Y375 – War and International Conflict (Section 25844)
Dr. Scott Pegg
Office: CA 503K
Office Hours: Tuesdays & Thursdays 9:00-10:00 AM & 12:00-1:00 PM, or by prior
appointment.
Phone: 278-5749
E-mail: smpegg@iupui.edu
Dedicated to the memory of US Army Colonel Thomas H. Felts, Sr., Command and
General Staff College, School of Advanced Military Studies, killed by an improvised
explosive device on November 14, 2006 in Baghdad.
Objectives:
This course is designed to introduce you to war and international conflict
historically, comparatively and conceptually. In particular, we will focus much of our
attention on the various forms of war and conflict prevalent since 1945. There are no
course prerequisites, although Y219 Introduction to International Relations is helpful.
Course readings:
There are five required books for this course. They are:
1) Ishmael Beah, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. New York:
Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2007.
2) Mary Kaldor, New and Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era, 2nd
edition. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2007.
3) Mao Tse-Tung, On Guerrilla Warfare, translated by Samuel B. Griffith II.
Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2000.
4) John Mueller, The Remnants of War. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2004.
5) Martin van Creveld, The Changing Face of War: Lessons of Combat from the
Marne to Iraq. New York: Presidio Press, 2006.
All five of these books are available in the university bookstore. They can also be
ordered from Amazon.com or from the publishers directly. In addition to these five
books, there are also a number of additional readings which will be made available to
registered students in the course through the University Library Course Reserves system
at the IUPUI library. To access these readings, you can either click on the course
reserves link from the university library’s main home page or visit
https://reserves.ulib.iupui.edu directly. The reserve readings will come up as web links or
PDF files which you can read on the screen, print out or save. They are as important as
the other course readings and they will be covered on the exams.
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Course grading:
15% of your overall grade is based on attendance and participation
25% of your overall grade is based on the written assignment
30% of your overall grade is based on the first midterm exam
30% of your overall grade is based on the second midterm exam
There are no extra credit assignments available in this course.
Your final course grade will solely be based on these four components
(attendance and participation, written assignment, two midterm exams). Job, family,
relationship or other problems are not relevant to your performance in this class. All that
matters is how you do on the four components listed above.
Students are entitled to an explanation of their grades. If you wish to challenge
any of my grades, you must write me a memo explaining why. I will not consider
changing any grades without a written request to do so.
The grading scale that will be used in this course is as follows:
97-100=A+
93-96=A
90-92=A87-89=B+
83-86=B
80-82=B77-79=C+
73-76=C
70-72=C67-69=D+
63-66=D
60-62=D0-59=F
Statement on incomplete (I) grades:
As a general rule, I do not give grades of I or incomplete. As no papers will be
accepted more than two weeks late, you cannot receive a grade of I or incomplete for a
missing paper. The only way you can receive a grade of I or incomplete is if you have
taken the first midterm exam and turned in the written assignment but have to take a
make-up exam for the final. Otherwise, you are not eligible for an incomplete in this
course. Anyone who seeks a grade of I in this course should anticipate having to make
up the final exam within one calendar month of its original date. After one month, I will
assign you a grade of zero on that exam and turn in a change of grade form to reflect that.
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Statement on plagiarism and academic integrity:
Plagiarism is defined by IUPUI as “the use of the work of others without properly
crediting the actual source of the ideas, words, sentences, paragraphs, entire articles,
music or pictures.” Buying papers written by someone other than yourself also
constitutes plagiarism. I support and abide by the university’s position that “Plagiarism,
a form of cheating, is a serious offense and will be severely punished.” Plagiarism can
easily be avoided by properly citing all references used in your papers. If you have any
questions, please see me during office hours or before or after class to talk about this.
Any plagiarism will be penalized. Papers which contain substantial plagiarized sections
will automatically receive an F in this course and may lead to disciplinary action by the
university. For more information, please see the IUPUI Student Code of Conduct which
is available at http://www.life.iupui.edu/help/code.asp.
