International Development 4500 (02)
Conflict and Development
Instructor: Ian S. Spears
Winter 2014
Time: Wednesday 11:30 am-2:20 pm
Location: Mackinnon 314
Exam: Take-Home in April/May
Office Hours: Tues. 10-11 am; Thurs 1-2 pm
Office: Mackinnon 535
E-mail: ispears@uoguelph.ca
Phone: (519) 824-4120 (ex. 52182)
COURSE OUTLINE
Introduction: Welcome to IDEV 4500. This is a multi-disciplinary course which considers various
perspectives—historical, anthropological, gender-related, geographical, economic, sociological and
political—on the links between violence, conflict and development. Violence is often examined
solely in terms of its destructive consequences and the ways that it inhibits or contradicts
development. But violence and conflict can also be an important source of development. This
course will consider these relationships in terms of each of the following three questions: How does
violence undermine development? In what ways does the promotion of development also lead to
violence and conflict? And in what ways does violence advance the process of development?
Readings: There is no textbook for this course. Readings are available to students on-line through
the library website. Be aware that, for some, this course may have a more demanding reading and
writing component. Students should also be aware that this is not a lecture course. Consequently,
students are expected to come to class having read the course materials and prepared to discuss
them. Students can expect to be called upon during each class and, in turn, will be expected to offer
informed perspectives on the readings. Ten percent of the grade reflects participation.
Assignments and Tests: Students will be required to prepare and submit three written assignments
which are based on the course materials. Two of these papers will be written in collaboration with
student peers; the final paper will be completed independently. More information will be provided
regarding the paper assignments early in the term. Students will also be required to complete weekly
short quizzes during the term. The quizzes will be based on the readings for that week. Students
should be aware that plagiarism is taken very seriously. First time offenses will automatically be
referred to the Associate Dean for review.
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Students will be evaluated according to the following criteria:
Short Paper Assignment #1
Short Paper Assignment #2
Short Paper Assignment #3
Class Participation
Weekly Quiz
Total
20%
25%
35%
10%
10%
100%
COURSE READINGS
WEEK ONE: Introduction and Course Overview (January 8)
Robert D. Kaplan, “The Dangers of Peace,” chapter 9 in The Coming Anarchy: Shattering the
Dreams of the Post Cold War (New York: Random House, 2000).
WEEK TWO: Development as Tragedy and the Tragedy of Peace (January 15)
Marshall Berman, “Goethe’s Faust: The Tragedy of Development,” in All That Is Solid Melts Into
Air (New York: Penguin, 1988).
Ronald Wright, “The Great Experiment,” chapter 2 in A Short History of Progress (Toronto: Anansi,
2004).
WEEK THREE: Perspectives on the State, Coercion, and Development (January 22)
Assignment 1 handed out (due date: February 5)
Max Weber, “Politics as a Vocation,” in Patrick H. O’Neil and Ronald Rogowski eds., Essential
Readings in Comparative Politics, 1st edition (New York: W.W. Norton, 2004), pp. 34-40.
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, “Bourgeois and Proletarians,” chapter 1 in The Communist
Manifesto (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1967).
Adam Smith, “In Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations,” in Patrick H. O’Neil
and Ronald Rogowski eds., Essential Readings in Comparative Politics, 2nd edition (New
York: W.W. Norton, 2006), pp. 129-135.
At least two of the following:
William Easterly, “You Can’t Plan a Market,” in The White Man’s Burden: Why the West’s Efforts
to Aid the Rest Have done So Much Ill and So Little Good (New York: Penguin, 2006).
Samuel P. Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societies (New Haven: Yale University, 1968),
pp. 1-59.
James C. Scott, “Nature and Space,” chapter 1 in Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to
Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (New Haven: Yale University, 1998).
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WEEK FOUR: War and Conflict Before “Civilization” (January 29)
Jean Jacques Rousseau, “Discourse on the Origin and Foundations of Inequality Among Men,” in
The Basic Political Writings (Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing, 1987), passim pp. 37-82.
Lawrence Keeley, “The Pacified Past: The Anthropology of War,” and “The Dogs of War: The
Prevalence and Importance of War,” chapters 1 and 2 in War Before Civilization (New York:
Oxford University Press, 1996).
Bartolomé de Las Casas, “A Short History of the Destruction of the Indies (London: Penguin, 1992),
pp. 3-25.
WEEK FIVE: The Need for States in Europe and Elsewhere? (February 5) Assignment 1 due
Charles Tilly, “War Making and State Making as Organized Crime,” in Peter B. Evans, Dietrich
Rueschemeyer, and Theda Skocpol eds., Bringing the State Back In (Cambridge: Cambridge
University, 1985).
Jared Diamond, “From Egalitarianism to Kleptocracy,” chapter 14 in Guns, Germs, and Steel: The
Fates of Human Societies (New York: Norton, 1999).
Sorensen, Georg: War and State-Making: Why Doesn’t it Work in the Third World? Security
Dialogue, 32 (2001), pp. 341-354.
