83664 - International Conflict

Learning outcomes

The course covers the essentials of international conflict: its main dynamics and characteristics, as well as the theoretical contributions necessary for interpreting it. By the end of the course, students will have conceptual and historical tools that allow them to explain international conflict as a typical, recurrent phenomenon, and will be able to apply such insights to a large number of historical cases.

Course contents

International crises; classification of wars and historical trends in warfare; game theory for dummies; compellence, coercive diplomacy, and deterrence; the bargaining model of war; selection effects; psychology, organizations, and armed conflict; costly signal and audience costs; changes of warfare; ethnic conflict; origin and duration of civil wars; the impact of climate on human conflict; gender attitude toward the use of force; gender inequality and conflict; historical trends in modern terrorism; psychological and rationalist explanations of terrorism; origins of genocide; psychology of perpetrators of atrocities and genocides.

Readings/Bibliography

I. INTERNATIONAL CRISES

Brecher, M., and J. Wilkenfeld (1997), A Study of Crisis, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, pp. 1-17.

II. COERCION

George, A.L. (1994), Coercive Diplomacy: Definition and Characteristics, in George, A.L., and W.E. Simon, (eds.), The Limits of Coercive Diplomacy: Second Edition, Boulder (CO), Westview, pp. 7-11.

George, A.L. (1994), Theory and Practice, in George, A.L., and  W.E. Simon, (eds.), The Limits of Coercive Diplomacy: Second Edition, pp. 13-21.

Schelling, T. (2015), Deterrence and Compellence, in Art, R.J., and K.M. Greenhill (eds.), The Use of Force: Military Power and International Politics, Lanham (MD), Rowman and Littlefield (eight ed.), pp. 20-27.

III. BALANCE/PREPONDERANCE

Organski, A.F.K. (1958), World Politics, New York, Knopf (second ed. 1968), pp. 363-376.

Waltz, K.N. (1979), Theory of International Politics, Reading, Addison-Wesley; Italian transl. Teoria della politica internazionale, Bologna, Il Mulino, 1987, pp. 301-312.

IV. BARGAINING MODEL OF WAR

Fearon, J.D. (1995), Rationalist Explanations for War, in «International Organization», Vol. 49, No. 3, pp. 379-414.

V. ORGANIZATIONS AND PSYCHOLOGY

Levy, J.S. (2003), Political Psychology and Foreign Policy, in Sears, D.O., L. Huddie, and R. Jervis, Oxford Handbook of Political Psychology, Oxford, Oxford University Press, pp. 253-277.

Sagan, S.D. (1993), The Limits of Safety: Organizations, Accidents, and Nuclear Weapons, Princeton (NJ), Princeton University Press, pp. 156-203.

VI. AUDIENCE COSTS

Snyder, J.L., and E. Borghard (2011), The Cost of Empty Threats: A Penny, Not a Pound, in «American Political Science Review», Vol. 105, No. 3, pp. 437-456.

Fearon, J.D. (2013), “Credibility” is not everything but it's not nothing either, in «Monkey Cage», September 7. http://themonkeycage.org/2013/09/credibility-is-not-everything-either-but-its-not-nothing-either/

VII. BARGAINING WHILE FIGHTING

Wagner, R.H. (2007), War and the State: The Theory of International Politics, Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, pp. 131-151; 162-165.

VIII. CASES

Mitchell, A.W. (2015), The Case for Deterrence by Denial, in «American Interest», August 12. <http://www.the-american-interest.com/2015/08/12/the-case-for-deterrence-by-denial/>

Beauchamp-Mustafaga, N., C. Garafola, A. Cevallos, and A. Chan (2016), China Signals Resolve with Bomber Flights over the South China Sea, in «War on the Rocks», August 2. <http://warontherocks.com/2016/08/china-signals-resolve-with-bomber-flights-over-the-south-china-sea/>

Gabuev, A. (2016), Friends with Benefits?Russian-Chinese Relations after the Ukraine Crisis, Carnegie Moscow Center, June 29. < http://carnegie.ru/2016/06/29/friends-with-benefits-russian-chinese-relations-after-ukraine-crisis/j2m2>

IX. CHANGES OF WARFARE

Henderson, E., and J.D. Singer (2002), "New Wars" and Rumors of "New Wars", in «International Interactions», Vol. 28, No. 2, pp. 165-190.

