SUNY New Paltz
PS 77404:  Seminar in International Relations
“Conflict and Peacemaking in Multiethnic States”
Professor Kathleen Dowley
 

MW  8:30-9:45
HUM 208
Office:  806 JFT
Phone:  257-3558
Office Hours:  Monday, 2-4, Thursday, 9:30-11:00
dowleyk@matrix.newpaltz.edu
 
 

1. Course Description and Objectives:

This is the capstone course of the International Relations major and is designed to train
students in basic research methods, academic writing, critical thinking and effective oral
presentation.  The substantive focus of the course this semester is “Conflict and Peacemaking
in Multiethnic States.”  In this regard, the course provides students with a thorough survey of
the theoretical and empirical research and writing on ethnicity, ethnic conflict, and conflict
resolution.  Donald Horowitz begins his classic text Ethnic Groups in Conflict with the
observation that:

  The importance of ethnic conflict, as a force shaping human affairs, as a
  phenomenon to be understood, as a threat to be controlled, can no longer
  be denied.  By one reckoning, ethnic violence since World War II has claimed
  more than ten million lives, and in the last two decades ethnic conflict has
  become especially widespread.  Ethnicity is at the center of politics in
  country after country, a potent source of challneges to the cohesion of states
  and of international tension” (1985, p. xi).

 And he wrote this in 1985, before the civil war in Yugoslavia, before Chechnya, and before the
genocide in Rwanda, at least the 1993 version of it.  Yet, despite the apparent increase in the
salience of ethnic related violence around the globe, not all multiethnic states are plagued by
this kind of ethnic strife.  It will be one of the goals of the course to try to come to terms with
the factors that allow groups with different cultural, linguistic, religious or historical traditions
to live together peacefully and the factors, policies and conditions that lead to violence.
 

2. Required Texts:

Donald Horowitz, Ethnic Groups in Conflict
Ted R. Gurr, Peoples Vs. States
Michael Brown, editor, Ethnic Conflict and International Security
D. Lake and D. Rothchild, editors, The International Spread of Ethnic Conflict
 

Course Readings and Outline:

Monday, January 22
Introduction to the Course & Its Requirements

Wednesday, January 24
How Real is the Problem?

    Gurr, Chapters 1 and 2
    Brown, Chapter 1
    Bowen, “Myth of Global Ethnic Conflict” on ERES

Monday, January 29  
Ethnicity and Nationalism

    Horowitz, Chapters 1-2
    Smith in Brown, "The Ethnic Sources of Nationalism"

Wednesday, January 31
Nationalism in Historical Perspective

    Walker Connor, “Nation-Building or Nation-Destroying?”  World Politics,
    Vol. 24, (April 1972) on ERES

Monday, February 5
Conflict Theory –General Overview

    Horowitz, Chapter 3
    Gurr 3 and 4

Wednesday, Feb 7
Economic Approaches to Ethnic Conflict

    Horowitz, Chapters 4 and 5
    Robert Bates, “Modernization, Ethnic Competition and the Rationality of
    Politics in Contemporary Africa” on ERES

Monday, Feb 12
Anthropological Approaches to Ethnic Conflict

    Paul Brass, “Rape at Danphala” from Theft of an Idol
    Stanley Tambiah, excerpt from Leveling Crowds ERES

Wednesday, February 14
Rational Choice and Ethnic Conflict

    Lake and Rothchild, Chap 1
    Hill, Rothchild, and Cameron, Chap 3 in Lake and Rothchild
    "Spreading Fear"

Monday, February 19
Sojourner Truth Library Training Session

Wednesday, February 21
International Relations Approaches to Ethnic Conflict

    Barry Posen, “The Security Dilemma and Ethnic Conflict,”
    Snyder, Jack, “Nationalism and the Crisis of the Post-Soviet State” in Brown

Monday, February 26
Democratization and Ethnic Conflict

    Horowitz, Chapter 7
    De Nevers in Brown, Chapter 4

Wednesday, February 28
Consequences of Ethnic Conflict for the State:  Secession and Irredentism

    Horowitz, Chapter 6
    Saideman, “Is Pandora’s Box Half Empty or Half Full?
    The Limited Virulence of Secessionism and the Domestic
    Sources of Disintegration” in Lake and Rothchild

Monday, March 5

    MID-TERM EXAM   (In Class)
 

Wednesday, March 7
Containing Conflict, Conflict Regulation

    "McGarry and O'Leary, "The Macro Political Regulation of Conflict" on ERES
    Rothchild and Lake, "Containing Fear" Chapter 9
    Gurr, Chapter 5, "Strategies of Accomodation"

Monday, March 12
Structure and Policy to End Ethnic Conflicts

    Horowitz, Chapters 14-16
    PAPER PROPOSAL DUE

Wednesday, March 14
International Intervention to End Ethnic Conflicts

    Barbara Walter, "Designing Transitions from Violent Civil Wars" on ERES
    Chaim Kaufman, on ERES, "Possible and Impossible Solutions"
    Gurr, Chapter 6

Monday, March 19-March 26  SPRING BREAK
 

Wednesday, March 28
Minority Rights and State Sovereignty

    Hassner in Brown, Chapter 7
    Krasner and Froats, in Lake and Rothchild, Chapter 10

Monday, April 2
International Mediation and Intervention

    Walker, in Brown, Chapter 9
    Cooper and Berdel, in Brown, Chapter 10
    Roberts, in Brown, Chapter 11

Wednesday, April 4
Preventive Diplomacy?

        Jentleson, in Lake, Chapter 13
        Zartman, in Lake, Chapter 14

Monday, April 9
        No Class Passover

Wednesday, April 11
        Individual Meetings with Professor
        BRING ROUGH DRAFTS TO MEET WITH PROFESSOR
 

Monday, April 16
    No Class, Easter

 Wednesday, April 18
 Assessing the Risk of Future Ethnic Wars

        Gurr, Chapter 7
        Fearon, in Lake and Rothchild, "Commitment Problems," Chapter 5

Monday, April 23   STUDENT RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS

Wednesday, April 25  STUDENT RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS

Monday, April 30   STUDENT RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS

Wednesday, May 1  STUDENT RESEARCH PRESENTATIONS

Monday, May 7          LAST DAY OF CLASSES
        Review for Final Exam
        Gurr, Concluding Chapter
        Chipman, in Brown, Chapter 12, "Managing the Politics of Parochialism"
 

FINAL DRAFTS OF RESEARCH PAPERS DUE BY THE DATE AND
TIME OF THE SCHEDULED FINAL EXAM

 Final Exam, Wednesday May 16, 9:30-11:30