(for 2012–2013 academic year) Professors Monk, Ries (
Director)
Assistant Professors Mundy, Thomson
Postdoctoral Fellow Fishel
Advisory Committee Balakian, Byrnes, Cushing, Harpp, Karn, E. Kraly, McCabe, Monk, Mundy, Ries (
Director), Rotter, Stevens, Thomson
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.
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. To fulfill 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:
PCON 111, Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies
PCON/SOAN 218, Practices of Peace and Conflict – War in Lived Experience
PCON 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.
PCON 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. For the major, 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 PCON 200-level elective may be used to fulfill Level 2 requirements.
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:
PCON 250, Conflict Management and Transformation: How Wars End
PCON 260, Gender in Conflict and Peace
PCON 302, Modern Genocide
PCON 314, Media War: Peace and Conflict in the Digital Age
PCON 322, Weapons and War
PCON 340, Terror and Counter-Terror: Histories and Logics of Asymmetric Warfare
PCON/MIST 351, Israel/Palestine Conflict
CORE 138S, The Advent of the Atomic Bomb
EDUC 210, Education for Peace and Nonviolence
GEOG/SOAN 318, International Migration, U.S. Immigration, and Immigrants
GEOG 320, Globalization, Development, and Environment
HIST 206, The Civil War Era
HIST 209, The Atlantic World
HIST 265, War and Violence in East Asia
HIST 272, War and Holocaust in Europe
HIST 316, The United States in Vietnam, 1945–1975
HIST 358, Conquest and Colony: Cultural Encounters in the New World
POSC 217, Identity Politics
SOAN 216, Sociology of War
SOAN 337, Globalization, Culture, and Everyday Life This area of specialization 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:
PCON 250, Conflict Management and Transformation: How Wars End
PCON 301, Human Rights and Human Security
PCON/GEOG 310, Geopolitics
PCON/GEOG 317, Dispossession, Dislocation, and Disease: Geographies of Population Vulnerability
PCON 322, Weapons and War
PCON 340, Terror and Counter-Terror: Histories and Logics of Asymmetric Warfare
PCON/MIST 351, Israel/Palestine Conflict
PCON/POSC 358, Transnational Politics
ECON 328, Natural Resource Economics
GEOG/SOAN 314, Population Issues and Analysis
GEOG 324, International Environmental Policy
HIST 209, The Atlantic World, 1492–1800
HIST 216, U.S. Foreign Policy, 1917–Present
HIST 329, Revolutions in the Atlantic World
HIST 479, Seminar on Problems in the History of U.S. Foreign Policy
HIST 489, Seminar on Problems in Military History
POSC 213, Comparative Politics: The Third World
POSC 348, Communism and Post-Communist Transition
POSC 352, U.S. Defense Policy
POSC 353, National Security
POSC 357, International Institutions
POSC 361, Humanitarian Interventions
POSC 365, Just War in Comparative Perspective
POSC 370, International Relations in Post-Cold War Environment
POSC 379, The Development of the Modern State
POSC 425, Seminar: Secular and Religious Wars: The Challenge of Nationalism
POSC 456, Seminar: War — Theories and Practices
RELG 235, Religion, War, Peace, and Reconciliation
SOAN 216, Sociology of War
SOAN 326, Nations and Nationalism 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
PCON 260, Gender in Conflict and Peace
PCON 301, Human Rights and Human Security
PCON/GEOG 317, Dispossession, Dislocation, and Disease: Geographies of Population Vulnerability
PCON/GEOG 327, Australia’s Stolen Generations: The Legacy of Carrolup
PCON/RELG 333, Religious Faith and Social Ethics
PCON/POSC 358, Transnational Politics
ECON 206, Marxian Political Economy
ECON 234, Gender in the Economy
ECON 238, Economic Development
ECON 392, History of Economic Thought
EDUC 210, Education for Peace and Nonviolence
EDUC 303, Gender and Development
ENST 321, Global Environmental Justice
GEOG 320, Globalization, Development, and Environment
GEOG 321, Gender, Justice, and Environmental Change
HIST 340, Twentieth-Century European Intellectual History
PHIL 311, Modern Political Philosophy
PHIL 312, Contemporary Political Philosophy
PHIL 313, International Ethics
POSC 313, Political Corruption
POSC 344, Politics of Poverty
POSC 348, Communism and Post-Communist Transition
POSC 349, International Political Economy
PSYC 368, Prejudice and Racism
SOAN 212, Power, Racism, and Privilege
SOAN 214, Social Justice and Social Change
SOAN 312, Social Inequality
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. 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 PCON adviser and the program director. Many courses can count for Level 3 for each of the regions listed. Students should consult their PCON adviser about specific courses across the curriculum which may satisfy the Level 3 requirement.
Please click
here to view a current list of approved Level 3 electives.
Level 4 – Thesis To complete the thesis requirement, students must enroll in
PCON 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.
A minor requires six courses. Students must take
PCON 111 and either
PCON 218 or
225, and four 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. Minors may take
PCON 479 as one of their electives, with instructor permission.
Majors may qualify for departmental honors by achieving at graduation a GPA of 3.50 in major courses and an overall GPA of 3.30. For high honors, Majors must achieve a GPA of 3.70 in major courses and an overall GPA of 3.30 by graduation. Students who expect to qualify and who seek honors or high honors enroll in
PCON 499 upon completing
PCON 479. Students enrolled in
PCON 479 who fail to receive a grade of A– or higher in the seminar paper may not enroll in
PCON 499 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
PCON 499. Majors seeking to qualify for high honors in peace and conflict studies are required to demonstrate competency in a foreign language equivalent to two semesters at the 200 level. A student pursuing a double major and enrolling in the honors seminar may petition to have two courses count for both majors.
