For the past few weeks we have been trying to understand many different forms of international conflict: civil or ethnic conflict, terrorism, the relationship between resources and conflict, the relationship between technology and conflict, etc. How do you make sense of the material that we have covered in this section of the course? The same general guidelines in terms of length (approximately 1200-1500 words), margins (standard one-inch), font (12 point), citations, use of common course material, use of outside material, etc., that applied to the first paper apply here. You must connect some portion of your analysis to one of the five regions of study in the major. Be sure to try to incorporate the feedback you receive on your first paper into how you approach this paper.
This question is open-ended, and therefore might seem a bit overwhelming to some of you. Here are a few options for how you might tackle this very broad question (you of course may choose one of these or some other way to address the prompt). Please recognize that your response to these possible prompts may vary greatly depending on what region of the world you choose to emphasize.
As you look over the last few decades (roughly covering the period since the end of the Cold War, or your lifetime), has one of these types of conflict seemed to have a greater impact than the others? Why or why not? Which do you see as being more impactful moving forward? Be careful if you choose this option, because there is a hidden trick–you must define what criteria you are using to evaluate “impact.”
How would you characterize the relationship between the different types of conflict? Are they likely to exist in concert with each other in specific places/cases, more likely to be mutually exclusive, etc.? Why or why not? For this, you might consider what features are more or less likely to lead to a particular type of conflict.
We have examined some historical cases of these various types of conflict, while at the same time we have begun to explore political science as a discipline through the lens of international conflict. What do you see as the relative value history and political science as disciplines in helping us understand conflict? Do you view one as more or less valuable than the other? What advantages or disadvantages does each approach have? How might you utilize a multi-disciplinary approach to understand conflict?
Below are sources that will help write the essay:
https://www.un.org/en/chronicle/article/national-security-versus-global-security
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/f424/79252c9c63bb7f66c162ca4b05fbe8610c86.pdf?_ga=2.65790190.1183243075.1664291571-298213530.1664291571
https://stevenpinker.com/files/pinker/files/pinker_2022_is_russia%E2%80%99s_war_with_ukraine_the_end_of_the_long_peace_v2.pdf
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