1
Course Plan: 24-106.15: Civil Wars and the Politics of International Interventionism
Dr. Giulia Piccolino, German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA)
Updated as 27 January 2015, includes details about the final paper.
Please consult regularly the Agora workspace, where you will also find also the readings, with the
exceptions of those freely available in internet.
1
15
Octob
er
Topic
Introductio
n
Readings
Additional general readings:
Nicholas Sambanis, “What Is Civil War? Conceptual and Empirical
Complexities of an Operational Definition.” Journal of Conflict Resolution
2004, 48 (6): 814–58. doi:10.1177/0022002704269355.
Lotta Themnér and Peter Wallensteen, “Armed Conflicts, 1946–2013.”
Journal of Peace Research 2014 51 (4): 541–54.
Correlates of War
http://www.correlatesofwar.org/
Uppsala Conflict Data Program
http://www.pcr.uu.se/research/ucdp/
3
22
Octob
er
What
causes civil
wars?
Grievances
and
opportunit
ies
Readings for everyone
Jeffrey Dixon, ‘What Causes Civil Wars? Integrating Quantitative
Research Findings’, International Studies Review, 2009, Volume 11(4),
pp. 707-735.
Cramer, C., ‘Angola and the Theory of War’ in Ulf Engel, Patrick Chabal,
Anna Maria Gentili (eds.), Is Violence Inevitable in Africa? Theories of
Conflict and Approaches to Conflict Prevention, Brill, Leiden, 2005, 17-34.
Readings on Syria:
International Crisis Group, ‘Rigged Cars and Barrel Bombs: Aleppo and
the State of the Syrian War’, Middle East Report N°155 9 Sep 2014.
http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/middle-east-north-africa/egyptsyria-lebanon/syria/155-rigged-cars-and-barrel-bombs-aleppo-and-thestate-of-the-syrian-war.aspx
Rosiny, Stephan, “The Caliph’s New Clothes: The Islamic State in Iraq and
Syria.”, GIGA 2014 Focus briefing:
http://www.giga-hamburg.de/de/publication/the-caliph%E2%80%99snew-clothes-the-islamic-state-in-iraq-and-syria Available also in
German: http://www.giga-hamburg.de/de/publikationen/gigafocus/nahost
Bellamy, Alex J. 2014. “From Tripoli to Damascus? Lesson Learning and
the Implementation of the Responsibility to Protect.” International
Politics 51 (1): 23–44.
2
29
Octob
er
What
sustain
civil wars?
Economic
agendas
Readings for everyone
David Keen, Complex emergencies, Cambridge, Polity, 2007, Chapter 2,
‘Greed: Economic agendas’, pp.25-49.
Jeffrey Herbst, ‘Economic incentives, natural resources and conflict in
Africa’, Journal of African Economies (2000) 9 (3): 270-294.
Case study: Sierra Leone
Suggested reading
Paul Richards, ‘The Political Economy of Internal Conflict in Sierra Leone’
Working Paper 21, Netherlands Institute of International Affairs.
David Keen, ‘Greedy Elites, Dwindling Resources, Alienated Youths. The
Anatomy of Protracted Violence in Sierra Leone’, Internationale Politik
und Gesellschaft, 2/2003
http://www.fes.de/ipg/IPG2_2003/ARTKEEN.HTM
Question to address for the presenter: what was the role of diamonds in
the conflict in Sierra Leone?
2
5
Nove
mber
Are
contempor
ary civil
wars
“new”?
Readings for everyone
Kaldor, Mary. 2010. New and Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global
Era, 2nd. Ed, Stanford University Press, Introduction, pp. 1-14.
Kalyvas S. N., ‘"New" and "old" civil wars: a valid distinction?’, World
Politics 54(1), 2001.
Case study: former Yugoslavia
Suggested readings
Mary Kaldor, New and Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era,
2nd. Ed., Stanford University Press, Chapter 3, pp. 31-68.
