POL 404 Seminar on Contemporary Peacebuilding (3 credits)

The end of the Cold War brought widespread hope for world peace. Long simmering civil strife and inter-state confrontations abated in Latin America, the Korean peninsula, Southern Africa and the Middle East. War and destruction, however, were far from over, as places where conflict appeared mostly resolved in the 1990s—the Middle East and Chechnya—reignited at the turn of the century. What is peace and under what conditions is it made? How can a settlement be transformed and peace be built in a previously war-torn society? This seminar investigates theoretical frameworks of peacemaking and peacebuilding and asks students to apply these perspectives to select, contemporary cases.

Satisfies the Writing-Intensive overlay requirement.