Geopolitics have primarily been associated with theories and practices concerning international relations, wars and conflicts, focusing mostly on state sovereignty. Yet in the past two decades, new critical approaches to geopolitics have emerged; approaches focusing on the inter-relations of power, place and knowledge both on the scale of the state but also on other geographies beyond it.
Through theories and analyses of critical geopolitics, the course focuses on the multi-dimensional manifestations of geopolitical influences and relations in cities and urban spaces and aims to analyse the interrelations of power, everyday practices and representations in multiple spatial scales.
Course topics
From classical to critical geopolitics
Historical dimensions of the relationship of cities with war
Counter-insurgency: Population as operational field
Critical approaches to securitization
Geopolitical dimensions of migration
Humanitarianism and Cities
Geopolitics and political economy
Urban infrastructures as a geopolitical and military concern
Urban “vulnerability”, resilience and disaster management
Urban geopolitics in situ: Urban informality as geopolitical matter (case studies: Rio Brazil and Beirut Lebanon
Urban geopolitics in situ: Cultural heritage (case studies Sarajevo, Mostar, Belfast, Sur / Diyarbakir)
