17.582 | Spring 2010 | Graduate

Civil War

Readings

Required Books

[Conflict Trap]= Collier, Paul, V. L. Elliott, Havard Hegre, Anke Hoeffler, MartaReynal-Querol, and Nicholas Sambanis. Breaking the Conflict Trap: Civil War and Development Policy. Copublication of the World Bank and Oxford University Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780821354810.

[Insurgent]= Weinstein, Jeremy. Inside Rebellion: The Politics of Insurgent Violence. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780521677974.

[Logic]= Kalyvas, Stathis. The Logic of Violence in Civil War. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2006. ISBN: 9780521670043.

[Peacekeeping]= Fortna, Virginia Page. Does Peacekeeping Work? Shaping Belligerents’ Choices after Civil War. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008. ISBN: 9780691136714.

[Sustainable]= Roeder, Philip G., and Donald S. Rothchild. Sustainable Peace: Power and Democracy after Civil Wars. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2005. ISBN: 9780801489747.

SES # TOPICS READINGS
I. Conventional Wisdom and Basic Variables
1 Introduction No readings
2 Old and New Civil Wars

Fearon, James, and David D. Laitin. “Ethnicity, Insurgency, and Civil War.” American Political Science Review 97 (2003): 75-90.

Thucydides. “The Dispute over Corcyra,” “Pericles Funeral Oration,” “Revolt at Mytilene,” “Civil War in Corcyra,” and “The Melian Dialogue.” In The Peloponnesian War. Translated by Steven Lattimore. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Pub. Co., 1998. ISBN: 9780872203945.

Fearon, James. “Iraq: Democracy or Civil War?” Testimony to the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Government Reform, Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats, and International Relations. September 15, 2006.

Kalyvas, Stathis. “‘New’ and ‘Old’ Civil Wars. A Valid Distinction?World Politics 54 (2001): 99-118. 

3 The World Bank Approach to Civil War

[Conflict Trap]

Sambanis, Nicholas. “Expanding Economic Models of Civil War Using Case Studies.” Perspectives on Politics 2, no. 2 (2004): 259-280. (PDF)

II. A. Origins of Civil War
4 Security Dilemmas

Posen, Barry. “The Security Dilemma and Ethnic Conflict.” Survival 35, no.1 (1993): 27-47. (PDF - 1.3MB)

Snyder, Jack, and Robert Jervis. “Civil War and the Security Dilemma.” In Civil Wars, Insecurity, and Intervention. Edited by Barbara Walter, and Jack Snyder. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1999, pp. 15-37. ISBN: 9780231116275.

Kasfir, Nelson. “Domestic Anarchy, Security Dilemmas and Violent Predation: Causes of Failure.” When States Fail: Causes and Consequences. Edited by Richard Rotberg. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003. ISBN: 9780691116723.

Hardin, Russell. One for All: The Logic of Group Conflict. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997, chapters 1 and 6. ISBN: 9780691048253.

5 Identity Issues: Thugs and Ethnic Groups, Victims and Saviors

Mueller, John. “The Banality of ‘Ethnic War.’” International Security 25, no. 1 (2000): 42-70. (PDF)

Kaufman, Stuart J. Modern Hatreds: The Symbolic Politics of Ethnic War. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001, chapters 1 and 2. ISBN: 9780801487361.

Sambanis, Nicolas. “Do Ethnic and Nonethnic Civil Wars Have the Same Causes?” Journal of Conflict Resolution 45, no. 4 (2001): 259-82. (PDF)

Bob, Clifford. The Marketing of Rebellion: Insurgents, Media, and International Activism. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005, chapters 1 and 2. ISBN: 9780521607865.

Kuperman, Alan. “Suicidal Rebellions and the Moral Hazard of Humanitarian Intervention.” Ethnopolitics 4, no. 2 (June 2005): 149-173.

Gurr, Ted Robert. “Ethnic Warfare on the Wane.” Foreign Affairs 79, no. 3 (2000): 52-64.

II. B. Course of Civil War
6 Collective Action and Identity

Wood, Elisabeth J. Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003, chapters 1 and 8. ISBN: 9780521010504.

Fearon, James D., and David Laitin. “Violence and the Social Construction of Ethnic Identity.” International Organization 54, no. 4 (2000): 845-877. (PDF)

7 Death and Killing

[Logic]. Selections.

Valentino, Benjamin. “Final Solutions: The Causes of Mass Killings and Genocides.” Security Studies 9, no. 3 (2000): 1-59.

8 Organization [Insurgent].
II. C. Termination and Aftermath
9 Termination: General Issues

Luttwak, Edward N. “Give War a Chance.” Foreign Affairs 78, no. 4 (1999): 36-44.

Licklider, Roy. “How Civil Wars End: Questions and Methods.” In Stopping the Killing: How Civil Wars End. New York, NY: NYU Press, 1995. ISBN: 9780814750971.

Walter, Barbara. “Designing Transitions from Civil War.” In Civil Wars, Insecurity, and Intervention. Edited by Barbara Walter, and Jack Snyder. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1999, pp. 38-72. ISBN: 9780231116275.

Mason, T. David, and Patrick J. Fett. “How Civil Wars End: A Rational Choice Approach.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 40, no. 4 (1996): 546-568.

Stedman, Stephen. “Spoiler Problems in Peace Processes.” International Security 22, no. 2 (1997): 5-53.

10 Negotiation and Partition

Kaufmann, Chaim. “Intervention in Ethnic and Ideological Civil Wars: Why One Can be Done and the Other Can’t.” Security Studies 6, no. 1 (1996): 62-100.

Kuperman, Alan J. “Is Partition Really the Only Hope? Reconciling Contradictory Findings about Ethnic Civil Wars.” Security Studies 13, no. 4 (2004): 314-49.

Betts, Richard. “The Delusion of Impartial Intervention.” Foreign Affairs 73, no. 6 (1994): 20-33.

Licklider, Roy. “The Consequences of Negotiated Settlements in Civil Wars, 1945-1993.” American Political Science Review 89, no. 3 (1995): 681-690.

11 Aftermath

Daly, Sarah Zukerman. “Bankruptcy, Guns, or Campaigns: Explaining Armed Organizations’ Post-War Trajectories.” PhD diss., MIT, 2010.

Paris, Roland. At War’s End: Building Peace After Civil Conflict. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004, chapters 1, 2, 6, and 10. ISBN: 9780521541978.

Smooha, Sammy, and Theodor Hanf. “The Diverse Modes of Conflict-Regulation in Deeply Divided Societies.” International Journal of Comparative Sociology 33 (1992): 26-47.

Alexander, Marcus, and Fotini Christia. “Institutionalizing Cooperation: Public Goods Experiments in the Aftermath of Civil War.” Working Paper 2009-0005, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University, March 2009.

12 Maintaining the Peace

Doyle, Michael W., and Nicholas Sambanis. Making War and Building Peace: United Nations Peace Operations. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2006, chapters 1, 2, and 8. ISBN: 9780691122755.

[Peacekeeping].

13 Building Democracy [Sustainable].
14 General Discussion. Application of Course Material to Iraq and Afghanistan. No readings

Course Info

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Spring 2010
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