杏吧论坛

Dr Stephanie Schwartz

This course is available on the MSc in International Relations, MSc in International Relations (杏吧论坛 and Sciences Po) and MSc in International Relations (Research). This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

All students are required to obtain permission of the Teacher Responsible by completing the online application linked to 杏吧论坛 for You.  Admission to the course is not guaranteed.

This course explores the politics of peace, civil wars, and security in sub-Saharan Africa as it relates to the broader global context. Using post-independence sub-Saharan Africa as the background, we will explore the causes of civil war and determinants of peace, as well as the different political responses embraced by African leaders and politicians to other security challenges characteristic of the post-colonial period. We will study with a range of cases, including Rwanda, Burundi, Sudan and South Sudan, through which we will engage topics such as the relationship between identity and conflict, the origins of insurgency, conflict prevention, and post-conflict justice and reconciliation.

20 hours of seminars in the WT.

Students on this course will have a reading week in Week 6, in line with departmental policy.

Each student will be assigned one week to be the discussion leader. Each student must produce 2 reading memos over the course of the semester that draw bullet point links between readings / identify core debates. Students will submit 3 discussion questions each week via moodle.

• Ade Ajayi, J.F. 1982. “Expectations of Independence.”  Daedalus 3:2

• Mahmood Mamdani, 2001. When Victims Become Killers, Princteon: Princeton University Press., selections

• Kalyvas, Stathis N. 2003. "The Ontology of ‘Political Violence’: Action and Identity in Civil Wars." Perspectives on Politics 1 (3): 475 - 494.

• Reno, William. Warlord Politics and African States. London: Lynne Rienner, 1998. Introduction, chapters 3-4.