Reading List MPCT 301, Spring 2003
Course leaders: Jon Hellesnes (4 hours) and Arne Overrein (6 hours).
Jon Hellesnes addresses three main issues:
- Military realism, the view that moral terms do not apply to actions or war,
- the view related to the distinctions between jus ad bellum (justification of military action) and jus in bello (conventions and rules of warfare)
- the destructiveness of moral passions and notions like “The Axis of Evil”
Arne Overrein examines the following themes:
(1) States and international law. Does international law make a difference? The central issues include different interpretations of the principles of non-violence and state sovereignty, and the problem of terrorism: Is there a difference between terrorism and violence against oppression?
(2) Human rights. Arguments for human rights. Different types of human rights. Cultural relativism and human rights.
(3) Is it possible to establish an international human rights regime in the near future? To important issues: the debate about "humanitarian interventions" and the debate about the establishment of an international criminal court.
(4) The place of morality in international politics.
READING LIST – Professor Hellesnes’ lectures:
Michael Walzer: Just and unjust wars. A moral argument with historical illustrations. Basic Books, 2000.
Assistant professor Arne Overrein’s lectures:
Jack Donnelly: INTERNATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS, Westview Press 1998 Ch. 1,2 and 8 = 49p.
* Leo Kuper: GENOCIDE. ITS POLITICAL USE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, Yale Univ. Press 1981, ch. 2, 19-39 = 21p
* Hedley Bull: "Beyond the States System?" In: Held/McGrew ed.: THE GLOBAL TRANSFORMATION READER, Polity Press 2000, 462-67 = 6p.
* Hedley Bull: Two articles in: Bull/Watson ed.: THE EXPANSION OF THE INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY, Oxford 1984, 117-24 and 217-28 = 22p.
* Richard Tuck: THE RIGHTS OF WAR AND PEACE, Ch 3 Hugo Grotius 78-108 = 31p.
* Discussion on NATOs Kosovo Intervention.
In: AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW Vol 39, October 1999, 824-847 = 24p.
* Chris af Jochnick/Roger Nordmand: "The legitimation of Violence: A critical History of the Laws of War".
In: HARVARD INTERNATIONAL LAW JOURNAL vol 35, 1994, the following extracts: pp. 52-59 and pp. 68-95. = 36p.
* James Mayall: WORLD POLITICS. PROGRESS AND ITS LIMITS, Polity 2000, part I,11-38 = 26p.
* Thomas Franck: "Terrorism and the Rights of Self-defense" and JonathanCharney: "The use of Force against Terrorism and International Law".
Both articles in: AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW vol 95, issue 4, 2001, pp 839-43 and 835-39 = 9p.
sum = 226p.
Recommended reading:
Planning Staff of the (British) Foreign Office: Extracts from "Foreign Policy Document No 148". In: THE BRITISH YEARBOOK OF INTERNATIONAL LAW,
vol 57, 1986, 614-620 7p.
Quigley, John: "Displaced Palestinians and a Right of Return" (extracts). In: HARVARD INTERNATIONAL LAW JOURNAL vol. 39, 1998 pp. 171-198 and 219-229 37p.
Minor changes may still occur
Course MPCT 301-2
Course leader: Vidar Vambheim.
Lecture Plan for MPCT301: September
Wed 04/9: Central Concepts: War, peace, violence, Conflict Analysis.
Wed 11/9: Non-violent conflict handling. (Gandhi, great revolutions...). Phetsh & Rohloff.
Wed 18/9: Non-violent civilian defense. Gene Sharp
Wed 25/9: Transcending Conflicts.
Readings for MPCT 301-2:
Pfetsch, Frank R.; Rohloff, Christoph, 2000, National and international conflicts, 1945-1995 : new empirical
and theoretical approaches, Series Title: Routledge advances in international relations and politics, City: London ; New York Routledge Number of Pages: xiv, 282. ISBN: 041522344X (alk. paper)
Galtung, Johan; Institutt for fredsforskning, 1996, Peace by peaceful means : peace and conflict, development and civilization. City: Oslo,London , Prio Sage. Number of Pages: VIII, 280 s. ISBN: 0-8039-7510-4 / 0-8039-7511-2
Skjelsbæk, Inger og Smith, Dan (ed): Gender, Peace and Conflict. PRIO/Sage 2001.
