Department website
(for 2009–2010 academic year)
Professor Monk (Director)
Associate Professor Ries
Assistant Professor Olson
Postdoctoral Fellow D. Levine
Advisory Committee Byrnes, Cushing, Harpp, Karn, E. Kraly, McCabe, Monk (Director), Pitcher, Ries, Rotter, Stahlberg, Stevens
Colgate’s Peace and Conflict Studies Program has been at the forefront of research and instruction in the field since its creation in 1970. Founded with a generous gift of the Cooley family, the program presents a unique and challenging course of study that integrates trans-disciplinary academic approaches to war and peace with the study of particular regional conflicts. The major offers students three distinct areas of specialization: collective violence, human security, and international social justice. These areas of specialization correspond to the concerns of the disciplines and agencies currently assessing conflict and post-conflict societies in the global arena. With its regular film and media series, symposia, lectures, and unique course electives, the program is actively involved in promoting the study of peace, conflict, and security at Colgate and beyond. After taking advantage of the distinctive combination of faculty and program resources at Colgate, peace and conflict studies majors have pursued successful careers in various international arenas, including law, government, development, journalism, and the private sector.
Major Program
The major consists of 11 courses and advances through four levels. Level 1 – Core Approaches serves as a foundation for the program, introducing students to critical perspectives on the study of peace and conflict. In Level 2 students focus on one of three topical areas of specialization: collective violence, human security, and international social justice. Advancing to Level 3, students choose a geographic region to study in depth, in order to broaden their knowledge of specific regional conflicts. In Level 4 each student develops a thesis that integrates the knowledge gained in Levels 1–3. To qualify for graduation, a minimum grade of C is required in all courses taken toward the major or minor. Major credit will be awarded for no more than two courses taken at another institution, and no more than one independent study course in the program. A student pursuing a double major or a major and minor may use one course to count for both.
Level 1 – Core Approaches
Three required courses:
PEAC 111, Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies
PEAC/SOAN 218, Practices of Peace and Conflict – War in Lived Experience
PEAC 225, Theories of Peace and Conflict – War, State, and Society
Students are strongly encouraged to take all three core approaches courses during their first and sophomore years. They may be taken concurrently or in any order. PEAC 111 and at least one of the other two courses must be taken before students advance to Level 2.
Level 2 – Topical Areas of Specialization
The major offers three distinct emphases or tracks: collective violence, human security, and international social justice. Students may choose their tracks when they declare their major, and must choose by the end of the fifth semester. Once the area of specialization is selected, a student takes three courses from the track’s approved electives, plus one additional course from any of the three topical areas. Courses other than those on the list of approved electives and courses taken abroad may count toward the major if they are approved by the program director. A student pursuing a double major with another department or program may use one Level 2 elective to count for both majors. Any one PEAC 200-level elective may be used to fulfill Level 2 requirements.
