Religion and Conflict

The course aims to explore a variety of approaches to conflict management in contemporary conflicts, by third parties and parties in conflict, and critically assesses their effectiveness and potential. The course draws its theoretical foundations from peace and conflict research but is aimed at enabling students to learn to assess the scope for conflict management and peace-building in practice. The module includes both academic literature as well as policy relevant papers.

The focus of the course is on analysing peace processes and practical problems of conflict prevention, conflict management and peace-building in a range of contemporary international, internal, ethnic, community and environmental conflicts.

Students will be divided up into groups of two or three, and each group will take responsibility for identifying and investigating a specific approach to conflict management in a conflict of their choice. The choice of cases will vary with the interest of students. In recent year topics included Afghanistan, Chechnya, Georgia, Kashmir, Kosovo, Macedonia, Northern Ireland, Liberia/Sierra Leone, Timor Elste, conflict prevention and the emergent global climate change negotiations, and peace-building in contemporary Africa and Asia.

The course is taught in 10 2-hour lecture seminars, with the first half devoted to the lecture and the second half dedicated to substantial presentations by the student / group.

Select Bibliography:

Barash, David P. & Webel, Charles P. (2008) Peace and Conflict Studies, London: Sage.Darby J & Mac Ginty, R, Contemporary Peacemaking (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002)Eriksen, T. H., Ethnicity and Nationalism (Zed, 2010).Kaldor, M., New & Old Wars (Polity Press, 2006) Lyons, T. (2008) Conflict Management and African Conflicts – Ripeness, Bargaining and Mediation, London: Routledge, 2008)Misra, A. Afghanistan: The Labyrinth of Violence (Polity, 2004).Misra A., Politics of Civil Wars (Routledge 2008)Paris, R., At War’s End (Cambridge Univ. Press. 2005)Ramsbotham, O, Woodhouse T. & Miall, H, Contemporary Conflict Resolution – 3rd edition (Blackwell's, 2010)Rupesinghe, K, Civil Wars, Civil Peace (Pluto Press, 1998)Zartman, I.W., Peacemaking in International Conflict (USIP, 2005)European Centre for Conflict Prevention, People Building Peace (1999)Wallensteen, P., Understanding Conflict Resolution (Sage, 2006)

The module involves the negotiation, design and delivery of a research project whose precise topic will be determined by you and your project supervisor.

The dissertation will be 20,000 words in length and is designed to provide you with the opportunity to both consolidate and enhance your existing knowledge and skills through engaging with an extended piece of project-orientated research and writing.

This module aims to provide skills training for postgraduate students in religious studies from induction to completion of the master's dissertation. It seeks to support existing taught modules by introducing a variety of research methods from other disciplines and theoretical issues within religious studies. It also introduces cross-cultural and cross-religious examination of research topics in religious studies. The module will provide you with the opportunity to develop generic skills in library research, essay writing, and dissertation planning.

Topics covered may include:

• Induction in the study of religions: resources, essay planning and writing, seminar preparation and presentations
• Research methodologies: examples selected from philosophical, anthropological, sociological, psychological, and phenomenological approaches
• Theoretical approaches to the study of religion: examples selected from the disciplines of the humanities and social sciences
• Dissertation workshop: finding a topic and supervisor, completion plan, case studies.

This module serves to consolidate postgraduate research and learning support by enabling students to engage with theories, methods, and skills relevant to your studies. The module is core for all PPR PGT politics students and complements core subject and discipline-specific provision in religious studies and philosophy. Through this module we aim to equip you with the ability to reflect upon the processes and implications of research project planning, design and execution in Politics, Philosophy and/or Religion.

The first part of the module examines the principles of research, including different disciplinary traditions of knowledge production. It goes on to set out the process of structuring a research project and explores how to develop and apply theory. The second part of the module examines a range of methods for conducting research, including interviews, surveys, and case studies. The final section covers questions of ethics and goes through how to write up and present research. Through the module, students will design research projects, develop writing and critical evaluation skills, and have the opportunity to present their research ideas as part of the annual MA conference. The module involves a combination of lectures, small group discussion, and presentations covering the following areas:

• The academic research process.
• Project planning, design and process management.
• Ethics in postgraduate research.
• Resource identification and review processes.
• Data acquisition techniques and issues.
• Analytical and interpretative approaches.Academic conventions (e.g. making an argument, writing, referencing).

This module aims to introduce you to the historical and contemporary making of the 'Third World' (the global South) with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and South Asia.