V.P. Gagnon, ‘Ethnic nationalism and international conflict: The case of
Serbia’, International security, 1994, 19(3): 130-166.
Question to address for the presenter: would you agree that the
Yugoslavian wars were new wars? Why?
4
12
Nove
mber
How are
CW
waged?
Violence
and
technologi
es of
rebellion
Readings for everyone
Kalyvas, Stathis N. “The Changing Character of Civil Wars, 1800–2009,”
2011, in Hew Strachan and Sybille Scheipers, The Changing Character of
War, Oxford University Press, pp. 202-219.
Jeremy Weinstein, Inside Rebellion: the politics of insurgent violence,
Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp.27-60.
Case study: Sendero Luminoso (Peru)
3
Suggest reading:
Jeremy Weinstein, Inside Rebellion, pp. 81-95 116-125 149-158 186-195
239-258.
Question to address for the presenter: in which ways were the national
Sendero Luminoso and the Huallaga branch different ,and what does
account for these differences, according to Weinstein?
5
19
Nove
mber
External
involveme
nt in civil
wars and
regional
contagion
Readings for everyone
Kristian Gleditsch, ‘Transnational Dimensions of Civil War’, Journal of
Peace Research 2007, 44 (3): 293-309.
Sarah Lischer, ‘Collateral Damage: Humanitarian Assistance As Cause of
a Conflict’, International Security 2003, 28(1).
Case study: The Great Lakes Region of Africa
Suggest readings:
Jeff Crisp and Elizabeth Tan (eds.), ‘The Refugee Crisis In The Great Lakes
Region Of Africa’, special issue, Refugee Survey Quarterly, 1998 17 (2): 1.
Kurt Mills & Richard J. Norton, ‘Refugees and security in the Great Lakes
region of Africa’, Civil Wars, 5:1, 1-26, 2002.
Question to address for the presenter: why did international assistance
to refugees in the DRC contribute to the spread of conflict?
6
26
Nove
mber
The rise of
internation
al
interventio
nism
Readings for everyone
Boutros Ghali, Agenda for peace, 1992. Available at:
www.unrol.org/files/a_47_277.pdf
Alex J. Bellamy , Paul D. Williams and Stuart Griffin, Understanding
Peacekeeping, 2nd Edition, Polity Press, 2010, pp. 93-120.
Case study: Cambodia
Suggest readings:
James Mayall, The New Interventionism, 1991-1994: United Nations
Experience in Cambodia, Former Yugoslavia and Somalia, Cambridge
University Press 1996, ‘Cambodia’, pp. 25-58.
Michael W. Doyle, Ian Johnstone and Robert C. Orr (eds.), Keeping the
Peace: Multidimensional UN Operations in Cambodia and El Salvador,
Cambridge University Press 1997, pp. 134-164.
Question to address for the presenter: which unprecedented challenges
did the Cambodia situation a pose to the UN? To what extent was the
UN successful?
7
3
Dece
The
failures of
Readings for everyone
4
mber
the ‘90s
and the
limits of
interventio
nism
United Nations, ‘Report of the Panel on United Nations Peace
Operations’ [Brahimi report], 2000, ‘Executive summary’, pp. VIII-XV.
Available at:
http://www.unrol.org/doc.aspx?n=brahimi+report+peacekeeping.pdf
S.J. Stedman, D. S. Rothchild, et al., Ending civil wars: the
implementation of peace agreements, Lynne Rienner, Boulder, 2002,
‘Introduction’, pp.1-40.
Case study: Rwanda
Suggest readings:
Gilbert M. Khadiagala, ‘Implementing the Arusha Peace Agreement on
Rwanda’, in Stedman and Rotschild, Ending civil wars, pp. 463-498.
C. Clapham, ‘Rwanda: the Perils of Peacemaking’, Journal of Peace
Research 1994 35(2): 194-210.
