The Political Economy of Military Innovation

What it is about

The module examines how political and economic structures shape the development and institutionalization of military technologies. You will learn to understand innovation as a contested process — mediated through ideas, capital, and institutions — and work with concrete data and methods to develop independent, empirically grounded research questions on military innovation.

What you will be able to do

• Describe coherent theories, debates, and findings on the political economy of technological change
• Critically evaluate theoretical arguments and apply them to real-world questions
• Demonstrate familiarity with selected quantitative methods
• Design and conduct an independent empirical research project

What the module consists of

• Seminarprovides foundations, discusses literature, and links theory with research practice; includes presentations and the drafting of a final paper

Teaching method

• Einführende Vorlesungenpresent analytical foundations, concepts, and debates
• Interaktive Übungen (z. B. Think‑Pair‑Share, Reflection, kurze Umfragen)enable active understanding checks and exchange
• Forschungspraktische Einheitenintroduce data sources and empirical methods and demonstrate application to concrete questions