Students with disabilities or special needs:
Students with disabilities or special needs are encouraged to make use of the
services provided by Adaptive Educational Services (AES). Students may get in contact
with AES by visiting their office in the basement of Cavanaugh Hall, calling 274-3241, emailing AES@iupui.edu or visiting their website at
http://www.life.iupui.edu/aes/index.asp.
Student Advocate Office:
If you have questions or problems and require assistance, please visit the Student
Advocate Office in UC 002. They can also be contacted via 278-7594 or
stuadvoc@iupui.edu. Their website is http://www.life.iupui.edu/advocate/.
Exams, exam dates and make-up exams:
The midterm exams will cover both the course readings and in-class lectures and
discussions. Some of my lectures might follow the readings closely. Others will have a
more indirect connection to the readings. Students are responsible for all material
covered in the course whether it comes from the readings or from our classroom sessions.
The second midterm exam is not designed to be cumulative and it will be given during
the university’s final examination period.
While we may occasionally diverge from some of the lecture and class discussion
topics listed on the syllabus, the exam dates listed below are permanently fixed and will
not be changed. Please do not ask me to reschedule the exams.
Make-up exams will only be given to students with a valid excuse who give me
prior notification that they will not be at the regularly-scheduled exam. Unless you are
literally on your death bed, you can either call my office and leave a voicemail message
or you can send me an e-mail ahead of time. Make-up exams will not necessarily be in
the same format as the regular exam and they may be harder than the regular exam.
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Attendance and participation:
Attendance will be taken regularly. You do not have to e-mail me every time you miss
class. I understand that students do get sick and occasionally miss class for important
reasons. As such, one or two absences will not be penalized. Additional absences will
result in a proportional lowering of your grade in this area. Students who participate
in class actively can expect to score higher on this component of their grade than students
who merely sit in their chairs passively. Active participation can include such things as
asking questions about the readings, asking questions about the lecture, making
connections between different readings in the course, making connections between the
course material and current events, answering questions posed by the professor,
answering questions posed by another student, etc. The quality of your participation is
more important than the quantity of your participation. Students who ask questions
which are directly pertinent to our class discussions or readings or synthesize the
different readings together will score better than students whose comments or questions
are only of peripheral relevance to our class material.
Written assignment:
The written assignment is due at the beginning (10:30 AM) of class on Thursday,
November 15th. It must be double-space typed in Times New Roman 12 point font with 1
inch margins all around. The paper must be a minimum of 6 pages in length and it
should not be more than 12 pages in length. In writing your paper, you should at all
times avoid plagiarism. See the above statement on plagiarism and academic integrity
for more on this.
The written assignment for this course is to write a review article or literature
review on three-five different academic sources that address the same topic, ideally from
different or contrasting perspectives. Students who are not familiar with this type of
assignment should consult chapter 3 “Addressing the Scholarly Debate: The Literature
Review” of Lisa Baglione, Writing a Research Paper in Political Science: A Practical
Guide to Inquiry, Structure, and Methods (Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2007)
which offers a number of helpful hints and suggestions for completing this type of written
assignment.
Before getting into the substance of the paper, there are two broad eligibility
criteria that you must keep in mind in doing this assignment. First, what counts as an
acceptable subject for this paper? Broadly speaking, any topic that falls under the general
rubric of war and conflict is acceptable. Broad topics covered on your syllabus include
such things as the ethics of war, nuclear weapons, guerrilla warfare, child soldiers,
terrorism, the economics of war and the future evolution of warfare. You could select a
broad topic like this or a much more specific topic from within one of these categories
like humanitarian intervention, nuclear weapons proliferation or the trade in small arms.
There are also a number of other topics not specifically covered on this syllabus like
refugees, genocide, the use of rape as a systematic weapon of war, the significance of air
power or specific contemporary wars (Congo, Sri Lanka, Sudan, etc.) that might also be
of interest to you.
