PSC 754 Syllabus

PSC 754

International Conflict and Peace
Fall 2006

Tentative Syllabus

Instructor: Gavan Duffy
Office: Eggers 513
Phone: 443-5764
Home Page: http://web.syr.edu/~gavan/
Office Hours: T 2:00-3:30, Th 2:00-3:00, and by appointment.
Email: gduffy@maxwell.syr.edu

N.B. This is a living syllabus. Versions in hardcopy may be outdated. The most recent and currently accurate version always resides at http://web.syr.edu/~gavan/psc754f06.html

Course Description

Peace and conflict issues are core topics in international studies. They profoundly affect, as they are affected by, issues that pertain to international trade, law, security, environment, migration, etc. As a core concern of student of world politics, we cannot hope in this survey course to review the literature comprehensively. I can show you a course syllabus that tried to be comprehensive. It is 98 pages long. If we can't feasibly be comprehensive, we might strive to be representative. But I don't think that's a good idea. I think it's best that we see this literature as instrumental to the attainment of our own personal, professional goals.

To that end, I have arranged the seminar to satisfy my own intellectual interests. I have scheduled readings that, for the most part, interest me and bear relevance to my personal research interests. Now, I don't suppose that my substantive interests map neatly onto yours. How boring if they did! I expect to the contrary that your substantive concerns, although they bear on the general topic of international peace and conflict, differ in their particulars from mine. It seems fair, then, that I should have built some flexibility into the seminar, so that its content will reflect your substantive interests as well as mind.

I have, as a consequence, tried to design the course so that it is oriented toward students' final projects. The general features of these projects will vary with students' programmatic orientations and/or career goals. Of course, they should pertain to the topic of the course. Requirements of the course are arranged so that they dovetail with students' final projects. They are:

Discussion leadership -- Twice during the semester, each student will lead the seminar discussion of an assigned essay. This essay should be one that will feature prominently in that student's final project.
Annotated bibliography -- Three weeks prior to the semester's end each student will submit a bibliography of works they will have thus far consulted in researching their final project. Each item in the bibliography should be annotated with a paragraph that describes its contents.
Oral presentation -- Each student with deliver in class an oral presentation of their final projects.

Note that there will be no examination and that all requirements are oriented toward the final project. I am open to the idea of modifying the assigned readings, if necessary, to cover topics that concern students as they prepare their final projects. I will be more receptive to changes that concern analytical approaches and less receptive to changes that add material pertaining to an individual case.

Texts

The texts below should now (or, for some, should soon) be available for purchase at Follett's Orange Student Bookstore in Marshall Square Mall.

Stephen Van Evera, Causes of War: Power and the Roots of Conflict. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999.
Karin M. Fierke, Diplomatic Interventions: Conflict and Change in a Globalizing World. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2005.
Joseph S. Nye, Jr., Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History. 6th ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2007.
Doug McAdam, Sidney Tarrow, and Charles Tilly, Dynamics of Contention. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2001.
Barbara Harff and Ted Robert Gurr, Ethnic Conflict in World Politics. 2d ed. Boulder: Westview Press, 2004.

These volumes introduce the topic from various theoretical perspectives. As indicated in the course schedule below, we will begin the seminar with discussions of each in turn. After that, we will turn to discussions of additional readings. These will be placed on digital reserve at Bird Library.

Grading Criteria

I'm reticent to assign grading percentages to requirements in a graduate course, as it makes more sense to say I will award A grades for excellent performance and increasingly lesser grades for diminished levels of excellence. But I understand that some will want a weighting scale to gain a sense of the relative importance of various exercises. Each of the various assigned tasks will contribute to final grades proportionally, as indicated below.

Task	Contribution
Engagement	.10
Discussion leadership	.10
Annotated bibliography	.10
Oral presentation	.20
Final project	.50

The "engagement" portion of the grade refers to the quantity and quality of students' seminar participation, their attendance, and the general extent to which they engage themselves with the material.

Course Schedule

Nothing in this course schedule is set in stone. If our readings direct our interests to other places, we will go there. If there's a great hew and cry for a topic now disincluded, we will include it.

August 31

Course Introduction.

September 7

A Liberal Perspective

Nye, Understanding International Conflict.

September 14

A Realist Perspective

Van Evera, Causes of War.

September 21

A Middle-Range Theory

McAdam, Tarrow, and Tilly, Dynamics of Contention. Focus on Parts I and II, pp. 3-190. Some may find the applications in Part III useful.

September 28

A Constructivist Perspective

Fierke, Diplomatic Interventions.

October 5

Ethnic Conflict

Harff and Gurr, Ethnic Conflict in World Politics.
Jack Snyder, "Averting Nationalist Conflict in an Age of Democratization." Chapter 7 in From Voting to Violence: Democratization and Nationalist Conflict. New York: W.W. Norton, 2000, pp. 313-353.

October 12

Peace Studies/Science/Security

Louis Kriesberg, "Convergences Between International Security Studies and Peace Studies." In Michael Brecher and Frank P. Harvey, eds., Conflict, Security, Foreign Policy, and International Political Economy: Past Paths and Future Directions in International Studies. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002, pp. 160-176.
J. David Singer, "Accounting for Interstate War: Progress and Cumulation." In Michael Brecher and Frank P. Harvey, eds., Conflict, Security, Foreign Policy, and International Political Economy: Past Paths and Future Directions in International Studies. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2002, pp. 177-197.
Hayward R. Alker, "Emancipatory Empiricism." Chapter 10 of Rediscoveries and Reformulations: Humanistic Methodologies for International Studies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996, pp. 332-356.
Gavan Duffy, "Language Analysis for Peace Science." Peace Economics, Peace Science and Public Policy. 8,2 (2002): 24-47.

