Document Type

Graduate Syllabus

Date

Fall 2012

School

Diplomacy

Course Number

DIPL 6131 AA

Course Description

Why do states go to war? Why do social groups go to war? Major part of this course will be devoted to surveying main conceptual explanations on the causes of war. We will end the course by focusing on a single recent case study - Bosnia. To a large extend the war in Bosnia symbolizes post-Cold War conflicts because it involved numerous actors and because it was the first major peacebuilding attempt conducted by the international community. Two decades since the start of the Bosnian war, the international community is still heavily involved in Bosnia.

Endeavor to actively engage the reading. The texts concern essential issues on which you must decide. Your principal goal in this course should be to define yourself conceptually, to sharpen your analytical skills, and to develop a critique of positions that contend with your own.

Throughout the semester we will try to link the readings with contemporary events. Hence, you should keep informed about relevant current events through regular reading of newspapers. You should read a newspaper that provides thorough coverage of international news (for example, The New York Times, Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal). If possible you should also read foreign newspapers. You may also want to watch news on TV. BBC, CNN International, CCTV9 (from China) and Russia Today provide good insight into current events. You will get a better insight if you follow news from different countries.

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