STV4232B – Causes of War

Course content

This course will be replaced by STV4325B - The causes of Political Violence (from the Spring semester 2014).

 

The course provides an overview of the most important theories on the causes of war, with references to theories on interstate war, civil conflict and of the use of violence on a lower scale than war. The most important theoretical and empirical investigations on war will be presented and data will be made available for individual analysis.

Learning outcome

Knowledge

The students will become familiar with:

  • how conflict is defined, operationalized and coded.
  • central theoretical and empirical contributions to the scholarly literature on interstate and intrastate conflicts.
  • issues relating to non-state violence, and discuss issues relating to conflicts that do not involve the state as an actor.
  • bargaining and war, where the most important works on bargaining theory and conflict are presented.
  • polarity and balance of power and war, and discuss structural works on how facets of the world system induce conflict.
  • development and conflict, and discuss issues relating to the role of development in inducing especially civil conflict
  • issues relating to ethnicity, cleavages and conflict, and discuss issues relating to the link between economic inequality, political exclusion, ethnic cleavages and conflict.
  • the research on regimes and conflict, and discuss the connection between regime characteristics, as well as topics relating to the democratic peace theory.
  • institutional design and conflict, and discuss the link between specific institutions – with a focus on elections and power-sharing institutions – and conflict.
  • the debate about geography and conflict, and be able to discuss geographical and environmental issue, including the debate on climate change and conflict.
  • issues relating to recruitment to war, and discuss how fighting organizations recruit and retain personnel, and what this implies for conflict.

Skills

The students will:

  • Develop the ability to assess empirical contributions to the literature on armed conflict .
  • Develop practical skills in conducting systematic search for literature and data.
  • Acquire practical skills in conducting independent empirical study.

Competences

The students will:

  • Enhance their capability to think critically and reason about central arguments about the causes of armed conflict
  • Get a practical problem-driven approach to investigating the causes of conflict

Admission

Students admitted to other Master programs may also be qualified to apply for the course. Please contact the Department of Political Science.

Only students admitted to the course may take part in instruction and tuition and sit for the examination.

Prerequisites

Formal prerequisite knowledge

Bachelor's degree in Political Science or equivalent.

Recommended previous knowledge

Bachelor's degree in Political Science or equivalent.

Teaching

10 lectures will be given. The lectures are held intensively for a period of 5 weeks, with the exam
in the sixth week. Some of the lectures will be given by guest lecturers from the Centre for the
Study of Civil War at the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO)
 

Access to teaching

A student who has completed compulsory instruction and coursework and has had these approved, is not entitled to repeat that instruction and coursework. A student who has been admitted to a course, but who has not com