Dates: 6-8, 10 May 2013.
Location: PRIO.
Leaders: Professor Jeffrey T. Checkel, Simon Fraser University (jtcheckel@sfu.ca) and PRIO, and Professor Scott Gates, PRIO and Norwegian University of Science and Technology (scott@prio.no).
The course in organized in collaboration between Norwegian University of Science and Technology & Peace Research Institute Oslo
Overview: This seminar provides an overview and critical assessment of contemporary research on civil conflict. It will be in equal measure backward looking – assessing the state of the art; what have we learned – and future oriented – what are the cutting edge issues and challenges for students of civil war. Reflecting the research interests of the instructors, the course will be plural in meta-theoretical (positivist, post-positivist), theoretical (political economy, political ethnography, sociological, constructivist, political psychology) and methodological terms (agent-based modelling, game theory, process tracing, case studies, interpretive approaches).
The first part of the course (sessions I - III) assesses what we now know about civil wars – why they break out, how they are sustained, how do they end – and how to think – conceptually and theoretically - about dynamics and process. The second part (sessions IV - VII) builds on the first to explore the cutting edge and where next questions; our focus here will be new work seeking to capture the dynamics of civil war. Among other issues, we will consider the roles of transnationalism; of bureaucracies, groups and organizations; of social processes; and insurgency-counterinsurgency dynamics in driving forward or constraining the evolution of such conflicts.
Admission: The application deadline is 6 April 2013. Applicants who are not enrolled in the Research School on Peace and Conflict should include a very brief description of their doctoral research, and details about their university affiliation. Send applications by e-mail to the Research School Coordinator, Kristoffer Lidén (kristoffer@prio.no). There is no course fee, but the cost of transportation and accommodation, if needed, must be covered by participants. No financial assistance is available. Applicants will be notified about the outcome of their application as quickly as possible after the deadline.
Credits: 10 ECTS
Requirements
Active Participation in Class Discussions: The course will be run as a seminar, where debate and discussion are the norm; for each session, written discussion questions will serve as our starting point. For this format to be successful, students need to read the seminar readings prior to our first meeting on 6 May.
Preparation of Discussion Points: For each class session, students should prepare a brief list of discussion questions and comments (3-5 in number); these should be based on the readings and will be distributed to all other seminar participants. (Please make sufficient copies for distribution!) Your questions/comments should reflect a critical assessment of those readings. What are their strong and weak points? What are their meta-theoretical, theoretical, methodological, empirical contributions? How do they relate to or build upon other readings or discussions? For the problems you identify, how might you fix them?
Completion of an Analytic Essay: Students have two options. (I) Prepare an analytic review on a topic that is of special interest and is consistent with the course's purpose and theme. Or (II), prepare a draft research design for a PhD project on civil war where dynamics play some role. In either case, essays should be 6000-10000 words and are due by 15 August 2013.
Readings: The following three books should be purchased.
- Axelrod, Robert. The Evolution of Cooperation: Revised Edition (New York: Basic Books, 2006).
- Checkel, Jeffrey T., Editor, Transnational Dynamics of Civil War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013).
- Reno, William. Warfare in Independent Africa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011).
Students should access most other assigned articles and chapters through their local libraries. A selection of hard-to-get readings (unpublished or forthcoming essays, contributions to newsletters) will be made available on this course web page by mid-April.
Syllabus and Class Schedule
Day #1: Monday, 6 May
Session I (0900 - 1200): Civil War Research – State of the Art & Where Next
Sambanis, Nicholas, “Using Case Studies to Expand Economic Models of Civil War,” Perspectives on Politics 2/2 (2004): 257-79.
Tarrow, Sidney, “Inside Insurgencies: Politics and Violence in an Age of Civil War (Book Review Essay),” Perspectives on Politics 5/3 (2007): 587-600.
Blattman, Christopher and Edward Miguel, “Civil War,” Journal of Economic Literature 48/1 (2010): 3-57.
Blattman, Christopher, “Children and War: How ‘Soft’ Research Can Answer the Hard Questions in Political Science,” Perspectives on Politics 10/2 (2012): 403-413.
Session II (1315 - 1630): Capturing Dynamics, Process and Mechanisms (I)
Mahoney, James, “Beyond Correlational Analysis: Recent Innovations in Theory and Method,” Sociological Forum 16/3 (2001): 575-93.
Johnson, James, “Consequences of Positivism: A Pragmatist Assessment,” Comparative Political Studies 39/2 (2006): 224-52.
Gerring, John, “Review Article: The Mechanismic Worldview – Thinking Inside the Box,” British Journal of Political Science 38/1 (2007): 161-79.
Bennett, Andrew and Jeffrey T. Checkel, “Process Tracing: From Philosophical Roots to Best Practices,” in Andrew Bennett and Jeffrey T. Checkel, Editors, Process Tracing: From Metaphor to Analytic Tool (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, forthcoming in 2014), Chapter 1.
Day #2: Tuesday, 7 May
Session III (0900 - 1200): Capturing Dynamics, Process and Mechanisms (II)
Axelrod, Robert, The Evolution of Cooperation: Revised Edition (NY: Basic Books, 2006), passim.
Smith, J. Maynard, “Evolution and the Theory of Games: In Situations Characterized by Conflict of Interest, the Best Strategy to Adopt Depends on What Others are Doing,” American Scientist 64/1 (1976): 41-45.