Collective Violence Emphasis This area of specialization focuses on peace and conflict in lived experience. Students study conflict, violence, and peace, taking advantage of the exponential growth of field-based research on these topics in the social sciences as well as the burgeoning exploration of war and violence in literary and media studies. At its heart, this track emphasizes studying war, conflict, violence, and peace from a perspective that emphasizes local evaluations and interpretations — so-called “local knowledge” of experiences — of collective violence such as civil war, forced migration, terrorism, and state terror. The approved electives for this track are
PEAC 250, Conflict Management and Transformation: How Wars End
PEAC 260, Gender and Conflict
PEAC 314, Media War: Peace and Conflict in the Digital Age
PEAC/CORE 322, Weapons and War
PEAC/SOAN 338, Ethnic and Nationalist Violence: Theoretical Approaches
PEAC/MIST 351, Case Studies in Regional Conflict
CORE 301, Modern Genocide and Holocaust: History, Witness, and Denial
GEOG/SOAN 318, International Migration, U.S. Immigration, and Immigrants
GEOG 320, Globalization, Development, and Environment
HIST 209, The Atlantic World
HIST 217, The United States in Vietnam, 1945–1975
HIST 272, War and Holocaust in Europe
HIST 309, Culture and Society in Cold War America
HIST 358, Conquest and Colony: Cultural Encounters in the New World
HIST/ALST 455, Race, Class, and Culture in Anglophone Caribbean Society after Slavery
HIST 460, Seminar in the Expansion of Europe in Africa and the East
POSC 217, Identity Politics
POSC/MIST 304, Islam and Politics
POSC 319, Power and Protest in Southern Africa
POSC 330, Political Change in Latin America
RELG 235, Religion, War, Peace, and Reconciliation
RELG 238, Fundamentalism, Nationalism, and Religion
RELG 329, Islam in the Modern World
SOAN 337, Globalization, Culture, and Everyday Life
SOAN 362, Political Anthropology
Human Security Emphasis This area of emphasis focuses on paradigms of conflict transformation. Using normative models developed for the study of state-sponsored violence as a point of departure, this track emphasizes the relationship between peace and security in both regional and global frames. More specifically, it focuses on questions of state and intra-state violence, in ways that lead to alternative conceptions of “human security.” This track provides students with tools to understand how a broadened definition of “security” as the “freedom from pervasive threats to people’s rights, their safety, or even their lives” may affect current conceptions of the role of institutions in generating, reproducing, and resolving episodes of conflict and violence. The approved electives for this track are
PEAC 301, Human Security
ECON 328, Natural Resource Economics
GEOG 112, The Global Economy: Geographic Dimensions
GEOG 310, Political Geography
GEOG/SOAN 314, Population Issues and Analysis
GEOG 316, Medical Geography and Disease Ecology
GEOG 324, International Environmental Policy
HIST 206, Civil War Era
HIST 209, The Atlantic World, 1492–1800
HIST 216, U.S. Foreign Policy, 1917–Present
HIST/ALST 327, Authoritarianism, Dictatorship, and Democracy in the Caribbean
HIST 329, Revolutions in the Atlantic World
POSC/ALST 212, The Politics of Race and Ethnicity
POSC 213, Comparative Politics: The Third World
POSC/MIST 215, Comparative Politics: Middle East
POSC 348, From Glastnost to Globalization
POSC 352, U.S. Defense Policy
POSC 353, National Security
POSC 356, Crisis Diplomacy
POSC 357, International Institutions
POSC/MIST 363, International Relations of the Middle East
POSC 365, The United States in East and Southeast Asia
POSC 366, Contemporary American Foreign Policy
POSC 370, International Relations in Post-Cold War Environment
POSC 425, Seminar: Secular and Religious Wars: The Challenge of Nationalism
RELG 235, Religion, War, Peace, and Reconciliation
SOAN 326, The Sociology of Nationalism
International Social Justice Emphasis This area of specialization focuses on global norms, ethics, and understandings of human rights and social justice, and the complex ways in which these come into play in contemporary assessments of and responses to various forms and degrees of conflict. This track highlights questions of structural violence and inequality, with intensive analysis of systemic injustice from the standpoint of conflict theory. The approved electives for this track are
PEAC/SOAN 214, Social Justice and Social Change
PEAC/GEOG 317, Dispossession, Dislocation, and Disease: Geographies of Population Vulnerability
PEAC/GEOG 327, Australia’s Stolen Generations: The Legacy of Carrolup
PEAC/RELG 333, Religious Faith and Social Ethics
PEAC/POSC 358, Transnational Politics
ECON 206, Marxian Political Economy
ECON 392, History of Economic Thought
EDUC 210, Education for Peace and Nonviolence
GEOG 321, Gender, Justice, and Environmental Change
