SGIA47815: Defence Diplomacy, Military Engagement, and Security Force Assistance

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• This module will introduce students to the use of military forces as tools of soft power and international influence, the key academic and policy debates surrounding this concept, and its associated practical and theoretical challenges.
• It will provide students with the advanced understanding required to critically analyse the spectrum of defence engagement activities, and to assess policy aims, approaches and outcomes from different national and conceptual perspectives.

• Indicative content may include: the relationship between defence diplomacy, defence engagement, and security (force) assistance; the politics of international training exercises; the impact of military-to-military relationship-building and exchange activities on military diffusion and civil-military relations; different national approaches to the use of military forces as a vehicle for influence, together with the origins and impact of these policies; the political impacts of arms transfers and military aid; the relationship between military, diplomatic and developmental institutions during overseas engagement activities; and the continuum between soft and hard power in international affairs.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Through this module, students will gain:
• Advanced understanding of the key policy approaches to defence diplomacy, military engagement, security (force) assistance, and associated military-to-military exchange activities, in situations ranging from routine relationship building to crisis management;
• Advanced understanding of how these strategies are shaped by a range of national and international factors, and the effect of these various considerations on programmatic outcomes, policy utility, and unintended consequences;
• Advanced understanding of the conceptual, technical, and theoretical frameworks used by states and scholars to analyse military engagement activities, and their situation in wider literatures about the role of hard and soft power in conflict prevention, conflict intervention, and post-conflict reconstruction.

Subject-specific Skills:

• During this module, students will develop subject-specific skills, such as:
• The ability to identify, analyse and evaluate differing strategic approaches to defence diplomacy, military engagement, and security (force) assistance, and their implications in context;
• To apply relevant theoretical models and policy frameworks to a range of actors, activities, national and international objectives across a variety of routine, pre- and post-conflict settings;
• To identify and evaluate the impact of cultural, political and societal context on the use of military organisations as tools of soft power and international influence promotion.

Key Skills:

• By the end of this module, students will be able to:
• Construct and synthesise cogent arguments, using a range of source material, and present ideas in appropriate written formats for academic or policy audiences;
• Demonstrate an independent approach to learning, thinking (self-)critically and creatively, and problem-solving;
• Use sophisticated techniques of information retrieval and management using an array of print and digital resources.

• The module will be delivered as a block in workshop format over a period of two full consecutive days, and will involve a mixture of lectures, short presentations, discussion and small group work, and roleplay or oral presentations based on real or constructed cases.
• Summative assessment will include a pre-workshop article review or role briefing and a workshop report, policy document or essay. The guiding questions for the essay/report are based on the themes discussed during the workshop. The article review is designed to provide students with a focused task to prepare them, through self-guided learning, for the workshops discussions as well as case study analysis.
• Assessment is intended to develop students' analytical and academic writing skills. Students will receive continuing formative feedback in seminar and group discussions. They will receive formative feedback through individual and group tasks during the taught element of the module.

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