Contemporary Issues in Conflict and Security (E300)

Course Organization

Time & Location:
Wednesday, 10:15-12:00, SGAS

Professor:
Keith Krause
Office: 2nd floor, Villa Barton
Office hours: Wednesday, 12:30-14:30 (or by appointment)
Telephone: 022 908 57 33
Email: krause@hei.unige.ch

Assistant:
Assia Alexieva
Office: Rigot 26
Office hours: Tuesday 14:00-16:00 and by appointment.
Telephone: 022 908 59 41
Email: alexiev3@hei.unige.ch

Course Description

This course will examine contemporary and conceptual issues in conflict and security studies. The course does not deal directly with the “classical” issues in security studies (such as causes of war, strategy, deterrence, arms control or alliance theory), and does presume some background knowledge of them (see the attached list of supplementary readings). Instead, the course deals with contemporary themes and issues such as security communities, “securitization,” communal conflicts, political violence, the political economy of conflicts, state collapse and reconstruction, and societal security. Overall, the course adopts a critical approach to security studies, and examines the twin pillars of Northern (European) and Southern (post-conflict) security challenges. While not comprehensive, the course is broad enough to allow students to explore a range of conceptual and practical issues within critical approaches contemporary security studies.

Since security studies cannot claim theoretical coherence or a governing orthodoxy, students will be expected to demonstrate familiarity with a wide range of approaches and concepts. Those interested in practical or descriptive knowledge will be required to provide conceptual grounding for their analyses; conceptually inclined students will be forced to acquire “local knowledge” wherever possible.

Full participation is expected of students in the seminar. This includes reading all the required readings – and this is a heavy reading course – as well as being prepared to discuss them critically. Final grades will in part be determined by the level and quality of seminar participation, and (for masters/doctoral students) by presentations of the readings that will be scheduled according to the number of students in the seminar.

Readings are not introductory-level, and presume some familiarity with main theoretical developments in International Relations. For those with too-little background, I recommend reading:

• Michael Sheehan, International Security: An Analytical Survey
• Edward Kolodziej, Security and International Relations
• Peter Hough, Understanding Global Security .

These will not substitute for the course readings, but can bring you somewhat “up to speed.”

Assignments

The main assignment in the course is the research paper. This must be an empirically-grounded, theoretically-informed, exploration of a particular theme relevant to this course. It cannot be a mere review of theoretical literature, or simply a narrative account of a particular case. It must have an argument, a conceptual framework, an empirical “field” (case or cases, or data, etc.), and a coherent research strategy or method. Papers that do not meet such a standard will be deemed insufficient.

On occasion, the large number of students in this course has made it impossible to assess an adequate participation grade for all students or to schedule class presentations for all students. I thus may slightly modify the grading scheme to cope with this, once the number of students in the course becomes clear.

In addition, I may also schedule an additional weekly “discussion session” with advanced or specialist graduate students if warranted. This will be a course requirement and will form part of the participation grade.

MIA/MIS/DEA/doctoral students’ Assignments

Readings

The required readings for weeks four onwards will be made available in a “kit” or polycopie. The polycopie must be ordered through the 'imprimerie minute'. A packet of readings for weeks three is available for purchase from the course assistant, Assia Alexieva (Pavillon Rigot). You must do the readings to participate in (or do well in) the course.

The supplementary readings listed at the end of this course outline are designed to assist students in the preparation of their papers, their exams (for license students), or their seminar preparations. In general, they are available in the library, in our collection of books and journals. If you have a problem finding a specific reading, please let me know. Obviously, the list is not exhaustive, and I welcome suggestions for additions.

Finally, some sessions of the seminar will have to be rescheduled to accommodate some unavoidable commitments on my part. I will provide as much warning as possible for this.

Introduction: From War and Conflict to Security Studies (March 14)

• K.J. Holsti, The State, War, and the State of War , 19-40.
• Mary Kaldor, New and Old Wars: Organised Violence in a Global Era (Stanford, Cal: Standford University Press, 2001), pp. 13-30, 69-89.
• Stathis Kalyvas, “‘New' and ‘Old' Civil Wars: A Valid Distinction?” World Politics , 54 (October 2001), 99-118.
• Erik Melander, Magnus Öberg and Jonathan Hall, “The ‘New Wars' Debate Revisited,” Uppsala Peace Research Papers no. 9, Uppsala University, 2006.