WEEK SIX: Exploration, Exploitation and Its Consequences (February 12)
Jared Diamond, “Collision at Cajamarca,” chapter 3 in Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human
Societies (New York: W.W. Norton, 1999).
Adam Hochschild, “Where There Aren’t No Ten Commandments,” chapter 8 in King Leopold’s
Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa (Boston: Mariner, 1999).
Ronald Wright, “White Savages,” chapter 5 in What Is America: A Short History of the New World
Order (Alfred A. Knopf Canada, 2008).
READING WEEK (February 17 to 21): No Classes
WEEK SEVEN: Reshaping the Societies of others (February 26)
Assignment 2 handed out (Due date: March 12)
Robert A. Packenham, “The Liberal Roots of the Doctrines,” Chapter 3 in Liberal America and the
Third World: Political Development Ideas in Foreign Aid and Social Science (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1973).
Atul Kohli, “Where Do High Growth Political Economies Come From? The Japanese Lineage of
Korea’s ‘Developmental State’,” World Development, vol. 22, no. 9 (1994), pp. 1269-1293.
Willemijn Verkoren and Bertine Kamphui, “State Building in a Rentier State: How Development
Policies Fail to Promote Democracy in Afghanistan,” Development and Change, vol. 44, no.
3 (2013), pp. 501-526.
WEEK EIGHT: Peace, State Weakness and Development Failure? (March 5)
Jeffrey Herbst, “War and the State in Africa,” International Security, vol. 14, no. 4 (1990).
Robert H. Jackson and Carl G. Rosberg, “Sovereignty and Underdevelopment: Juridical Statehood
in the African Crisis,” Journal of Modern African Studies, vol. 24, no. 1 (1986), pp. 1-31.
Lauren Leve, “‘Failed Development’ and Rural Revolution in Nepal: Rethinking Subaltern
Consciousness and Women’s Empowerment,” Anthropological Quarterly, vol. 80, no. 1,
(2007), pp. 127-172.
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WEEK NINE: Development Displacements (March 12) Assignment 2 due
Arturo Escobar, “Displacement, Development, and Modernity in the Colombian Pacific,”
International Social Sciences Journal, vol. 175 (March 2003), pp. 157-167.
Sheila Gruner, “Contested Territories: Development, Displacement, and Social Movements in
Colombia,” chapter 6 in Peter Vandergeest, Pablo Idahosa, and Pablo S. Bose eds.,
Development’s Displacements: Ecologies, Economies, and Cultures at Risk (Vancouver:
UBC Press, 2007).
Katarzyna Grabska, “The Return of Displaced Nuer in Southern Sudan: Women Becoming Men?”
Development and Change, vol. 44, no. 5 (2013), pp. 1135–1157.
WEEK TEN: Promise and Peril in Development I (March 19)
Pierre van den Berghe, “The Modern State: Nation-Builder or Nation-Killer,” International Journal
of Group Tensions, vol. 22, no. 3 (1992).
James C. Scott, “Villagization in Tanzania: Aesthetics and Miniaturization,” chapter 7 in Seeing
Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed (New
Haven: Yale University, 1998).
Veronika Fuest, “‘This is the Time to Get in Front’: Changing Roles and Opportunities for Women
in Liberia,” African Affairs, vol. 107, no. 427 (2008), pp. 201-224.
WEEK ELEVEN: Promise and Peril in Development II (March 26)
Assignment 3 handed out (Due date: to be determined)
Michael Watts, “Petro-Violence: Community, Extraction, and Political Ecology of a Mythic
Commodity,” chapter 8 in Nancy Peluso and Michael Watts eds., Violent Environments
(Ithaca: Cornell University, 2001).
Philippe Le Billon, “The Political Ecology of Transition in Cambodia, 1989-1999: War, Peace and
Forest Exploitation,” Development and Change, vol. 31 (2000), pp. 785-805.
Samer Abdelnour and Akbar M. Saeed, “Advocacy Networks and the Rape-Stove Problematization:
Dadaab, Darfur, and the Global Panacea” (unpublished paper; used with kind permission
from the authors).
WEEK TWELVE: Aid and Conflict (April 2)
David Shearer, “Aiding or Abetting? Humanitarian Aid and Its Economic Role in Civil War,”
chapter 10 in Mats Berdal and David Malone eds., Greed and Grievance: Economic
Agendas in Civil Wars (Boulder and Ottawa: Lynne Rienner and IDRC, 2000).
Danny Hoffman, “The Civilian Target in Sierra Leone and Liberia: Political power, military
strategy, and humanitarian intervention,” African Affairs, vol. 103 (2004), pp. 211-226.
Paul Collier, “Overview” and chapters 5 and 6 in Breaking the Conflict Trap: Civil War and
Development Policy, (Washington, DC and New York: World Bank and Oxford University
Press, 2003) [Available on-line through the World Bank Website].
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