This graduate seminar aims to provide students with an opportunity to read and discuss a range of scholarly literature on the causes and consequences of civil wars, and to plan their own research on related topics. It analyses what we know about civil wars —why they break out and how they end— and how to think conceptually, theoretically and empirically about conflict processes. In addition to asking why so many countries fall into a conflict trap, the seminar also focuses on how peace settlements can be achived and engage in scholarly debate on whether third-party interventions can steer countries toward peace. After introducing the causes of conflict, the second part of the seminar shifts attention to the conditions leading to peace settlements, with a particular focus on UN peacekeeping operations. Students will be introduced to the literature asking when UN peacekeepers can be successful in the context of civil wars. At the end of the seminar, students will be able to link theoretical approaches to contemporary conflict events and design a research project on a topic related to civil war and peace which presents a theoretical argument and evaluates this with empirical evidence.
This course is for 2nd year MIA, MPP and MDS students only.
Instructor
- Burak Giray , Postdoctoral Researcher, Centre for International Security
