Description
The primary goal of this seminar is to develop the capacity to evaluate existing theories on contemporary armed conflict (inter and intrastate wars). The course will be divided into two parts: covering the topic of conflict and that of cooperation. Within the part of conflict, we will cover several broad topics dealing with the definitional problems of conflict, how the grand theories look at conflict and war, the causes and consequences of conflict. In the cooperation part of the course, we will tackle questions like: how do the general international theories approach the topic of cooperation? How do state and non-state actors cooperate on economic issues, environmental issues and issues related to human rights and democracy? How does the organizational culture within large international organizations influence the behaviour of states? How do regional cooperation work? Are UN peacekeeping mission effective? All these questions will be addressed and discussed using theories and applications presented in the articles.
Course objectives
Objective 1: Students gain knowledge about the general approaches to conflict and cooperation.
Objective 2: Students can apply their knowledge to critically evaluate existing studies and theories.
Mode of instruction
Seminar format with active discussions of the readings, complemented with short introduction by the lecturer
Course Load
The total course load of 10 EC is approximately 280 hour and is spent on attending classes (around 30 hours), the required readings (120 hours), the presentation (50 hours), and the final paper (80 hours).
Assessment method
Outline (20%)
Presentation (20%)
Seminar Paper (60%)
Reading list
A list with additional journal articles (syllabus) will be available before the start of the course on Brightspace
Registration
See 'Practical Information'
NB: There are 2 groups, scheduled after one another; please choose enrollment for only 1 group.
Timetable
See 'MyTimetable'