PIM70-Strategic Practice

Module Provider: Graduate Institute for Politics and Internat Studs
Number of credits: 20 [10 ECTS credits]
Level:7
Terms in which taught:
Pre-requisites:
Non-modular pre-requisites:
Co-requisites:
Modules excluded:
Module version for: 2017/8

Module Convenor: Prof Beatrice Heuser

Email: d.b.g.heuser@reading.ac.uk

Summary module description:

Aims:

• To give a background of the wars and how strategy has been applied in warfare throughout recorded history (especially in the West for earlier periods.
• To enable students to comprehend the roles that the use of force has played
• To introduce students to strategic studies, which is to say to analysis of the threat and use of force in politics, international and domestic
• To provide students with the intellectual tools to make sense of strategic issues, old and new
• To help students think holistically about the world, with the focus on strategic matters being tempered as necessary by political, ethical, cultural, and economic considerations
• To open the doors to a number of career paths in public and private employment, for students from all national backgrounds, that possibly they would not have considered otherwise
• To give a career boost to students who are already in, or are committed to beginning, careers with a strategic dimension

Assessable learning outcomes:

• To achieve familiarity with the strategies pursued in the main wars of European and later world history
• To achieve easy familiarity with the major events and trends in strategic history
• To achieve mastery of the key ideas and theories used in strategic analysis and debate
• To develop a coherent critical approach to strategic questions, taking due account of political, ethical, and other relevant factors
• To be able to tackle new strategic topics, using the intellectual material mastered, and reach balanced critical judgements on them

Additional outcomes:

• Achievement of career-widening skills
• Introduction to new career possibilities

Outline content:

• Was there strategy in the Middle Ages?
• Early Modern Strategies
• Strategies in the C18
• Napoleon’s “système de guerre”

• C19 strategies
• Strategies of the Cold War
• Nuclear Strategy
• Strategy since 1991

Brief description of teaching and learning methods:
The course is taught by two-hour seminars. The seminars will comprise structured discussions around presentations by the course convenor and by students.
Students are expected to read extensively, and preferably widely (not only the convenor's works!).

Contact hours:

	Autumn	Spring	Summer
Seminars	20
Guided independent study	100		80
Total hours by term	120.00		80.00
Total hours for module	200.00

Summative Assessment Methods:

Method	Percentage
Written exam	50
Written assignment including essay	50

Other information on summative assessment:
1 summative essays of 3,000 words including footnotes and references but excluding the bibliography

Formative assessment methods:
Students giving presentations will receive feedback from the module convenor and via seminar discussion. The seminar discussions provide important opportunities for students to test their views and receive tutor and peer feedback. Students are encouraged to take advantage of the module convenor’s office hours to request further one-to-one feedback on their presentations, seminar contributions, and essay plans.

Penalties for late submission:

Penalties for late submission on this module are in accordance with the University policy. Please refer to page 5 of the Postgraduate Guide to Assessment for further information: http://www.reading.ac.uk/internal/exams/student/exa-guidePG.aspx
Penalties for late submission on this module are in accordance with the University policy. Please refer to page 5 of the Postgraduate Guide to Assessment for further information: http://www.reading.ac.uk/internal/exams/student/exa-guidePG.aspx

Length of examination:
2 Hours

Requirements for a pass:
50% overall module mark

Reassessment arrangements:
Reassessment is by the original assessment method. Re-sit examinations take place in August/September of the same year, or in April/May of the following year.

Additional Costs (specified where applicable):
1) Required text books: Heuser, Beatrice: The Evolution of Strategy: Thinking War from Antiquity to the Present (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010) – paperback - £ 22.99

And for students without historical background:
Hartmann, Anja &Beatrice Heuser (eds): War, Peace, and world orders in European History (London: Routledge, 2001) £ 36.99

2) Specialist equipment or materials:
3) Specialist clothing, footwear or headgear:
4) Printing and binding:
5) Computers and devices with a particular specification:
6) Travel, accommodation and subsistence:

Last updated: 31 March 2017