Question to address for the presenter: Why did the peace process in
Rwanda end in the tragedy of genocide? Which errors did the
international community make?
9
10
Dece
mber
Peacebuild
ing and the
liberal
paradigm
Reading for everyone
Paris, R., At War’s End: Building Peace after Civil Conflict. Cambridge
University Press, 2004, pp.13-39 and 151-178.
Case study: the wars in Central America
Suggest readings:
Mark Peceny and William Stanley, ‘Liberal Social Reconstruction and the
Resolution of Civil Wars in Central America’, International Organization
55(1), 2001, pp 149 – 182.
Paris, R., Peacebuilding in Central America: Reproducing the Sources of
Conflict?, International Peacekeeping, 9:4, 39-68.
Question to address for the presenter: Did the paradigm of liberal
peacebuilding contribute or undermine conflict resolution in Central
America?
10
17
Dece
mber
The
Responsibi
lity to
Protect:
the use of
force to
prevent
mass
atrocities?
Readings for everyone (provisional list, tbc)
Roland Paris (2014): The ‘Responsibility to Protect’ and the Structural
Problems of Preventive Humanitarian Intervention, International
Peacekeeping.
Alex J. Bellamy, ‘The responsibility to protect—five years on’, Ethics &
International Affairs, 2010, Volume 24, Issue 2, pages 143–169.
Piccolino G. 2014, ‘The Dilemmas of Consent in UN Peace Operations:
the case of the United Nations Operation in Côte d’Ivoire’, in Marco
Wyss and Thierry Tardy (eds), Peacekeeping in Africa: the Evolving
5
Security Architecture, Routledge.
10
7
Janua
ry
The limits
of the
liberal
paradigm:
the failure
of postwar
democratiz
ation
Reading for everyone:
Christoph Zürcher, Carrie Manning, Kristie D. Evenson, Rachel Hayman,
Sarah Riese and Nora Roehner, Costly democracy, Peacebuilding and
Democratization After War, Stanford University Press, 2013, pp.1-33.
Case study: Kosovo
Jens Narten will be a special guest
Suggest readings:
Jens Narten, ‘Evaluating International Influences on Democratic
Development. Case Study Report on Kosovo, IFSH Hamburg, March
2009.
Available at:
http://aix1.uottawa.ca/~czurcher/czurcher/Transitions.html
Oisín Tansey, ‘The Concept and Practice of Democratic Regime-Building’,
International Peacekeeping, 2007, 14:5, 633-646
Question to address for the presenter: why, in spite of extensive
international involvement, did democracy promotion in Kosovo achieve
limited results?
11
14
Janua
ry
Post
conflict
statebuildi
ng 1
Readings for everyone:
Charles T. Call with Vanessa Wyeth (eds), Building States to Build Peace,
Lynne Rienner 2008, Introduction, pp. 1-22.
Edward Newman (2013), ‘The violence of statebuilding in historical
perspective: implications for peacebuilding’, Peacebuilding, 1:1, 141-157
Case study: East Timor
Suggest readings:
S. Chesterman East Timor in Transition: Self-Determination,
State-Building and the United Nations, International Peacekeeping,
2002, 9:1, 45-76, DOI.
Jarat Chopra, ‘Building State Failure in East Timor’, Development and
Change, Volume 33, Issue 5, pages 979–1000, 2002.
Question to address for the presenter: In East Timor, the UN had to build
a state that did not exist. Which main challenges did it encounter? To
what extent did it manage to overcome them?
12
21
Janua
ry
Postconflict
statebuildi
ng in
Afghanista
n and Iraq:
Reading for everyone.
Michael Barnett and Christoph Zürcher, ‘The peacebuilder’s contract:
how external statebuilding reinforces weak statehood’, in Roland Paris
and Timothy D. Sisk, The Dilemmas of Statebuilding: Confronting the
Contradictions of Postwar Peace Operations (London: Routledge,2009),
6
what went
wrong?
pp.23-52.