HIST 339, Traditions of European Intellectual History
HIST 340, Twentieth-Century European Intellectual History
HIST 489, Seminar on Problems in Military History
PHIL 310, Philosophy and the Social Sciences
PHIL 311, Modern Political Philosophy
PHIL 312, Contemporary Political Philosophy
PHIL 313, International Ethics
PHIL 419, Contemporary Moral Theory
POSC 313, Political Corruption
POSC 344, Politics of Poverty
POSC 348, From Glasnost to Globalization
POSC 349, International Political Economy
POSC 450, Seminar: Theory, Knowledge, and Prediction
POSC 456, Seminar: War, Theories, and Practices
PSYC 266, Prejudice and Racism
RELG 235, Religion, War, Peace, and Reconciliation
SOAN 212, Power, Racism, and Privilege
SOAN 312, Social Inequality
SOAN 380, Citizenship and Social Change
Level 3 – Geographic Areas of Specialization Knowledge of specific regional conflicts, and efforts to resolve them, is essential to the study of peace and conflict. To develop this knowledge base, students are required to take three approved courses on the politics, culture, history, geography, or economics of a geographic region chosen from the following:
A. Central America, the Caribbean, and South America
B. North America
C. West, East, Central, and Southern and Sub-Saharan Africa
D. Europe
E. The Middle East and North Africa
F. Central Asia and the Former Soviet Union
G. Asia and the Pacific Rim
Students may take Level 3 electives concurrently with Levels 1 and 2. One Level 2 elective may count toward the geographic areas requirement, when applicable. A student pursuing a double major in peace and conflict studies and another department or program in which a geographic area is being studied should discuss with the program director which courses may be used to satisfy the requirements for both majors. Other courses, including Liberal Arts Core Curriculum courses, off-campus studies courses, and 300- or 400-level language courses, may count toward the geographic areas requirement, if approved by the program director. Students should contact the program director or refer to the program website for a current list of courses satisfying Level 3 requirements for each of the regions listed.
Level 4 – Thesis To complete the thesis requirement students must enroll in PEAC 479 in the fall semester of the senior year. In order to advance to thesis, students must have completed all of the Level 1 requirements, taken three of the four courses required for Level 2, and two of the three courses required for Level 3. Theses developed during the research seminar may be on any topic, but students must demonstrably integrate expertise in their topical and regional areas of specialization in their final submissions.
Minor
The minor in peace and conflict studies requires six courses. Students must take PEAC 111, PEAC 218 or 225, and three electives from one of the three topical areas of specialization listed in Level 2. Minors are strongly encouraged to take two Level 3 geographic areas courses, unless their major is in a department or program in which they are studying a geographic area. Normally, students complete all other minor requirements before advancing to Level 4 – Thesis and taking PEAC 479.
Honors and High Honors Majors may qualify for departmental honors by achieving at graduation a GPA of 3.5 in major courses and an overall GPA of 3.3. For high honors, Majors must achieve a GPA of 3.7 in major courses and an overall GPA of 3.3 by graduation. Students who expect to qualify and who seek honors or high honors enroll in PEAC 491 upon completing PEAC 479. Students enrolled in PEAC 479 who fail to receive a grade of A– or higher in the seminar paper may not enroll in PEAC 491 in order to pursue honors or high honors in peace and conflict studies, without the written permission of the program director. Working with a principal adviser and a second reader, the student writes and submits a substantial paper for this course and defends it before the program faculty. The designation “honors,” “high honors,” or neither, is determined at the conclusion of the defense. This paper must be a substantially different, revised, and expanded version of the student’s senior seminar paper. Honors and high honors projects should demonstrate the ability to work creatively and independently and to synthesize theoretical, methodological, and substantive materials in peace and conflict studies. Such a project should be planned and begun in the fall term of the senior year (or earlier), with the research and final writing completed in the spring term when the student is enrolled in PEAC 491. Majors seeking to qualify for honors or high honors in peace and conflict studies are required to demonstrate competency in a foreign language equivalent to two semesters at the 200 level.
Awards See “Honors and Awards: Peace and Conflict Studies” in Chapter VI.