(Re)Thinking Security (March 21)

• Stephen Walt, “The Renaissance of Security Studies, ' International Studies Quarterly , 35 (1991), 211-239.
• David Baldwin, “Security Studies and the End of the Cold War,” World Politics , 48:1 (October 1995), 117-141.
• Barry Buzan, People, States and Fear , second edition, 1-34.
• Keith Krause and Michael Williams, “Politics and Method in Neorealist Security Studies,” Mershon International Studies Review , 40:supplement 2 (October 1996), 229-254.
• C.A.S.E. Collective, “Critical Approaches to Security in Europe: A Networked Manifesto,” Security Dialogue , 37:4 (December 2006), 443-487.

Identity and Regional Security Communities (March 28)

• Michael C. Williams and Iver B. Neumann, “From Alliance to Security Community: NATO, Russia and the Power of Identity,” Millennium , 29:2 (2000), 357-387.
• Emanuel Adler and Michael Barnett, “Security Communities in Theoretical Perspective,” in Emanuel Adler and Michael Barnett, eds., Security Communities , 3-28.
• Emanuel Adler, “Seeds of Peaceful Change: The OSCE's Security-Community Building Model,” in Adler and Barnett, 119-160.
• Benjamin Miller, “When and How Regions Become Peaceful: Potential Theoretical Pathways to Peace,” International Studies Review , 7 (2005), 229-267.
• Laurie Nathan, “Security Communities and the Problem of Domestic Instability,” Crisis States Programme Working Papers series no. 1 , London School of Economics, November 2004.
• Bruce Cronin, Community under Anarchy , 3-38.
• Mikkel Vedby Rasmussen, “Reflexive Security: NATO and International Risk Society,” Millennium , 30:2 (2001), 285-309.

Security and “Securitization” (April 4)

• Ole Waever, “Aberystwyth, Paris, Copenhagen: New Schools in Security Theory and Their Origins between Core and Periphery,” unpublished paper, 2004.
• Barry Buzan, Ole Waever and Jaap de Wilde, Security: A New Framework for Analysis , 21-47.
• Michael C. Williams, “Words, Images, Enemies: Securitization and International Politics,” International Studies Quarterly , 47 (2005), 511-531.
• Jef Huysmans, “Security! What Do You Mean? From Concept to Thick Signifier,” European Journal of International Relations , 4:2 (1998), 226-255.
• Thierry Balzacq, “The Three Faces of Securitization: Political Agency, Audience and Context,” European Journal of International Relations , 11:2 (2005), 171-201.
• Lene Hansen, “The Little Mermaid's Silent Security Dilemma and the Absence of Gender in the Copenhagen School,” Millennium , 29:2 (2000), 285-306.

Societal Security, Integration, Migration, and Identity (April 18)

• Ole Wæver, Barry Buzan, Morten Kelstrup and Pierre Lemaitre, eds., Identity, Migration and the New Security Agenda in Europe , 17-92, 148-166.
• Didier Bigo, “When Two become One: Internal and External Securitizations in Europe,” in Morten Kelstrup and Michael C. Williams, eds., International Relations Theory and the Politics of European Integration: Power, Security, Community , 171-203.
• Nazli Choucri, “Migration and Security: Some Key Linkages,” Journal of International Affairs , 56:1 (Fall 2002), 97-122.
• Pinar Bilgin, “Individual and Societal Dimensions of Security,” International Studies Review , 5 (2005), 203-222.
• Pinar Bilgin, “Individual and Societal Dimensions of Security,” International Studies Review , 5 (2005), 203-222.
• Jef Huysmans, “The European Union and the Securitization of Migration,” Journal of Common Market Studies , 38:5 (December 2000), 751-77.
• Ayse Ceyhan and Anastassia Tsoukala, “The Securitization of Migration in Western Societies: Ambivalent Discourses and Politicies,” Alternatives , 27 (2002), 21-39

