Cyber Security and the Digital World
Course code
RIR7603.YK
old course code
Course title in Estonian
Küberjulgeolek ja digitaalmaailm
Course title in English
Cyber Security and the Digital World
ECTS credits
6.0
Assessment form
Examination
lecturer of 2025/2026 Spring semester
Toni Cerkez (language of instruction:English)
lecturer of 2026/2027 Autumn semester
Not opened for teaching. Click the study programme link below to see the nominal division schedule.
Course aims
The aim of this course is to take a deeper look at the digital and the cyber and think about what they mean for International relations. Some questions that we will ask concern the security consequences of these processes. Others ask about how digital technologies reshape politics, war, subjectivity and norms? How do they affect the conduct of world politics but also of life more generally? And, crucially, what about power?
Brief description of the course
The digital and the cyber are two spheres that are central to modern life. The digital suggests that life is composed of the binary code (0 and 1). The cyber suggests that the conduct of life, and consequently other processes, is moved into the digital sphere, where interconnected devices share information and execute the code. Both the digital and the cyber are cross-cutting processes. They are not ‘domains’ in the classical sense but relations that draw seemingly disparate actors and structures together and shape them according to the binary logic.
This course maps out the connections between digital technologies, media and cyber processes and International Relations. Although it is an IR course, it rehearses an interdisciplinary ethos because the digital cannot be understood only from the perspective of a single discipline. Cyber is analyzed not as an independent domain but as a shared space intertwined with much of global life. We will deal with AI, drones, classical and contemporary approaches to cybersecurity, subjectivity and techno-military complexes, visualization and surveillance, intersectional violence, and relations. Who are we when we are rendered through digital processes? What becomes of politics when we relegate it to computational thinking? Are algorithms reasonable or might they be quite mad?
NB: If you register for this course, please check the syllabus and immediately register on Moodle. This is where all the readings will be available. You are expected to do the mandatory readings for all sessions, including the first one.
This course maps out the connections between digital technologies, media and cyber processes and International Relations. Although it is an IR course, it rehearses an interdisciplinary ethos because the digital cannot be understood only from the perspective of a single discipline. Cyber is analyzed not as an independent domain but as a shared space intertwined with much of global life. We will deal with AI, drones, classical and contemporary approaches to cybersecurity, subjectivity and techno-military complexes, visualization and surveillance, intersectional violence, and relations. Who are we when we are rendered through digital processes? What becomes of politics when we relegate it to computational thinking? Are algorithms reasonable or might they be quite mad?
NB: If you register for this course, please check the syllabus and immediately register on Moodle. This is where all the readings will be available. You are expected to do the mandatory readings for all sessions, including the first one.
Learning outcomes in the course
Upon completing the course the student:
- Can read and analyze complex literature on the topic.
- Can explore contemporary understandings of digital technologies and their relationship to political processes.
- Can synthesize and develop arguments on the nature of computational thinking and how it affects the ‘social’
- Can think about technology in political and critical terms
- Can understand military processes and world politics from a new perspective
- Can think about cybersecurity and its importance for International Relations.
- Can read and analyze complex literature on the topic.
- Can explore contemporary understandings of digital technologies and their relationship to political processes.
- Can synthesize and develop arguments on the nature of computational thinking and how it affects the ‘social’
- Can think about technology in political and critical terms
- Can understand military processes and world politics from a new perspective
- Can think about cybersecurity and its importance for International Relations.
Teacher
Toni Cerkez
Study programmes containing that course