Mello, P.A. (2016), In Search of New Wars: The Debate about a Transformation of War, in «European Journal of International Relations», Vol. 20, No. 1, pp. 1-13.

Pandolfi, A. (2016), Conflitti ibridi e zone grigie: il dibattito sulle forme della guerra nella competizione tra USA, Russia e Cina, Osservatorio di Politica Internazionale. ˂http://www.bloglobal.net/2016/04/conflitti-ibridi-zone-grigie-forme-guerra-usa-russia-cina.html˃

X. CLIMATE, NATURAL RESOURCES, AND CONFLICT

Wolf, A.T. (1998), Conflict and Cooperation along International Waterways, in «Water Policy», Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 251-265.

Hsiang, S.M., M. Burke, and E. Miguel (2013), Quantifying the Influence of Climate on Human Conflict, in «Science», Vol. 341, No. 6151, 1235367.

XI. ETHNIC CONFLICT/CIVIL WARS

Walter, B. (1997), The Critical Barrier to Civil War Settlement, in «International Organization», Vol. 51, No. 3, pp. 335-364.

Fearon, J.D., and D. Laitin (2003), Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War, in «American Political Science Review», Vol. 97, No. 1, pp. 75-90.

Kalyvas, S. (2014), The Logic of Violence in the Islamic State’s War, in «Monkey Cage», July 7. <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2014/07/07/the-logic-of-violence-in-islamic-states-war/>

XII. TERRORISM

Rapoport, D.C. (2004), The Four Waves of Modern Terrorism, in Cronin, A.K., and J.M. Ludes (eds.), Attacking Terrorism: Elements of a Grand Strategy, Washington, DC, Georgetown University Press, pp. 46-73.

Victoroff, J. (2005), The Mind of the Terrorist: A Review and Critique of Psychological Approaches, in «Journal of Conflict Resolution», Vol. 49, No. 1, pp. 3-42.

Fromson, J., and S. Simon (2015), ISIS: The Dubious Paradise of Apocalypse Now, in «Survival», Vol. 57, No. 3, pp. 7-56.

XIII. GENDER AND CONFLICT

Wrangham, R., and D. Peterson (1996), Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence, Boston (MA), Houghton Mifflin; Italian transl. Maschi Bestiali: Basi biologiche della violenza umana, Roma, Franco Muzzio, 2005, pp. 197-214.

Caprioli, M. (2005), Primed for Violence: The Role of Gender Inequality in Predicting Internal Conflict, in «International Studies Quarterly», Vol. 49, No. 2, pp. 161-178.

McDonald, M.M., C.D. Navarrete, and M. Van Vugt (2011), Evolution and the Psychology of Intergroup Conflict: The Male Warrior Hypothesis, in «Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological Sciences», Vol. 367, No. 1589, pp. 670-679.

XIV. GENOCIDE

Bandura, A. (1999), Moral Disengagement in the Perpetration of Inhumanities, in «Personality and Social Psychology Review», Vol. 3, No. 3, pp. 193-209.

Jones, A. (2006), Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction, London and New York, Routledge (second ed. 2011), pp. 3-50.

Teaching methods

Lectures. Depending on the number of students enrolled in the course, I might ask students to write a three-page essay about a topic, and to present it to the class for discussion.

Assessment methods

Written examination (multiple-choice questions; short-answer questions). Two tests; each will count as 50% of your final grade. 

Teaching tools

Occasionally, Power Point.

Office hours

See the website of Davide Fiammenghi