Case study: Afghanistan
Presenters: Paulina, Julian
Astri Suhrke, ‘Statebuilding in Afghanistan: a contradictory engagement’,
Central Asian Survey, 2013, 32:3, 271-286.
William Maley (2013) ‘Statebuilding in Afghanistan: challenges and
pathologies’, Central Asian Survey, 2013, 32:3, 255-270.
Case study: Iraq
Suggested readings:
Toby Dodge (2007) ‘The Causes of US Failure in Iraq’, Survival: Global
Politics and Strategy, 49:1, 85-106.
International Crisis Group, ‘Iraq’s Jihadi Jack-in-the-Box’, Policy Briefing
Middle East 38, 20 June 2014.
http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/regions/middle-east-north-africa/iraqiran-gulf/iraq/b038-iraq-s-jihadi-jack-in-the-box.aspx
Question to address for the presenters: more than ten years after the
Afghanistan and Iraq interventions, the of US-sponsored state building
efforts are evident. Has this outcome been inevitable, according to you?
Which errors were committed by external interveners?
28
Janua
ry
Peace
without
interventio
n: is it the
alternative
?
Readings for everyone:
Jeremy Weinstein, ‘Autonomous Recovery and International
Intervention in Comparative Perspective’, Center For Global
Development, Working Paper 57, 2005.
http://www.cgdev.org/publication/autonomous-recovery-andinternational-intervention-comparative-perspective-working-paper.
Terrence Lyons, ‘The Importance of Winning: Victorious Insurgent
Groups and Post-Conflict Politics’, 2013. SSRN Scholarly Paper ID
2315753. http://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2315753.
Case study: Sri Lanka
Suggested readings:
David Lewis, ‘The Failure of a Liberal Peace: Sri Lanka’s CounterInsurgency in Global Perspective’, Conflict, Security & Development,
2010, 10 (5): 647–71.
Kristine Höglund and Camilla Orjuela, ‘Hybrid Peace Governance and
Illiberal Peacebuilding in Sri Lanka’, Global Governance 2012, 18 (1): 89–
104.
Case study: Angola
7
Suggested readings:
Ricardo Soares de Oliveira, ‘Illiberal peacebuilding in Angola’, Journal of
Modern African Studies, 49, 2 (2011): 287–314.
Jon Schubert ‘Democratisation’ and the Consolidation of Political
Authority in Post-War Angola , Journal of Southern African Studies, 36:3,
657-672, 2010 DOI:
Question to address for the presenters: Sri Lanka and Angola are
recovering from violent conflicts without the type of massive
peacekeeping/peacebuilding interventions that we have discussed in the
previous lectures. Are these countries challenging the dominant
peacebuilding model? What do you see as the positive and negative
sides of their experience?
Module exam ('Modulprüfung'):
Students will have to submit a term paper of approximately 14-18 pages; the paper will build on the
case studies approached in class, or address another case study chosen by the student. The paper
should try to connect general theories and concepts to the case study, and show how theory can
illuminate aspects of reality or be contradicted by it.
The first deadline for submitting the term paper at the office of student affairs ('Studienbüro
Sozialwissenschaften') will be: 04.03.2015 ('1. Prüfungstermin'). In addition to submitting the paper
in print at the office of student affairs, participants will have to send in an electronic version via email
(to the instructor at giulia.piccolino@giga-hamburg.de). The term papers can be picked up from the
office of student affairs after they have been graded.
The second deadline for submitting the term paper at the office of students affairs ('Studienbüro
Sozialwissenschaften') will be: 31.03.2015 ('2. Prüfungstermin'). In addition to submitting the paper
in print at the office of student affairs, participants will have to send in an electronic version via email
(to the instructor at giulia.piccolino@giga-hamburg.de). The term papers can be picked up from the
office of student affairs after they have been graded.