CONFLICT MANAG'T, PREVENT'N, & RESOLUT'N in Spring 2021 (PO5058)

This course will analyze practical policies and tools related to conflict and crisis management and the possible prevention and resolution of conflict. It will examine the institutions and regimes of security and conflict management, how states engage in military intervention, types of sanctions, forms of negotiation and mediation, legal aspects of conflict and crisis management, as well as peacekeeping and peacemaking operations. In essence, the course seeks to explore the systemic dilemmas (political, military, social, economic) involved conflict management, prevention and resolution on the global, regional and domestic levels and the practical means that states use to attempt to prevent conflicts from getting out of hand—if leaderships cannot prevent or resolve conflict altogether.

Students will examine a number of post-Cold War case studies. These include US or NATO-led military interventions in Kosovo, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya and diplomatic aspects of the conflict North-South Korea, Russia-Ukraine, US-Iran, China-Taiwan and states in South China Sea, plus the ongoing conflict in Syria. Students will choose one subject for study to write a 15-20 page term paper. The course will conclude with a discussion of the conflict management and conflict resolution dilemmas confronting the United States