Civil Wars

Undergraduate

This seminar introduces students to the study of civil wars, examining the underlying ideas, dynamics, and motivations that drive such internal conflicts. Drawing on a broad range of geographically diverse case studies, from the French Religious Wars to civil wars in Greece, Colombia, Kenya, and El Salvados, it explores key thematic issues in the historical development of civil wars and interrogates the blurred boundaries between civil wars and other forms of warfare, including (counter-)revolutionary, (anti-)colonial, partisan, and genocidal conflicts. The course further investigates the global interconnections and enduring legacies of civil wars through a comparative and relational analytical framework. By conceptualizing various forms of warfare as civil wars, the seminar enables a nuanced examination of the political, social, national, ethnic, separatist, and colonial dimensions of violence. At the same time, its transnational and comparative approach challenges exceptionalist interpretations traditionally found in the study of civil wars. WR , HU , SO Th 1:30pm-3:25pm