Epstein, Joshua M., “Modeling Civil Violence: An Agent-Based Computational Approach,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 99/10 Supplement 3 (2002): 7243-7250.
Brehm, John, and Scott Gates, “Adapting Preferences,” in John Brehm and Scott Gates, Teaching, Tasks, and Trust: Functions of the Public Executive (NY: Russell Sage Foundation Publications, 2008), pp. 42-60.
Session IV (1315 - 1630): Transnationalism and Civil War
The Baseline
Gleditsch, Kristian Skrede and Idean Salehyan, “Refugees and the Spread of Civil War,” International Organization 60/2 (2006): 335-66.
Cederman, Lars-Erik, Luc Girardin and Kristian Skrede Gleditsch, “Ethnonationalist Triads: Assessing the Influence of Kin Groups on Civil War,” World Politics 61/3 (2009): 403-37.
Adding Dynamics and Process
Checkel, Jeffrey T., Editor, Transnational Dynamics of Civil War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2013), chapters 1-3, 6, 7, 9.
Day #3: Wednesday, 8 May
Session V (0900 - 1200): The Organizational Basis of Rebellion
The Baseline
Humphreys, Macartan and Jeremy M. Weinstein, “Handling and Manhandling Civilians in Civil War,” American Political Science Review 100/3 (2006): 429-447.
Humphreys, Macartan and Jeremy M. Weinstein, “Who Fights? The Determinants of Participation in Civil War,” American Journal of Political Science 52/2 (2008): 436-455.
Andvig, Jens Christopher and Scott Gates, “Recruiting Children for Armed Conflict,” in Scott Gates and Simon Reich, Editors, Child Soldiers in the Age of Fractured States (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010), pp.77-92.
Adding Dynamics and Process
Gates, Scott, “Recruitment and Allegiance: The Microfoundations of Rebellion,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 46/1 (2002): 111-30.
Beber, Bernd and Christopher Blattman, “The Logic of Child Soldiering and Coercion,” International Organization 67/1 (2013): 65-104.
Gates, Scott, “Why Do Children Fight? Motivations and the Mode of Recruitment,” in Alpaslam Özerdem and Sukanya Podder, Editors, Child Soldiers: From Recruitment to Reintegration (NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), pp.29-49.
Session VI (1315 - 1630): Social Context of Civil War
The Baseline
Kalyvas, Stathis, “Ethnic Defection in Civil War,” Comparative Political Studies 41/8 (2008): 1043-1068.
Østby, Gudrun, “Polarization, Horizontal Inequalities, and Violent Civil Conflict,” Journal of Peace Research 45/2 (2008): 143–162.
Cederman, Lars-Erik, Nils B. Weidmann and Kristian Skrede Gleditsch, “Horizontal Inequalities and Ethno-Nationalist Civil War: A Global Comparison,” American Political Science Review 105/3 (2011): 457–477.
Adding Dynamics and Process
Wood, Elisabeth Jean, “The Social Processes of Civil War: The Wartime Transformation of Social Networks,” Annual Review of Political Science 11 (2008): 539–61.
Bhavnani, Ravi, Dan Miodownik, and Jonas Nart, “REsCape: An Agent-Based Framework for Modeling Resources, Ethnicity, and Conflict,” The Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation 11/2 (2008).
Checkel, Jeffrey T., “The Social Dynamics of Civil War: Insights from Constructivist Theory,” Simons Papers in Security and Development, No.10 (Vancouver: School for International Studies, Simon Fraser University, March 2011).
Murshed, Syed Mansoob, “The Clash of Civilizations and the Interaction between Fear and Hatred,” International Area Studies Review 14/1 (2011): 31-48.
Cohen, Dara Kay, “Female Combatants and the Perpetration of Violence: Wartime Rape in the Sierra Leone Civil War,” World Politics (forthcoming).
Thursday, 9 May – Public Holiday / No Class'
Day #4: Friday, 10 May
Session VII (0900 - 1200): Insurgency-Counterinsurgency Dynamics
The Baseline
Kalyvas, Stathis and Laia Balcells, “International System and Technologies of Rebellion: How the End of the Cold War Shaped Internal Conflict,’ American Political Science Review 104/3 (2010): 415-429.
Garfinkel, Michelle R. and Stergios Skaperdas, “Economics of Conflict: An Overview,” in Todd Sandler and Keith Hartley, Editors, Handbook of Defense Economics, Volume II (Amsterdam: Elsevier Publications, 2007): 649-709.
Buhaug, Halvard, Scott Gates and Päivi Lujala, “Geography, Rebel Capability, and the Duration of Civil Conflict,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 53/4 (2009): 544-569.
Adding Dynamics and Process
Gates, Scott and Jason Miklian, “Strategic Revolutionary Phases of the Maoist Insurgency in Nepal,” in Kaushik Roy, Editor, Insurgencies in South Asia (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010).
Reno, William, Warfare in Independent Africa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), passim.
Mehlum, Halvor and Karl Moene, “Fighting against the Odds,” Economics of Governance 7/1 (2006): 75-87.
Besley, Timothy and Torsten Persson, “The Logic of Political Violence,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 126/3 (2011): 1411-1445.
Autesserre, Severine, “Hobbes and the Congo: Frames, Local Violence and International Intervention,” International Organization 63/2 (2009): 249-80.
Session VIII (1315 - 1500): Wrap Up & Conclusions
No readings.