Typically the module is divided into two parts. The first half explores historical processes, beginning with the creation of an international capitalist economy and its incorporation of the global South from the sixteenth century onwards and ends with an examination of neo-liberalism and the post-Washington consensus with its emphasis on poverty reduction and the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

The second half explores key contemporary development policies, debates and actors such as foreign aid and international NGOs; diaspora politics and remittances; grassroots social movements; and the role of China in fostering a renewed focus on resource-based models of development including reformist, redistributive models as in Venezuela and Ecuador.

The module objective is to enable you to critically appraise the complex interactions between Northern and Southern state and non-state actors in shaping current development policy and resistance to it.

Diplomacy and Foreign Policy are central to the understanding of international politics. The structure of the international system induces a constant need for political dialogue and negotiations. Besides war, diplomacy is the common language states are using to interact on the world stage.

Complementing the first core module (Theory and Concepts in Diplomacy and Foreign Policy), this module aims to apply your theoretical understanding of diplomacy and foreign policy to contemporary diplomatic and negotiation issues and great power politics. Our teaching and learning strategy seeks to give you both a theoretical and practical understanding of contemporary issues in diplomacy and foreign policy. Where possible, academic teaching will be complemented by guest lectures (e.g. by a practitioner) and in-class activities such as mock negotiation exercises.

Topics covered vary each year but we often explore issues relating to the following areas: Nuclear weapons and foreign policy, Arms control and diplomacy, International climate negotiations, South-North relations and development, Diplomacy and terrorism, and Citizen protection.

This module aims to provide you with a broad understanding of the main areas of study within the field of international relations (IR). The introductory session seeks to address the general question as to what constitutes the study of IR. Subsequent sessions aim to examine the major approaches to the discipline (both mainstream and critical), focusing upon the distinctive insights and analyses that they have brought to bear.You will have the opportunity to gain an understanding of the nature of the wide-ranging theoretical debates that have shaped the discipline and will also be encouraged to take a critical approach to these debates to consider the ways in which we study IR.

More particularly, you have the opportunity to:

• understand and critically assess the interpretation of the world and of IR put forward by each theory
• evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of each theory
• apply the theoretical tools to the “facts out there” (linking theory with practice)

This module aims to provide you with the opportunity to advance the knowledge and skills needed to understand and analyse why conflict happens within and between religious groups, and to assess the positive and negative contributions that religions make to wider struggles – from local disputes through to global terrorism.

• When does religious encounter become conflict; when and why does religious conflict turn violent?
• Are some religions more prone to conflict and violence than others?
• Is global terrorism a religious matter?
• Are religious groups necessarily in tension with the secular state and secularism?
• Is conflict a necessary condition of religious and ethnic diversity?
• What resources do religions draw on for the resolution of conflict and peace-building?
• Do diplomacy and international relations have a role to play in resolving regional and cross-border religious disputes and violence?

The module is designed to introduce you to key concepts and issues in scholarship on religion and conflict: e.g. on the relationship between conflict and violence, religion and ethnicity, the ‘clash of civilizations’, intra-religious as well as inter-religious conflict, jihad and martyrdom. We also aim to explore the importance of context – historical, social, geographical and political. Analysis and debate about religion and conflict will be situated in particular cases and may include, the UK and Europe, the US, the Indian sub-continent and sub-Saharan Africa.

This module aims to examine the changing character of war and security in a time of rapid and disruptive technological and geopolitical/ecological change. We will combine analysis of contemporary policy documents with the interdisciplinary insights of intellectuals - such as Zygmunt Bauman and Paul Virilio - that have examined how war has changed in the modern age.

You will be introduced to a range of concepts that are relevant to the debates about the future of war – concepts such as ambiguous war, the gray zone, unrestricted warfare, the third offset strategy and the three block war.

While we ground the module in broader debates from social and political thought about war and modernity, you will also have the opportunity to explore a range of evolving and inter-related case studies that are central to understanding how war is changing, for example: cybersecurity/artificial intelligence; cities and urban war; drones and the future of robotics; climate change and ecological insecurity.

Diplomacy and Foreign Policy are central to the understanding of international politics. The structure of the international system induces a constant need for political dialogue and negotiations. Besides war, diplomacy is the common language states are using to interact on the world stage.

This module introduces students to ways of conceptualizing diplomacy and foreign policy in the 21st century:

• Why do states rely on diplomacy?
• What are the current forms and features of diplomacy and foreign policy?
• Is diplomacy the only form of international dialogue besides war?
• How do states (and statesmen) negotiate?
• How has diplomacy evolved throughout history?
• Does ‘global governance’ exist?

This module is designed to provide you with the opportunity to develop your knowledge of both theoretical and practical understanding of contemporary issues in diplomacy and foreign policy. Where appropriate, academic teaching may be complemented by lectures and in-class activities carried out by practitioners (diplomats, civil servants, etc).