Document Type

Undergraduate Syllabus

Date

Fall 2024

School

Diplomacy

Course Number

DIPL 4717

Course Description

A few years after the decade of independence in Africa, conflicts and the accompanying involuntary population displacements spread dramatically, and the peoples of Africa faced enormous political, security, and economic challenges. The euphoria of independence from colonial powers that began in 1957 with the independence of Ghana and Guinea immediately gave way to dictatorships, political oppression and instability, and endless conflicts. While it is true that there were a few countries that faired better, and the state of African states has become more encouraging recently, some still find themselves in a political, social, and economic quagmire from which they could not extricate themselves. As a result, many of their citizens have left to seek refuge in other countries.

This course explores the dynamics of conflicts and involuntary population displacements, particularly refugees, in Africa. Included for examination in the course are such issues as colonial legacy and the nature of the present African state, political and economic dependence on outside powers, politicized ethnicity, and foreign interventions, all of which are directly or indirectly linked to the massive, involuntary population displacements in the last fifty years. The course will also interrogate whether such displacements have also contributed positively to the well-being of the host nation. To this end, the course examines possible interrelationships between conflicts and involuntary population movements, patterns of settlement in exile, and repatriations back to the habitual place of residence.

Please note that this course is numeracy-infused. Therefore, the course includes quantitative information on the relationships between types of conflicts (low-level or high-level civil war, interstate wars, wars with third-party involvement) and the size of forcibly displaced persons.

In functional notation, this may be represented as: dynamics of refugee formations = f(types of wars)

In addition, refugee settlement patterns may be investigated as: settlement patterns = g(size of forcibly displaced)

Similarly, for refugee repatriations: mode of refugee repatriations = h(settlement patterns)

I stress, the course is numeracy-infused; therefore, students are encouraged to ask (particularly in the article you will be assigned to make a PowerPoint class presentation) if the social science approach and quantitative representation of concepts can be applied. Please remember that even if quantification of some concepts is not possible (or not needed because of the nature of research question), the social science approach may be usefully applied.

For the final research/term paper, each student will choose (subject to instructor approval) and conduct research on any topic related to involuntary population movements in Africa, either in a specific country (that is, at the national level), or group of countries (that is, at the group or regional level), or at the continental level. You may also conduct a comparative study of refugees/migrants in/from Africa with refugee/migrant situation in other parts of the world. The approach you will choose – qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods – will depend on the questions raised and the availability of data. Whichever approach you use, you must aspire to write a well-researched, rigorous, and meticulously prepared term paper. Prior approval of the topic by the instructor is required.

The instructor hopes that, by the end of the semester, each student will have developed an increased interest in the study of involuntary population displacements in Africa, particularly refugee movements, and an awareness of the extent to which these population groups have the potential to negatively affect international peace and security. As students of Diplomacy and International Relations, you are expected to think in terms of policy issues that will contribute to the resolution of a “problem of our time” -- as Louise Holborn has aptly described the phenomenon a few decades ago, and which continues to be true today.

Download

Share

COinS