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Second, what counts as an eligible academic source? There are three basic things
that are acceptable here: 1) academic journal articles (American Political Science Review,
Foreign Affairs, International Organization, International Security, Journal of Modern
African Studies, Journal of Peace Research, Third World Quarterly, World Politics, etc.);
2) chapters from academic edited volumes (example: Paul Collier, “Doing Well Out of
War: An Economic Perspective,” pp. 91-111 of Mats Berdal and David M. Malone, eds.,
Greed and Grievance: Economic Agendas in Civil Wars, Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2000);
3) a single author academic book or a chapter from it (example: K. J. Holsti, “War,”
chapter 9 of Taming the Sovereigns: Institutional Change in International Politics,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004). There are other potential sources that
might be eligible here like reports from international organizations such as the World
Bank or the UN; US government reports; or reports from non-governmental
organizations such as Global Witness, Human Rights Watch or Oxfam. It is, however,
your responsibility to check with me on whether or not a given source is acceptable for
this paper. You may talk to me about this before or after class, during my office hours or
via e-mail. All of your sources must be at least 10 pages in length.
There are six main categories of sources that are not acceptable here. They
are: 1) material on the syllabus for this course; 2) any form of media sources or
journalism; 3) Internet websites; 4) textbooks used in other courses taught at IUPUI
(Karen Mingst, Essentials of International Relations; John McCormick, Comparative
Politics in Transition, etc.); 5) extremely broad or general history books (United States
History; A History of the Modern World, etc.); and 6) Wikipedia. You can certainly
consult these kinds of sources, but they do not count toward the requirement of between
three-five academic sources. Note: a World Bank report or an academic journal article
you download from the Internet is perfectly fine. A speech that somebody gave which is
posted on a website, a blog, a media source or a short summary of an issue from a
website is not.
The substantive focus of this assignment is to get you to think comparatively and
critically about different arguments or views on the same topic and force you to engage
with a diversity of opinion in the given area. In writing your paper, you should briefly
summarize each of the sources to demonstrate that you have read and understood their
arguments. In the analysis and evaluation part of the paper, you should indicate how the
different authors approach the problem, how their interpretations of it compare and
contrast, how significant a challenge or issue they see it as being, what variables they see
as causing or affecting it, which actors they see as essential for addressing it, what
evidence they offer to support their arguments, and what, if any, solutions they offer for
solving it. Obviously, it might not be possible to cover all of these topics in any given
paper, but these are some of the kinds of questions you should keep in mind when
reading these sources. In the conclusion of your paper, you should indicate which
argument(s) you found most and least convincing and explain why.
Your written assignment will be graded on the basis of the following factors:
a) following directions – papers that conform to the above specifications in terms
of due date, word length, margins, typestyle, appropriate topics, etc. will score better than
those which do not. See below for my late paper policy.
b) quantity and quality of sources consulted – papers with between three - five
eligible academic sources will score much better than papers without them. If you are not
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sure whether or not a source counts as academic, ask ahead of time. Papers without at
least three eligible academic sources will not score higher than 65% on this assignment
and may fail.
c) clarity of argument and expression – papers that clearly and succinctly express
themselves will score better than papers which do not.
d) conciseness and brevity – avoid unnecessary repetition.
e) structure – papers which are well-structured will score better than papers which
are poorly organized and jump around between different unconnected points.
f) ability to identify important points or concepts – as you have to read three –
five different sources and you only have at most 12 pages to work with, you must
carefully distill what is essential to each author’s argument from what is secondary or
peripheral. You must also identify key points of similarity and difference between the
different sources. Papers which fail to identify important points or concepts will not
score as well as papers which do.
g) depth, specificity, and sophistication of analysis and argument – papers which
offer specific, original, innovative, complex and/or incisive analysis and argumentation
will score better than papers which do not.
h) quality of presentation – papers that are proofread, spell-checked and wellwritten will score better than papers which are not.