October 19

Conflict Termination

Roy Licklider, "The Consequences of Negotiated Settlements in Civil Wars, 1945-1993." American Political Science Review. 89 (1995): 681-690.
Barbara F. Walter, "The Critical Barrier to Civil War Settlement." International Organization. 51 (1997): 335-364.
Chaim Kaufman, "Possible and Impossible Solutions to Ethnic Civil Wars." International Security. 20 (1996): 136-175.
Radha Kumar, "The Troubled History of Partition." Foreign Affairs. 76 (Jan/Feb 1997): 22-34.
Nicholas Sambanis, "Partition as a Solution to Ethnic War: An Empirical Critique of the Theoretical Literature." World Politics. 52 (2000): 437-483.

October 26

(Strategic) Rationalist Approaches

James Fearon, "Rationalist Explanations for War." International Organization. 49 (1995): 379-414
T. David Mason and Patrick J. Fett, "How Civil Wars End: A Rational Choice Approach." Journal of Conflict Resolution. 40 (1996): 546-568.
R. Harrison Wagner, "Bargaining and War." American Journal of Political Science. 44 (2000): 469-485.
Roslyn Simowitz and Barry L. Price, "The Expected Utility Theory of Conflict: Measuring Theoretical Progress." American Political Science Review. 84 (1990): 339-360.
James D. Morrow, Roslyn Simowitz, and Barry L. Price, "Conceptual Problems in Theorizing About International Conflict." American Political Science Review. 85 (1991): 923-940.

September 28

Dynamic Groups Approach

Gavan Duffy and Nathalie J. Frensley, "Community Conflict Processes: Mobilization and Demobilization in Northern Ireland." In James W. Lamare, ed., International Crisis and Domestic Politics: Major Political Conflicts in the 1980s. New York: Praeger, 1991, pp. 99-135.
Nathalie J. Frensley, "Ratification Processes and Conflict Termination." Journal of Peace Research. 35 (1998): 167-191.
Gavan Duffy and Nicole Lindstrom, "Conflicting Identities: Solidary Incentives in the Serbo-Croatian War." Journal of Peace Research. 39 (2002): 69-90.
Nathalie J. Frensley, "A Ratification Framework for Explaining Ethnic Conflict Settlement." Paper presented to the American Political Science Association, Boston, September 2002.

November 2

Reconciliation and Peacebuilding

Thomas Carothers, "The Rule of Law Revival." Foreign Affairs. 77,2 (1998): 95-106.
Thomas Carothers, "The Problem of Knowledge." In Promoting the Rule of Law Abroad. Washington: Carnegie Endowment for Peace, 2006, pp. 15-28.
Roland Paris, "Toward More Effective Peacebuilding." Chapter 10 in At War's End: Building Peace After Civil Conflict. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004, pp. 179-211.
Louis Kriesberg, "Comparing Reconciliation Actions Within and Between Countries." In Yaacov Bar-Siman-Tov, ed., From Conflict Resolution to Reconciliation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004, pp. 81-110.
Tuomas Forsberg, "The Philosophy and Practice of Dealing with the Past: Some Conceptual and Normative Issues." In Nigel Biggar, ed., Burying the Past: Making Peace and Doing Justice After Civil Conflict. Washington: Georgetown University Press, pp. 65-84.

November 9

Terrorism

Martha Crenshaw, "The Logic of Terrorism: Terrorist Behavior as a Product of Strategic Choice." In Walter Reich, ed., Origins of Terrorism: Psychologies, Ideologies, Theologies, and States of Mind. Washington: Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 1998, pp. 7-24. Reprinted as "The Strategic Logic of Terrorism." In Richard K. Betts, ed., Conflict After the Cold War: Arguments on Causes of War and Peace. 2d ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2005, pp. 491-504.
Gordon H. McCormick, "Terrorist Decision Making." Annual Review of Political Science. 6 (2003): 473-508.
Robert Pape, "The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism." American Political Science Review. 97 (2003): 343-361.
Martha Crenshaw, "Theories of Terrorism: Instrumental and Organizational Approaches." Journal of Strategic Studies. 10 (1987): 13-31.
Alan B. Krueger and Jitka Maleckova, "Education, Poverty and Terrorism: Is There a Causal Connection?" Journal of Economic Perspectives. 17 (2003): 119-144.

November 16

Feminist Approaches

J. Ann Tickner, "Feminist Perspectives on 9/11." International Studies Perspectives. 3 (2002): 333-350.
Jean Bethke Elshtain, "Reflections on War and Feminism in a Nuclear Age." Political Theory. 13 (1985): 39-57.
Carol Cohn. "Sex and Death in the Rational World of Defense Intellectuals." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society. 12 (1987): 687-718.
Adam Jones, "Does 'Gender' Make the World Go Round? Feminist Critiques of International Relations." Review of International Studies. 22 (1996): 405-429.
Robert O. Keohane, "International Relations Theory: Contributions of a Feminist Standpoint." Millennium. 18 (1989): 245-253.
Cynthia Weber, "Good Girls, Little Girls, and Bad Girls: Male Paranoia in Robert Keohane's Critique of Feminist International Relations." Millennium . 23 (1994): 337-49.

November 23

Thanksgiving

November 30

Student Presentations

December 7