The “Third World” Security Predicament (April 25)

Note: This class will have to be rescheduled

• Mohammed Ayoob, The Third World Security Predicament: State-Making, Regional Conflict and the International System , 1-45, 71-91.
• Charles Tilly, “War Making and State Making as Organized Crime”, in Peter Evans, Dietrich
• Rueschemeyer, Theda Skocpol, eds., Bringing the State Back In , 169-191.
• Charles Tilly, Coercion, Capital and European States, AD 990-1990 , 192-225.
• William Reno, Warlord Politics and African States , 1-44.
• Kimberly Marten, “Warlordism in Comparative Perspective,” International Security , 31:3 (Winter 2006-2007), 41-73.

Communal Conflicts (May 2)

• Rogers Brubaker and David Laitin, “Ethnic and Nationalist Violence,” Annual Review of Sociology , 24 (1998), 423-452.
• Chaim Kaufmann, “Possible and Impossible Solutions to Ethnic Civil Wars,” International Security , 20:4 (Spring 1996), 136-175.
• V.P. Gagnon, “Ethnic Nationalism and International Conflict: The Case of Serbia,” International Security , 19:3 (Winter 1994-95), 130-166.
• Stathis Kalyvas, “The Ontology of ‘Political Violence': Action and Identity in Civil Wars,” Perspectives on Politics , 1:3 (September 2003), 475-494.
• Stathis Kalyvas, “Intimacy,” chapter 10 in The Logic of Violence in Civil War , 330-363.
• Nicholas Sambanis, “Partition as a Solution to Ethnic War: An Empirical Critique of the theoretical Literature,” World Politics , 52 (July 2000), 437-483.

The Political Use of Violence and Terror (May 9)

• Charles Tilly, The Politics of Collective Violence , 1-54.
• David Apter, “Political Violence in Analytical Perspective,” in David Apter, ed., The Legitimization of Violence , 1-32.
• Robert Pape, “The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism,” American Political Science Review , 97:3 (August 2003), 1-19.
• Elizabeth Picard, “The Lebanese Shi'a and Political Violence in Lebanon,” in David Apter, ed., The Legitimization of Violence , 189-233.
• Adrian Guelke, The Age of Terrorism , 1-17, 143-161.
• Malcolm Deas, “Violent Exchanges: Reflections on Political Violence in Colombia,” in David Apter, ed., The Legitimization of Violence , 350-404.
• Mary Anne Weaver, “The Real bin Laden,” The New Yorker , 24 January 2000.
• Various documents on Al-Qaeda.

The Political Economy of Conflict (May 16)

• Paul Collier, “Economic Causes of Civil Conflict and their Implications for Policy,” World Bank Working Paper, 15 June 2000.
• Peter Andreas, “The Clandestine Political Economy of War and Peace in Bosnia,” International Studies Quarterly , 48 (2004), 29-51.
• Philippe Le Billon, Fuelling War: Natural Resources and Armed Conflict , Adelphi Paper 373 (March 2005), 7-49.
• Don Hubert, “Resources, Greed and the Persistence of Violent Conflict,” in Rob McRae and Don Hubert, eds., Human Security and the New Diplomacy , 178-189.
• Benedikt Korf, “Rethinking the Greed-Grievance Nexus: Property Rights and the Political Economy of War in Sri Lanka,” Journal of Peace Research , 42:2 (2005), 201-217.
• Sabrina Grosse-Kettler, External Actors in Stateless Somalia , BICC paper 39 (2004).
• Christopher Cramer, “Does Inequality Cause Conflict,” Journal of International Development , 15 (2003), 397-412.