Late papers:
The written assignment proposal is due at the beginning of class (10:30 AM) on
Thursday, November 15th. Papers turned in after 10:30 but on the same day the
assignment is due will have 5 points deducted from them. You will lose an additional 5
points for each 24 hour calendar period the paper is late. No papers will be accepted
more than 2 weeks late.
Important Dates During the Semester
August 29 (6:00 PM)
September 4 (6:00 PM)
September 11 (6:00 PM)
September 18 (6:00 PM)
October 16 (5:00 PM)
November 13 (5:00 PM)
100% refund period ends
75% refund period ends
50% refund period ends
25% refund period ends
Last day to withdraw with automatic grade of W
Last day to withdraw
Class schedule and required readings:
This course meets every Tuesday and Thursday from 10:30-11:45 AM in room
CA 227. Course readings should be done before the class they are listed for as we will
discuss them in class that day.
Th. 8/23 – 1st day of class, no required readings.
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Tu. 8/28 – General Introduction/Historical Overview
Mueller, introduction.
van Creveld, chapter 7.
Th. 8/30 – The Causes of War
Mueller, chapter 1.
Kenneth N. Waltz, “Structural Realism After the Cold War,” International
Security, Vol. 25 # 1 (Summer 2000): 5-41, available from university library course
reserves.
Tu. 9/4 – War’s Historical Roles
Mueller, chapter 2.
Kaldor, chapter 2.
Th. 9/6 – Total War
van Creveld, chapter 2, sections 2.4, 2.5 and 2.6.
van Creveld, chapter 4, section 4.3, 4.4, 4.5 and 4.6.
Tu. 9/11 – The Nuclear Era
van Creveld, chapter 5, sections 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3.
Th. 9/13 – The Nuclear Era from a Different Perspective
Film: “Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the
Bomb.” Produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick, 1963. Note: This film will conclude
at the beginning of our next class on Tuesday.
Tu. 9/18 – The Significance of Nuclear Weapons
Conclusion of the film “Dr. Strangelove,” followed by a discussion on:
Kenneth N. Waltz, “Nuclear Myths and Political Realities,” American Political
Science Review, Vol. 84 # 3 (September 1990): 731-745, available from university library
course reserves.
Th. 9/20 – Guerrilla Warfare
van Creveld, chapter 6, section 6.2.
Mao, Introduction section I
Mao, chapters 1, 2, 6 and 7
Tu. 9/25 – An Example of Quantitative Research on Civil Wars
James D. Fearon and David D. Laitin, “Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War,”
American Political Science Review, Vol. 97 # 1 (February 2003): 75-90, available from
university library course reserves.
Th. 9/27 – Insurgency and Counterinsurgency
US Army Field Manual No. 3-24/Marine Corps Warfighting Publication No. 333.5, Counterinsurgency, December 2006, chapter 1, available from university library
course reserves.
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Tu. 10/2 – Insurgency and Counterinsurgency from a Different Perspective, Part I
Film: “The Battle of Algiers.” Directed by Gillo Pontecorvo, 1967.
Th. 10/4 – Insurgency and Counterinsurgency from a Different Perspective, Part II
Conclusion of the film “The Battle of Algiers.”
Tu. 10/9 – The Politics of “New” Wars
Kaldor, Introduction and chapter 4.
van Creveld, chapter 5, section 5.5.
Th. 10/11 – The Economics of “New” Wars
Kaldor, chapter 5.
Tu. 10/16 – A Critical Assessment of “New” Wars
Stathis N. Kalyvas, “‘New’ and ‘Old’ Civil Wars: A Valid Distinction?” World
Politics, Vol. 54 # 1 (October 2001): 99-118, available from university library course
reserves.
Th. 10/18 – 1st Midterm Examination
Tu. 10/23 – Contemporary Experiences of War, Part I
Beah, chapters 1-9.
Th. 10/25 – Contemporary Experiences of War, Part II
Beah, chapters 10-15.
