MSc Crisis and Security Management

Study an MSc in Crisis and Security Management at Leiden University

Security ranks high on both the societal as well as political agenda. The threat of terrorism, transnational organized crime, civil war, urban riots or natural disasters is making headlines almost every day and is a guarantee for political turmoil.

Although from a factual perspective the risk of high-end security incidents is in most Western countries low, the risk perception is far more higher. When it comes to security and crisis, risk perception seems to be as important as actual risk assessments.

During the 1-year multi-disciplinary master program in security management, students will become familiar with the political and social dimensions of the governance of security and crises. By analyzing security discourses, security actors, security practices and security outcomes, students will become acquainted with the ‘wicked problem’ of security and crises topics in a complex and globalizing world.

As security is no longer a public good solely provided by state actors or public actors but the combined outcome of public actors, private security actors, civil society and citizens as well, the master program will focus on the multiplicity of actors engaged in defining and practicing security.

Further, as a result of the globalized and interwoven world of today in which incidents, images and messages travel within seconds from one part of the world to another part of the world, students will study current security and crisis challenges from a ‘glocal’ perspective: both global and local levels and especially the nexus of those levels.

In the master’s program students will be confronted with the insights of various academic disciplines and a combination of theory and practice and skills relevant for a professional career in public or private security and crisis organizations. Students will become familiar with the causes of different forms of crises and threats to security, with patterns of responses and governance of these phenomena, and policies and strategies to prevent threats, incidents or crises. The Master thesis project provides students the opportunity to specifically focus on one particular type of crisis or security issue and how certain actors deal with it.