Peacebuilding

Undergraduate

Since the end of the Cold War, the international community has devoted enormous attention and resources towards addressing conflict within states and ending or reducing violence during civil wars. Over the last thirty years, efforts at building and restoring peace have evolved with changes in the international system and the dynamics of civil wars. The end of the Cold War produced a profound shift in peacekeeping through the decline of proxy conflicts from the Cold War, emphasis on principles like “Responsibility to Protect” or R2P, and concern over ethnic conflicts in the Balkans, Somalia, and Rwanda in the early 1990s. The last decade of the 20th century and first years of the 21st century proved a golden era for peacekeeping that informed an initial wave of literature in political science. However, in the wake of the U.S. War on Terror, the rate of peacebuilding interventions increased over the next two decades with decidedly mixed results as the dynamics of civil wars changed and the structure and mandates of peacebuilding interventions evolved. The rise of China and resurgence of Russia has again altered the international system and we are in era of increased competition between great powers with important implications for peacebuilding efforts. This course will investigate the past 30 years of peacebuilding to derive applicable lessons for the future and understand the micro-dynamics of violent conflict and building peace, as well as the role of the international system in shaping peacebuilding interventions. HTBA