PSCI 6830: International Conflict | ||
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Dr. Paul Hensel | ||
Course Description
This course examines theoretical and empirical work on the causes and consequences of militarized conflict between nation-states. We will consider causes from a variety of different levels of analysis (ranging from individual psychology to national attributes or interactions and the structure of the entire global system) and a variety of different theoretical perspectives (including work drawing from realism, institutionalism, and everything in between). After taking the course, students should be familiar with the scientific literature on militarized conflict, should be able to evaluate this literature in a critical yet constructive fashion, and should be able to begin producing their own research in this area.
It should be noted that this will not be a history course, and we will not be discussing or examining individual wars. The assigned readings emphasize generalizable theories and quantitative evidence on general patterns of conflict involvement across time and space, and this will be the focus of our discussions in this course. Students wishing to study or discuss specific conflicts/wars or current events are encouraged to take courses from the History department or to form their own discussion groups, as we will not be discussing these types of topics in this course.
This course is an important part of the Political Science Ph.D. program, and will thus be aimed at preparing Ph.D. students to pass their qualifying exams and to become serious scholars of conflict. Students from other departments or programs are welcome to take the course, as long as they can keep up with a course taught at this level. It must be emphasized that this course will involve intensive reading of advanced scholarly research; nearly every reading that is assigned involves formal mathematical models, quantitative data analysis, or both. While students are not necessarily expected to be able to produce their own quantitative and/or formal research, they must be able to understand and discuss it. Students who are unable to do this or who are unwilling to accept the validity of quantitative analyses of conflict patterns should avoid this course, as they will be wasting both their own time and that of their classmates, and their grades for participation and for the discussion papers will reflect this.
Required Texts
The following two books are required. They have been ordered from the campus bookstores, but should be available at such locations as amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com, or half.com:
- Sara McLaughlin Mitchell, Paul F. Diehl, and James D. Morrow, eds. (2012). Guide to the Scientific Study of International Processes. Wiley-Blackwell.
- John A. Vasquez (2012). What Do We Know About War?, 2nd edition. New York: Rowman and Littlefield.
One other book is optional. No material in this book will be required for this course, but it contains a lot of useful material that may be valuable to anybody interested in doing further research (or taking field exams) in this area:
- Jack S. Levy and William R. Thompson (2010). Causes of War. Wiley-Blackwell.
Most of the other readings are available through JSTOR or UNT's other e-journal subscriptions; the ones that are not will be made available on the instructor's Canvas page for this course.
The rest of the syllabus, including assigned readings, is available in the complete syllabus (in PDF format).
http://www.paulhensel.org/Teaching/gradconflict.html
Last updated: 11 January 2021 (updated Spring 2021 description)
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