Over the past four decades, the number of wars fought in the name of some sort of ethnic identity has characterized most inter- and intrastate conflict. From the Turkish invasion of Cyprus to the civil wars in Yugoslavia, to the irredentist wars in the Caucasus, to the ongoing conflicts in Iraq, Syria, and Ukraine, ethno-political conflict has both defined the nature of regional warfare, and more importantly, shaped the structure and scope of ensuing peace agreements. The paradox is that while conflict resolutions are mediated in the name of stopping the violence and reconstructing a shared community, nearly all cases involve some type of power-sharing around wartime fault lines which at best facilitates an uneasy arrangement of ethnically politicized power structures, and at worst results in a frozen conflict of disputed sovereignty over breakaway regions. This course offers students an opportunity to examine the causes and consequences of inter-and intrastate conflict, and the nature of post-conflict arrangements for formerly belligerent sides. While the class focuses on a number of specific cases from the end of the First World War to the present, it does so through a comparative historical analysis that examines patterns of strategies involving the meaning of conflict, ethnic demographics, intergroup conflict, sovereign borders, violence, and intractable conflict and sustainable peace as they relate to theoretical and practical issues of conflict management and resolution. (Lecturer: Michael Rossi)
