International Relations Program, Maxwell School, Syracuse University
Winter 2010–2011 Global Programs Graduate Intersession Course:
‘Contemporary War and the Liberal Conscience’
Professor Jan Willem Honig
Swedish National Defence College
Drottning Kristinas väg 37
115 93 Stockholm
Sweden
Tel. 011 46 8 553 42730
Fax 011 46 8 553 42700
e-mail janwillem.honig@fhs.se
Course Description
The course investigates how the ‘liberal conscience’ (Michael Howard) influenced
the armed interventions and wars the West has undertaken since the end of the
Cold War. This conscience, one could argue, has been critical to the framing
European and US ideas about war since the French Revolution. Moreover, with the
end of the Cold War, when the West seemingly saw off its last major ideological
competitor, liberal ideas and values have been offered an unprecedented
opportunity to assert themselves and finally make our military establishments a true
and global ‘force for good’. The course will examine these claims in their conceptual
and historical context and consider how liberal norms and values have fared in the
exposure to actual conflict since 1989.
The course has a strong European flavour. Your tutor is Dutch. He does not hold an
American political science degree. He has chosen mostly non-American course texts
(and follows British English spelling). In addition, most of the course takes you away
from your usual study environment, to London. There, you will encounter material
artifacts, like museums, buildings and monuments that reflect particular views of war
that may be starkly or subtly different from those found in the US. You will also meet,
in their ‘natural habitat’ so to speak, academics, policy-makers, advisers and soldiers
who may also present views of war which are different from those generally
encountered in the US. Nonetheless, the aim of this transatlantic encounter is to
explore, through the observation of differences, whether there is a shared core of
values that is shaping our approach to contemporary war.
Course Objectives and Learning Outcomes
The course objectives are to:


develop a critical understanding of fundamental analytical and policy issues
involved in contemporary war
develop an awareness of the main theoretical and empirical debates from a
multi-disciplinary perspective


provide a conceptual, normative framework for understanding Western
approaches to contemporary war
foster the capacity for critical analysis, independent judgement and
communication at a level commensurate with taught postgraduate study
On successfully completing the course you will have:




developed a good understanding at an advanced level of how Western ideas
on war have evolved over the last two centuries and the challenges posed by
contemporary war
critically engaged with a range of approaches to the analysis and evaluation
of contemporary war
exercised informed independent judgement on fundamental issues related to
contemporary war
practiced a range of intellectual, practical and transferable skills, through
participation in classes and through the preparation and submission of course
work
Schedule
There are two parts to the course. From November 18 to 20, 2010, I will teach the
first part in Syracuse. The second part will take place in London from January 10–14
2011.
The five-day London element will offer a combination of seminars by invited
speakers and visits to relevant institutions. We will meet on the first day in the
Imperial War Museum to consider the question how Britain tries to account for its
very rich military past in the light of radically changed sensibilities regarding war.
Later in the week, visits are planned to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and
the Royal College of Defence Studies. We will also, if possible, go to a theatre play
on a politically controversial issue. On the remaining days, a series of presentations
by practitioners of war and diplomacy and leading scholars will be given at King’s
College London. In addition, we will hold some context and ‘debriefing’ seminars that
will allow you to develop the topics for your research papers. Towards the end of the
week, I will meet individually with each of you to discuss your final paper.
Note that you must attend the Syracuse seminars in order to qualify to come to
London.
I will teach four seminars in Syracuse on the following topics:
1. Introduction: The Liberal Conscience
2. The French Revolution and European Warmaking, 1789–1989, or what were we
fighting for and how did we do it?
3. Fighting For Peace, 1989 to the Present, Part I: What do we fight for nowadays
and how do we do it?
4. Fighting For Peace, 1989 to the Present, Part II: Who (or what) are we up
against?
In addition, you will have an opportunity to discuss the course and its requirements
individually with me in Syracuse.
Requirements and Assessment
Before you come to London, you will write a 10-page review of one of the books
from the list below. You should focus on identifying the big thesis of the book of your
choice and criticise it. This should provide you with good preparation and practice in
engaging with the fundamental issues of the course. Also the reviews, which are due
in the week before you arrive in London (send them to me by e-mail by January 7,
2011), allow me to gauge more precisely your strengths and weaknesses, so that I
can fine-tune the London week’s seminars. Note that choosing the littlest book
doesn’t necessarily make for the easiest review!
After you leave London, you will write a 20-page research paper on an issue of
your choosing that you must discuss with me and get approved.
The review will count for one quarter of your final grade, while the research paper
accounts for the remaining three-quarters.
Texts
This is intended to be a cutting-edge course about a big issue. The course takes it
inspiration from a wide and extremely rich range of literatures, which includes the
ones on the ‘ideology’ or political philosophy of ‘liberalism’, theories of international
relations (including normative theory), the causes and nature of war, just war,
international law, strategy and European history. There are three justifications. First,
war is such a complex and urgent issue that it merits being considered from a broad,
multi-disciplinary perspective. Second, these literatures provide a basis for
evaluating whether war is the product of changing ideas, norms and values rather
than something formed by unchanging human nature and political interest. Third, it
is appropriate for students at postgraduate level to familiarise themselves and
critically engage with a wide range of opinions and arguments on a complex and
topical issue.
There is therefore no one textbook. You are advised to read as widely as possible.
Do also keep up with the news! However, to provide guidance the following titles are
recommended for your study.
The two basic texts for the course are the two concise and elegant works by Britain’s
pre-eminent military historian (and, coincidentally, founder of the King’s College War
Studies Department), Sir Michael Howard:
Michael Howard, War and the Liberal Conscience (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1981)
Michael Howard, The Invention of Peace & the Reinvention of War (London: Profile
Books, 2002)
For added context on the main competing ideologies, check out:
Michael W. Doyle, Ways of War and Peace: Realism, Liberalism and Socialism
(New York: Norton, 1997)
If there’s one great book that comes closest to providing a course textbook (though,
sadly perhaps, it’s by an American. Read, marvel, engage and reflect critically—and
wonder why it was so much better received in Europe than in the US):
Philip Bobbitt, The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace and the Course of History (New
York: Knopf, 2002)
You may also read the more topical and more concisely argued:
Philip Bobbitt, Terror and Consent: The Wars for the Twenty-First Century (London:
Penguin, 2008)
The above are the basic texts, the following offer additional perspectives. Of special
note are the ones with an ‘*’.
For historical (and intellectual) context, you should consult either or both of the
following:
F. H. Hinsley, Power and the Pursuit of Peace: Theory and Practice in the History of
Relations between States (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1963)
—an archetypal British liberal account, first-rate
Tony Judt, Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945 (New York: Penguin, 2005)
For an excellent overview of how strategic thought reflected broad ideological
currents, see:
Azar Gat, A History of Military Thought from the Enlightenment to the Cold War
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001)
The conflicts that challenged us post-Cold War, but pre-Bush the Son, are covered,
respectively from a European and American perspective in:
William Shawcross, Deliver Us From Evil: Peacekeepers, Warlords and a World of
Endless Conflict (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000)
David Halberstam, War in a Time of Peace: Bush, Clinton, and the Generals (New
York: Scribner, 2001)
For the run-up to the big war of our time, see:
Mark Danner, The Secret Way to War (New York: New York Review of Books, 2006)
—if you want to review this, do this together with one volume from the Bob
Woodward ‘Bush trilogy’.
*Andrew J. Bacevich, The New American Militarism: How Americans are Seduced
by War (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005)
—an amazingly good book on how US attitudes on war have been evolving by a
retired US officer whose son was killed in Iraq a couple of years ago
For attempts to come to grips with the Western way of fighting wars see:
*Rupert Smith, The Utility of Force: The Art of War of War in the Modern World
(London: Penguin, 2006)
—this is one of the most important books to come in the past twenty years on the
issue of strategy, that is how one achieves political aims with the use of force
*Azar Gat, War in Human Civilization (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006)
—a tour de force covering all of human history, but do ask yourself why the book
was written now and what is the politically relevant message for us?
Max Boot, The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power
(New York: Basic Books, 2003)
—a neocon looks at history
Martin van Creveld, The Culture of War (New York: Presidio, 2008)
Christopher Coker, Humane Warfare (London: Routledge, 2001)
—a constructivist convert looks at war. You may also want to consider his more
recent work:
–––– , Ethics and War in the 21st Century (London: Routledge, 2008)
–––– , The Warrior Ethos: Military Culture and the War on Terror (London:
Routledge, 2007)
–––– , The Future of War: The Re-Enchantment of War in the Twenty-First Century
(Oxford: Blackwell, 2004)
Stephen Chan, Out of Evil: New International Politics and Old Doctrines of War
(London: I. B. Tauris, 2005)
Martin Shaw, The New Western Way of War: Risk-Transfer War and Its Crisis in Iraq
(Cambridge: Polity, 1995)
For attempts to figure out what modern conflict is all about, and by implication, what
we’re about:
Robert Cooper, The Breaking of Nations: Order and Chaos in the Twenty-first
Century (London: Atlantic Books, 2004)
Mark Duffield, Development, Security and Unending War: Governing the World of
Peoples (Cambridge: Polity, 2007)
James Gow, Defending the West (Cambridge: Polity, 2004)
Mary Kaldor, New and Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era, 2nd ed.
(Cambridge: Polity, 2006)
Herfried Münkler, The New Wars, trans. Patrick Camiller (Cambridge: Polity, 2004)
Louise Richardson, What Terrorists Want: Understanding the Terrorist Threat
(London: John Murray, 2006)
Additional tracts that illustrate the liberal’s struggle with the contemporary challenge
of war and peace are:
Michael Ignatieff, Virtual War: Kosovo and Beyond (New York: Picador, 2001)
Michael Ignatieff, Empire Lite: Nation-Building in Bosnia, Kosovo, and Afghanistan
(New York: Vintage, 2003)
Michael Ignatieff, The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror (Princeton, N.
J.: Princeton University Press, 2005)
Philippe Sands, Lawless World: Making and Breaking Global Rules (London:
Penguin, 2006)
—of special interest perhaps to the international lawyers on the course
Michael Mann, The Dark Side of Democracy: Explaining Ethnic Cleansing
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005)
A couple of pertinent articles:
Azar Gat, ‘Isolationism, Appeasement, Containment, and Limited War: Western
Strategic Policy from the Modern to the “Postmodern” Era’, in Zeev Maoz and Azar
Gat, eds., War in a Changing World (Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press,
2001), pp. 77–91
James Gow, ‘A Revolution in International Affairs?’, Security Dialogue, Vol. 31, No. 3
(September 2000), pp. 293–306