See “Honors and Awards: Peace and Conflict Studies” in Chapter VI.
The Peace and Conflict Studies Program strongly encourages majors to participate in Colgate or non-Colgate study groups or extended study programs, especially in world regions relevant to their Level 3 geographic area. Some programs which incorporate a faculty-directed independent study course, such as certain of those offered by SIT Study Abroad, are appropriate for PCON majors but must have the director’s prior approval. SIT’s “Post-Conflict Transformation” and “Social Movements, Education, and Human Rights” programs are relevant and recommended. Students should consult with their PCON advisers and the director, as well as the Office of Off-Campus Study/International Programs, regarding approved off-campus study options, credit approval, and application guidelines. See Chapter VI, “Off-Campus Study” for additional information.
To view a world map and see where previous P-CON students have traveled abroad, please click
here.
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.
111 Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies 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.
218 Practices of Peace and Conflict — War in Lived Experience S. Fishel, N. Ries, S. Thomson
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 war and violence 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 global networks; and contemporary mass violence with analysis of genocide perpetration. 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 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 J. Mundy, 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 first-year, sophomore, and junior students.
260 Gender in Conflict and Peace S. Thomson, Staff
This course explores and evaluates the relationships among gender, war, and peace, investigating the myriad ways in which cultural ideas about womanhood and manhood have not only shaped, but have been shaped by, wars and by peace-building efforts. The course examines the biological and social aspects of being male or female, and their implications on war and peace. 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 peace and war using gender as the main analytical concept. International case studies are used to analyze how war and peace are influenced by societal constructions of gender. The course is open to first-year, sophomore, and junior students.
301 Human Rights and Human Security S. Thomson, Staff
This course is a survey of issues at the intersection of human rights and international security. 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 refers chiefly to the national security of states, or the maintenance of the international system itself (international security). This course problematizes these traditional notions of ‘security’ in introducing students to the concept of “human security.” Students begin by considering what the concept is, its links to the protection of human rights at the level of the individual, and how “human security” intersects with various issues areas on the global policy agenda. Specific topics include human rights, just war theory, genocide prevention, disaster assistance, civil-military relations, and humanitarian intervention. Prerequisites: at least one of the following courses:
PCON 111, 218, or
225, or by permission of instructor.
302 Modern Genocide P. Balakian, Staff
This course focuses on the first two dramatic genocides of the 20th century: the genocide of the Armenians committed by the Ottoman Turkish government from 1915 to 1917 and the Holocaust of the Jews of Europe committed by the Nazi government of Germany from 1939 to 1945. The course explores the historical, religious, political, and cultural forces that led to these genocides and reviews attempts by poets and writers to give expression to the victims and bear witness to genocide. The course closes with issues of recovery, denial of genocide, and ways to prevent future genocides. (Formerly
CORE 301.)
310 Geopolitics
This course is crosslisted as
GEOG 310. For course description, see “Geography: Course Offerings.”
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: Interdisciplinary Perspectives K. Harpp, N. Ries, Staff
Mustard gas, airpower, submarines, A-bombs, Agent Orange, landmines, terror wars, “Star Wars”: weapons technology profoundly shaped the science, politics, and culture of the last century. This course explores the myriad effects of the production, deployment, and use of weapons. Specifically, the course considers how the horizons of science and technology have been shaped by the quest for ever-more-powerful or -sophisticated weaponry; how the creation of new weapons changes the nature of war and peace; how new weapons may impact lives and the planet; terror as a weapon, and scientific and social responses to it; the role of media images in the public consciousness of weaponry and war; and impacts of the global arms trade. While critically theorizing the social, environmental, and philosophical impacts of war over the past century, the course also examines the place of global ethics in discussions about weapons and war. (Formerly
PCON/CORE 322.)
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.”
340 Terror and Counter-Terror: Histories and Logics of Asymmetric Warfare J. Mundy, Staff
For as long as empires and states have been going to war, peoples have been fighting them with the tactics and technologies now known as terrorism and guerrilla warfare. Asymmetric warfare, however, is no mere historical artifact. It dominates headlines as much as it confounds leaders around the world. Central to this course are several in depth case studies of counter-insurgency and terrorism, including France in Algeria and Indochina; the British in Malaya, East Africa and Northern Ireland; state terrorism in Latin America during the Cold War; and the United States in the Philippines, Vietnam, and, after September 11, 2001, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq. The evolution of non-state terrorism — from the violent acts of Anarchists in the late 19th Century to the potentially apocalyptic terrorism of radical religious groups the early 21st Century — also comes under scrutiny. From Clausewitz to General Petraeus, from Mao Zedong to Ayman Al-Zawahiri, this class explores how asymmetric war is lived and understood by various observers and participants. Prerequisites: at least one of the following courses:
PCON 111, 218, or
225, or permission of instructor.
351 Israel/Palestine 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 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. This course counts toward the Social Relations, Institutions, and Agents area of inquiry/social science distribution requirement.
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 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.
499 Honors Seminar in Peace and Conflict Studies Staff
Students qualified to pursue honors or high honors take this seminar in the spring of the senior year to complete or extend the thesis they have already begun in
PCON 479. Enrollment is limited to seniors with a cumulative GPA of 3.30 or higher and a major GPA of 3.50 or higher, who have had their honors/high honors research proposal approved by the peace and conflict studies faculty. To qualify for honors students must have achieved an A- or higher in
PCON 479, or receive permission from the program director. Students who are not pursuing honors may also take this seminar to conduct independent research, by permission of the program director. Offered in the spring only. Prerequisite: permission of the program director.