State Collapse and Failure (May 23)

• Jean-Germain Gros, “Towards a Taxonomy of Failed States in the New World Order: Decaying Somalia, Liberia, Rwanda and Haiti,” Third World Quarterly , 17:3 (1996), 455-471.
• “The Failed States Index 2005,” Foreign Policy , 149 (July-August 2005), 56-65.
• Also: read the Fund for Peace 2006 Failed State Index country profiles available at: http://www.fundforpeace.org/ programs/fsi/fsindex.php (these are updated regularly).
• William Reno, “The Politics of Violent Opposition in Collapsing States,” Government and Opposition , 40:2 (Spring 2005), 127-151.
• David Carment, “Assessing State Failure: Implications for Theory and Policy,” Third World Quarterly , 24:3 (2003), 407-427.
• Christopher Clapham, “The Challenge to the State in a Globalized World,” in Jennifer Milliken, ed., State Failure, Collapse and Reconstruction , 25-44.
• William Reno, “Congo: From State Collapse to ‘Absolutism' to State Failure,” Third World Quarterly , 27:1 (2006), 43-56.

Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Peacebuilding (May 30)

• Roland Paris, “International Peacebuilding and the ‘mission civilisatrice',” Review of International Studies , 28 (2003), 637-656.
• Roland Paris, “Peacekeeping and the Constraints of Global Culture,” European Journal of International Relations , 9:3 (2003), 441-473.
• Marina Ottaway, “ Rebuilding State Institutions in Collapsed States,” in Jennifer Milliken, ed., State Failure, Collapse and Reconstruction, 245-266.
• Béatrice Pouligny, “Civil Society and Post-Conflict Peace Building: Ambiguities of International Programs Aimed at Building ‘New Societies',” Security Dialogue , 36:4 (December 2005), 495-510.
• Christopher Cramer and Jonathan Goodhand, “Try Again, Fail Again, Fail Better? War, the State and the ‘Post-Conflict' Challenge in Afghanistan,” in Jennifer Milliken, ed., State Failure, Collapse and Reconstruction , 131-155.
• Christoph Zuercher, “Is More Better? Evaluating External-Led State-Building after 1989,” CDDRL Working Papers , no. 54 (April 2006).
• Stephen John Stedman, “Spoiler Problems in Peace Processes,” International Security , 22:2 (Fall 1997), 5-53.

Gender and (In)Security (June 6)

• Joshua Goldstein, War and Gender , 1-58.
• Eric Blanchard, “Gender, International Relations, and the Development of Feminist Security Theory,” Signs , 28:4 (2003), 1289-1312.
• Lene Hansen, “Gender, Nation, Rape,” International Feminist Journal of Politics , 3:1 (April 2001), 55-75.
• Mary Caprioli, “Primed for Violence: The Role of Gender Inequality in Predicting Internal Conflict,” International Studies Quarterly , 49 (2005), 161-178.
• Lori Handrahan, “Conflict, Gender, Ethnicity and Post-Conflict Reconstruction,” Security Dialogue , 35:4 (2004), 429-445.
• Sherill Whittington, “Gender and Peacekeeping: The United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor,” Signs , 28:4 (2003), 1283-1288
• Miranda Alison, “Women as Agents of Political Violence: Gendering Security,” Security Dialogue , 35:4 (2004), 447-463.

Human Security (June 13)

• Gary King and Christopher Murray, “Rethinking Human Security,” Political Science Quarterly , 116:4 (2001-02), 585-610.
• Fen Hampson et al, Madness in the Multitude: Human Security and World Disorder , 1-61.
• “Freedom from Fear: Canada's Foreign Policy for Human Security,” Canada, Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, September 2000.
• Taylor Owen, “Human Security – Conflict, Critique and Consensus: Colloquium Remarks and a Proposal for a Threshold-Based Definition,” Security Dialogue , 35:3 (2004), 373-387.
• Richard Price, “Reversing the Gun Sights: Transnational Civil Society Targets Land Mines,” International Organization , 52:3 (Summer 1998), 613-644.
• David Roberts, “Human Security or Human Insecurity? Moving the Debate Forward,” Security Dialogue , 37:2 (2006), 249-261.
• Ronald Behringer, “Middle Power Leadership on the Human Security Agenda,” Cooperation and Conflict , 40:3 (2005), 305-342.
• Gunhild Hoogensen and Svein Vigeland Rottem, “Gender Identity and the Subject of Security,” Security Dialogue , 35:2 (2004), 155-171.