Calendar

SES # TOPICS DUE DATES
I. Introduction
1

Introduction

Do regular laws of motion govern international politics? If so, how can we identify them? And how can we explain specific events, like wars? Can we use methods like those of the natural sciences?

  
II. 34 Hypotheses on the Causes of War
2–3 8 Hypotheses on Military Factors as Causes of War  
4–7

Misperception and War; Religion and War

10 hypotheses on perceptions, misperception and the causes of war

  • Psychology
  • Militarism
  • Nationalism
  • Spirals and deterrence
  • Religion and war
  • Defects in academe and the press

First response paper due

Quiz
8–9

More Causes of War and Peace

  • Culture
  • Gender
  • Patriarchy
  • Language
  • Democracy
  • Social equality and social justice
  • Minority rights and human rights
  • Prosperity
  • Economic interdependence
  • Revolution
  • Capitalism
  • Imperial decline and collapse
  • Cultural learning
  • Emotional factors (revenge, contempt, honor)
  • Polarity of the international system

Causes of Civil War

 Second response paper due
III. Cases: Wars and Crises
10 The Seven Years War  
11 The Wars of German Unification, 1864, 1866, and 1870; and segue to World War I Draft of first 8-page paper due  
12–14 World War I

First 8-page paper due 

Debates in section on World War I responsibility
15–18 World War II

Debates in section on World War II responsibility 

Quiz
19

Interlude:

Hypotheses on Escalation and Limitation of War

Nuclear Weapons, Nuclear Strategy, Other Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Causes of War.

  
20–21 The Cold War, Korea and Indochina Draft of second 8-page paper due
22–23

The Israel-Arab Conflict

The 2003 U.S.-Iraq War

  
24 The Peloponnesian War Second 8-page paper due 
IV. The Future of War
25–26

Testing & Applying Theories of War Causation

The Future of War

Solutions to War