts there are also opportunities in civil contingency planning and protection at the local, regional and national levels. For graduates who are Swedish citizens there are also openings for a civilian career in the Swedish Armed Forces.

Completion of the programme also makes you eligible for a number of research programmes, for example in the fields of political science, peace and conflict research, war studies and international relations.

Thanks to its focus on security policy and crisis management, the master’s programme gives you a rare educational grounding. The course will give you deeper knowledge and understanding of how security and insecurity situations arise, and a broader perspective on crisis and crisis management. The emphasis lies on international security issues, but you will also study crises in a societal perspective and learn more about the increasingly transnational character of contemporary security challenges. Thus, this programme gives you a very broad, but also deep, understanding of how society conceives and shapes its security policies and how it is able to handle contemporary and future crises.

The programme will also give you rigorous training in scientific methods designed to promote advanced analytical skills. A semester devoted to practical training in the form of an internship also forms an integral part of the programme. In other words, the programme will give you not only theoretical and case-based knowledge of security, risk, and crisis management but also the relevant vocational skills.

At the Swedish Defence University students have access to Sweden’s foremost experts on security issues; lecturers and researchers who are not only foremost in their field, but who frequently act as consultants to the media. Research conducted in the field of political science covers a broad spectrum of subjects including crisis management, security and political psychology.

Politics, Security and Crisis (15 credits)

Designing and Doing Research, Political Science (15 credits)

During your first semester you will attend an introductory course to political science which focuses on security and crisis, followed by a course in scientific methods. The course will give you basic knowledge of political science with focus on crisis management, while the course in methodology provides you with tools for analysing and understanding policy, security policy and crisis management in a scientific framework.

Elective courses (30 credits)

Examples of elective courses:

• Civil-Military Relations, reading course (7,5 credits)
  
• Proxy Wars, Interventions and Covert Operations (7.5 credits)
• Gender, Security and War (7.5 credits)
  
• War and Society (7,5 credits)
  
• When war comes to the city: Urban wars and urban warfare (7,5 credits)
  
• Masters Thesis, Political Science (15 credits)
  
• Political Psychology and Crisis Management (7,5 credis)
• Public Policy Analysis, reading course (7,5 credits)
• European Security and Crisis Management ( 7,5 credits)
• From Diplomacy to Deception: Influence through Strategic Narratives (7,5 credits)
• Environment, Risk and Security: Life in the Anthropocene (7,5 credits)
• Political communication: Information influence as a security problem, reading course (7,5 credits)
• Secret Intelligence (7,5 credits)
• Connectivity and Combat - War, the Media and the Contemporary Information Ecology (7,5 credits)
• NATO-Organization, Community, Actor (7,5 credits)
• Defence Strategies of the Nordic Countries (7,5 credits)
• The Russo – Ukraine war: multidisciplinary perspectives (7,5 credits)
• Great Power Politics in Tumultuous Times (7.5 credits)
• War’s Silent Legacy: Managing the Remnants of War (7.5 credits)
• War, Peace, and the International Order (7.5 credits)
• Militarism and Militarisation in the Study of War: Conceptual Debates (7.5 credits)

The range of elective courses will be determined on an annual basis.

During your second semester you will be able to read four elective modules. You decide for yourself if you wish to delve deeper into a specific area by following the suggested thematic tracks, or if you would prefer to take courses with a broader span. The elective courses offer a broad spectrum of subject matter. For example, you could choose in-depth studies of various types of crisis management, global threats and security policy or opt for modules in War Studies, which focus on warfare, strategy or defence and defence policy. In other words, the master programme offers both breadth and in-depth knowledge based on the latest findings.

Master's Thesis, Political Science (30 credits)

The third semester is reserved for work on your master’s thesis. A master’s thesis gives you the opportunity to conduct an in-depth study of the issues that interest you most and to put your proficiency in scientific methods to the test.

Internship, Political Science (30 credits)

or Elective courses (30 credits)

Examples of elective courses:

• Civil-Military Relations, reading course (7,5 credits)
  
• Proxy Wars, Interventions and Covert Operations (7.5 credits)
• Gender, Security and War (7.5 credits)
  
• War and Society (7,5 credits)
  
• When war comes to the city: Urban wars and urban warfare (7,5 credits)
  
• Masters Thesis, Political Science (15 credits)
  
• Political Psychology and Crisis Management (7,5 credis)
• Public Policy Analysis, reading course (7,5 credits)
• European Security and Crisis Management ( 7,5 credits)
• From Diplomacy to Deception: Influence through Strategic Narratives (7,5 credits)
• Environment, Risk and Security: Life in the Anthropocene (7,5 credits)
• Political communication: Information influence as a security problem, reading course (7,5 credits)
• Secret Intelligence (7,5 credits)
• Connectivity and Combat - War, the Media and the Contemporary Information Ecology (7,5 credits)
• NATO-Organization, Community, Actor (7,5 credits)
• Defence Strategies of the Nordic Countries (7,5 credits)
• The Russo – Ukraine war: multidisciplinary perspectives (7,5 credits)
• Great Power Politics in Tumultuous Times (7.5 credits)
• War’s Silent Legacy: Managing the Remnants of War (7.5 credits)
• War, Peace, and the International Order (7.5 credits)
• Militarism and Militarisation in the Study of War: Conceptual Debates (7.5 credits)

The range of elective courses will be determined on an annual basis.

For the fourth semester you are free to decide whether you wish to apply for an internship or if you prefer to take additional elective courses. In other words, you can choose to engage in in-depth, empirical and theoretical studies or to focus more directly on practical situations in a work environment.