Conf Res in Dply Dvd Societies

1.5 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

Full Name: Conflict Resolution in Deeply Divided Societies Our understanding of what drives political instability, civil war and violent conflict between different ethno-national groups has developed significantly over the last sixty years, catalysing a vast, multidisciplinary social science literature on conflict resolution and peace studies. In the post-Cold War period, academic interest in conflict resolution grew dramatically as Western states began to make conflict mediation central to the pursuit of what were increasingly interventionist foreign policies, framed in terms of liberal peace building, state building, and humanitarian responses to civil wars taking place in deeply divided societies. It was during this period that different forms of power-sharing became the favoured method of Western states intervening in efforts to end civil wars and resolve ethnic conflicts. This course examines how national, religious and ethnic conflicts have been viewed and addressed in the contemporary world. A special emphasis will be laid on the historical nation state building failures that are at the heart of many of today’s contested national disputes, with focus on the applicability of theories of conflict regulation to a range of cases. It introduces you to scholarly debates over ethno-national conflict regulation, specifically consociational democracy, and applies this theory to several contemporary case studies in Europe and the Middle east. Focusing on the national, cultural and religious divisions that led to the outbreak of ethnic conflicts in the twentieth century, it examines third party intervention in Northern Ireland, Lebanon, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iraq, and other cases. Conceptually, this course addresses theories of conflict regulation and the use of power-sharing as a means of ending civil war and bringing political stability to divided societies. Empirically, it applies in-depth comparative case study analysis, focusing on ending political violence and implementing peace agreements.