Peace Studies (PEACE-UH)

This course surveys the political science and economics literature on social conflict and peacebuilding. The class will focus on major themes and issues such as the determinants of peaceful cooperation and sustainable peace; the root causes of armed conflict; the determinants of ethnic conflict; the political economy of civil wars; the variables affecting the duration and termination of wars; the phenomenon of different forms of political violence-including protests, riots, military coups, political assassinations, and terrorism; and the politics and economics of peacebuilding. The course is highly interdisciplinary and will cover a wide variety of cases from a comparative perspective.

The power of arts and culture in safeguarding heritage, curating history, stimulating contemporary expressions in a post-conflict country. What methods are viable, what tools proved useful, what approaches failed? This course will provide a platform to explore and debate this specific approach to reconstruction, revitalization, reconciliation and peacebuilding. The case of Cambodia with its troubled past provides the backdrop for exploring issues of changing dominant narratives, governance of culture, social welfare, cultural economy, and many others. Through contextualization you will discover the social, cultural, economic and political interdependencies that frame the Cambodian arts ecosystem.

Nation-building is a process that is closely tied to post-colonial state formation across the world. In constructing post-colonial political identities, societies have to define membership in the national community and to distinguish themselves from the former colonial masters and neighboring proto-national communities. The process of defining the national community is usually contested and often leads to violence. In many societies, this process is still ongoing. In this class, we will examine the process of post-colonial nation building through the prism of a fascinating and topical case-study, that of contemporary Ukraine. Ukraine continues to struggle to define itself visa-á-vis its former imperial neighbor Russia. In examining the Ukrainian case study, we will ask what a nation is in the world, how political identities are created and how they take root, and what role the institutions and culture play in the persistence of durable national identities. Students will gain a deeper understanding of the concept of nationalism, the forces and processes behind the construction of durable national identities, and a chance to engage with cutting edge methodological questions.