Study Groups The Peace and Conflict Studies Program does not currently offer its own study group, but strongly encourages majors to participate in study groups and international exchange programs expecially in world regions relevant to Level 3 requirements. Students should consult with the director regarding appropriate off-campus study options.
Related Activities The academic program in peace and conflict studies is supplemented by activities coordinated by the director and the program faculty. In addition to lectures, films, and conversations with visiting scholars, the program hosts and sponsors seminars, field trips, conferences, workshops, and collaborative research with U.S. and international partners. Refer to the program website for current details.
The Ralph J. Bunche Peace and International House, a spacious, attractive, newly renovated residential center, named for African American Nobel Peace Prize winner Ralph Bunche, is the community focus for the Peace and Conflict Studies Program. Housing up to 25 students who indicate an interest in sharing a multicultural living unit where concerns of peace, social justice, and international community are discussed and acted upon, the house has its own large dining, recreation, seminar, and study rooms, as well as a substantial library. Bunche House regularly hosts films, visiting speakers, discussions, socials, and community meals and activities, all of which are open to non-residents. Students with a special interest in peace and conflict studies and social justice, not necessarily majors or minors, are encouraged to live in Bunche House, as are international students and returnees from study abroad.
Course Offerings
111 Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies
D. Monk, Staff
This course is a survey of key issues and debates in the study of peace and conflict, tracing the history of key concepts in peace and conflict studies, and showing their links with related disciplines, such as sociology, history, and political science. It concludes with an analysis of peace and conflict studies in the wake of the Cold War. Open to first-year and sophomore students.
214 Social Justice and Social Change
This course is crosslisted as SOAN 214. For course description, see “Sociology and Anthropology: Course Offerings.
218 Practices of Peace and Conflict — War in Lived Experience
K. Olson, N. Ries, Staff
This course introduces students to a range of approaches and problems in the descriptive analysis of peace and conflict. It juxtaposes core theoretical texts on conflict from the social and human sciences with detailed ethnographic case studies. Practices of contemporary conflict are paired with the interpretive paradigms whose aim is to understand and resolve them. For example, case studies in terror are paired with the field of trauma studies; specific regional conflicts with theories of globalization; and forced migrations with the field of refugee studies. In the process, this course introduces students to important methodological paradigms from the social sciences, chiefly from anthropology, sociology, and geography, as well as humanities-based approaches from comparative religion, literature, and language studies. This course is crosslisted as SOAN 218.
225 Theories of Peace and Conflict —War, State, and Society
D. Monk, Staff
This course examines problems of institutional systems and the articulation of power. Students are introduced to critical evaluation of the major theoretical approaches to the study of power and politics. The course considers rationalist, functionalist, and interpretive approaches in the social sciences, as they relate to questions of peace and conflict. Students examine the specific operative theories that have emerged out of these intellectual traditions — theories of state formation, security, international norms, and transnational networks — as they have been incorporated into and further developed in the study of peace and conflict. Students test major theories on case studies linked to major world events. For example, deterrence theory is examined in light of the end of the Cold War.
250 Conflict Management and Transformation: How Wars End
Staff
This course examines the formal attributes of human conflict, its sources, and various techniques for reducing conflict. Topics covered include negotiating and bargaining strategy, alternative dispute resolution techniques (e.g., mediation and arbitration), escalation of conflict, cross-cultural differences in negotiation, and different theoretical models that can be used to understand better the conflict/negotiation process. The course looks at a wide range of conflicts, from interpersonal conflict to international disputes. A substantial part of the course involves experiential learning in which students try conflict resolution techniques discussed in class. The course is open to sophomores, juniors, and seniors.
260 Gender and Conflict
T. Haberkorn, K. Olson
This course explores and evaluates the relationships among gender, war, and violence, and investigates the myriad ways in which cultural ideas about womanhood and manhood have not only shaped, but have been shaped by, wars. The course examines the biological and social aspects of being male or female, and their implications on violence and war. Topics from cross-cultural perspectives are investigated, including forms, mechanisms, and dynamics of collective violence, militarization of everyday life, women in combat, gays in the military, attitudes toward war, rape, and female and male roles in the conduct of war. The course provides students with theoretical and historical understanding of gender and war.