Tu. 10/30 – Explaining Differences in How Civilians Are Treated in Contemporary Wars
Macartan Humphreys and Jeremy M. Weinstein, “Handling and Manhandling
Civilians in Civil War,” American Political Science Review, Vol. 100 # 3 (August 2006):
429-448, available from university library course reserves.
Th. 11/1 – The Remnants of War
Mueller, chapter 6.
van Creveld, chapter 5, section 5.4
Tu. 11/6 – Suicide Terrorism
Robert Pape, “The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism,” American Political
Science Review, Vol. 97 # 3 (August 2003): 343-361, available from university library
course reserves.
Documentary film: “Battle for the Holy Land.”
Th. 11/8 – The Ethics of War, the United States and Contemporary Conflicts, Part I
Neta C. Crawford, “Just War Theory and the US Counterterror War,”
Perspectives on Politics, Vol. 1 # 1 (March 2003): 5-26, available from university library
course reserves.
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Tu. 11/13 – The Ethics of War, the United States and Contemporary Conflicts, Part II
Thomas W. Smith, “The New Law of War: Legitimizing Hi-Tech and
Infrastructural Violence,” International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 46 # 3 (September 2002):
355-374, available from university library course reserves.
Colin H. Kahl, “How We Fight,” Foreign Affairs, Vol. 85 # 6 (NovemberDecember 2006): 83-102.
Th. 11/15 – What Can or Should Be Done in Iraq?
Steven Metz, “Insurgency and Counterinsurgency in Iraq,” The Washington
Quarterly, Vol. 27 # 1 (Winter 2004): 25-36, available from university library course
reserves.
Edward N. Luttwak, “Iraq: The Logic of Disengagement,” Foreign Affairs, Vol.
84 # 1 (January/February 2005): 26-36, available from university library course reserves.
Stephen Biddle, “Seeing Baghdad, Thinking Saigon,” Foreign Affairs, Vol. 85 # 2
(March/April 2006): 2-14, available from university library course reserves.
Written assignment due at the beginning of class (10:30 AM)
Tu. 11/20 – The Private Sector Role in War and Conflict
P.W. Singer, “Outsourcing War,” Foreign Affairs, Vol. 84 # 2 (March/April
2005): 119-133, available from university library course reserves.
Deborah D. Avant, “Mercenaries,” Foreign Policy, Issue 143 (July/August 2004):
20-28, available from university library course reserves.
Deborah D. Avant, “Contracting for Services in US Military Operations,” PS:
Political Science and Politics, Vol. XL # 3 (July 2007): 457-460, available from
university library course reserves.
Scott Pegg, “The Cost of Doing Business: Transnational Corporations and
Violence in Nigeria,” Security Dialogue, Vol. 30 # 4 (December 1999): 473-484,
available from university library course reserves.
Th. 11/22 – Thanksgiving Holiday, no class.
Tu. 11/27 – What Can or Should Be Done About Contemporary Wars, Part I
Edward N. Luttwak, “Give War a Chance,” Foreign Affairs, Vol. 78 # 4
(July/August 1999): 36-44, available from university library course reserves.
van Creveld, chapter 6, sections 6.3, 6.4, 6.5 and 6.6.
Th. 11/29 – What Can or Should Be Done About Contemporary Wars, Part II
Kaldor, chapters 6 and 8.
Tu. 12/4 – What Can or Should Be Done About Contemporary Wars, Part III
Mueller, chapters 7 and 8.
Th. 12/6 – Alternative Future Scenarios
Michael T. Klare, “The New Geography of Conflict,” Foreign Affairs, Vol. 80 # 3
(May/June 2001): 49-61, available from university library course reserves.
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Ted Robert Gurr, “Ethnic Warfare on the Wane,” Foreign Affairs, Vol. 79 # 3
(May/June 2000): 52-64, available from university library course reserves.
Mueller, chapter 9.
The 2nd Midterm Examination will be held during the university’s regularly
scheduled final exam period for this course: Thursday, December 13th from 10:30
AM – 12:30 PM.