301 Human Security
Staff
Since the end of the Cold War, students of world politics have begun to re-examine many of the key concepts that informed the work of defense and policy intellectuals in the past. Key among these is the concept of “security,” which chiefly referred to the safety of states (national security) or to the protection of the international system itself (international security). This course is organized into two parts. The first section examines the history of the concepts of security in the political and policy spheres, culminating with the UN Commission on Human Security’s 2003 Report. The second part studies various aspects of the current human security concept, by focusing on case studies in environmental security, human rights, and humanitarian intervention. Prerequisites: at least two of the following courses: PEAC 111, 218, or 225, or by permission of the instructor.
314 Media War: Peace and Conflict in the Digital Age
D. Monk, Staff
The first purpose of the course is to demonstrate to the student the central importance of media in defining the reality of war, peace, and violence in modern culture. The second goal is to introduce, in a selective manner, film, art, and written works that shaped these definitions. The primary framework is chronological, beginning with a survey of images of war and peace in art and covering in detail World War I and World War II, and ending with current images of war and of preparations for nuclear war. The secondary framework distinguishes types or degrees of war: World War I and World War II, civil wars (Spain) and genocide (the Armenians, the Jews in Europe); struggles of national liberation (Vietnam and Algeria); and prospects of global holocaust, this last creating new imagery — both positive and negative — in art, poetry, fiction, and film. Methods of evaluation: examination and journals.
317 Dispossession, Dislocation, and Disease: Geographies of Population Vulnerability
This course is crosslisted as GEOG 317. For course description, see “Geography: Course Offerings.”
322 Weapons and War: An Interdisciplinary Perspective
This course is crosslisted as CORE 322. For course description, see “Core Distinction under Liberal Arts Core Curriculum: Course Offerings.”
327 Australia’s Stolen Generations: The Legacies of Carrolup
This course is crosslisted as GEOG 327. For course description, see “Geography: Course Offerings.”
333 Religious Faith and Social Ethics
This course is crosslisted as RELG 333. For course description, see “Religion: Course Offerings.”
351 Case Studies in Regional Conflict
D. Monk, Staff
This course focuses on the longstanding struggle between Israelis and Palestinians, as well as on the history of the way the conflict has been defined (e.g., an Arab-Israeli conflict, a religious war between Jews and Muslims, etc.). The course profiles episodes in the history of the conflict — and of the efforts to resolve it — in light of contemporary developments across the globe. The war of 1948 is analyzed in light of decolonization struggles following World War II, just as the “Six-Day War” of 1967 is studied in light of Cold War politics. In addition to focusing on flashpoints in the history of the conflict, the course also examines international agendas for ending it. Repeated U.S. efforts to broker a peace are analyzed in light of geopolitical developments elsewhere. Students will become well-versed in the historical and social developments of the conflict and study the various treaties, armistice agreements, and memoranda that have guided efforts to bring it to a conclusion. They also study outstanding issues in the contest between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, as well as current peace and armistice proposals. This course is crosslisted as MIST 351.
358 Transnational Politics
This course is crosslisted as POSC 358. For course description, see “Political Science: Course Offerings.”
291, 391, 491 Independent Study
479 Research Seminar in Peace and Conflict Studies: Peace and Conflict, Themes and Analysis
D. Monk, N. Ries, Staff
This is a theme-based seminar that examines the literature of peace and conflict studies and other relevant theoretical and analytical work relating to violence and conflict resolution at all levels of society. The seminar also focuses on the range of responses to war and violence, by both the state and the peace movement. Significant independent and group research is required. This course is required of all peace and conflict studies majors and minors in the senior year, but is open to others who meet the prerequisites. Prerequisites: the three courses in Level 1, plus a minimum of three courses completed from Level 2, and two courses completed from Level 3.