Kaldor, Mary: New and Old Wars: Organized violence in a global era. Cambridge : Polity Press, 1999. 192 p. ISBN: 0-7456-2067-1, 0-7456-2066-3
The Peace studies program has a dual objective; describing and analysing problems, and searching for remedies. The first task is oriented to assessing conflict and violence, the second task to creating ways to transform or transcend conflicts and reduce violence. This results in four courses, balancing elements of analytical/ empirical and constructive/ future oriented work (Galtung and Kent 1988)[1]:
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FOCUS
ON CONFLICT
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FOCUS
ON VIOLENCE / PEACE
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PROBLEMS
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CONFLICT
THEORY
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THEORY
ABOUT VIOLENCE
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REMEDIES
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CONFLICT
SOLUTION
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PEACE
THEORY
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Conflict will be studied as both a conceptual/ideological and a “real” phenomenon which develops with reference to time, space, intensity, expression, structure, degree of complexity, number, relative positioning and relation of parties (e.g. hierarchy, power). Interests and forms of interaction, the problem of action, causation, intent and structure will be examined. Conflict(s) will be studied and analysed in their different phases (origin, escalation, crisis, de-escalation, aftermath, regeneration/ solution etc). This will be done through the analysis of case studies, supported by theories and perspectives from social and health sciences.
Violence will be examined in various forms, such as direct, structural or cultural violence, and in relation to significant contradictions and boundaries in human society: State, civilisation, nation, class, gender, culture and human nature. The primary focus will be on group hostility, aggression and violence (with war as a special case), with special attention directed towards regional conflicts.
War will be studied from political, social and cultural perspectives, with reference to interaction, escalation and de-escalation. Changes in form and destructive capability throughout history will be assessed in relation to such factors as political and military organisation, economic development, technology, and ideology. War will be studied in
a historical as well as a contemporary perspective.
An aim of the program is to expand the students’ imagination, creativity and capacity in investigating how war and violence can possibly be avoided, and how destructive means, organisations and technology may be transformed to facilitate reconstruction, rehabilitation and sustainable peace.
Conflict handling, conflict (re)solution and transformation. Theories and approaches to conflict analysis, management, resolution and transformation
will be presented and discussed in their relation to ideology, spiritual beliefs, and cultural assumptions. The relation between conflict understanding, conflict analysis and action will be examined, with particular attention focused on the difference between theoretical/ empirical and future oriented ways of thinking, and their relation to ethical considerations, values and attitudes. Communication theory, dialogue and rhetoric will be presented and applied in training sessions. The complexity of conflicts will be studied, emphasising multiple factors, external and internal, which influence conflict processes.
Peace
Students will examine peace theory and peace work, dependent upon, but transcending academic knowledge of causes and consequences of violence and peace.
The concept of peace will be applied to empirical and philosophical problems, in order to arrive at flexible definitions related to historical contexts and situations, but rooted in the notion of peace as the a struggle to contain direct violence, transform conflicts and violent structures, and promote non-violent features of cultures (Galtung 1996). We will work with typologies of peace (negative/ positive peace, peace within contexts of inter/intra states and societies, peace as the absence of war, social justice, basic needs satisfaction, creative conflict resolution capacity). We will also examine alternative concepts of security, how these are and could be realised and how they relate to different definitions of ‘peace’.
Students will be expected to examine the conditions and consequences of relatively enduring peace, peace and violence within and between societies/groups and their (cor)relations, and the relation between peace and democracy. We will also focus on the relation between peace and culture with particular attention paid to the effects of symbolic communication and rhetoric, as well as the problem of cultural violence in texts and contexts, how cultural stereotypes and dichotomies exacerbate violence or peace, and under what conditions elements of cultural violence may be transformed.
Specific attention will be given to relations between states and peoples in border regions, affected by resource-management/resource-extraction, and cultural, majority/minority relations. Selected examples of non-violent solutions to potentially violent conflicts in and among states will be studied (Fetch & Rohloff, 2000). Wars and violent solutions will be treated with an attempt to produce elements of “counter-factual history”, based on imagination and creativity, searching for ways to handle conflicts and prevent violence.
Means and efforts to promote peace. Skills for peace workers.
The means and skills to transcend conflicts and promote peace have distinctive qualities concerning pragmatic communication/ communicative action, integration of knowledge and values, and ‘on-site’ performance, which have roots in academic as well as non-academic foundations.
Non-violent ideologies, strategies and techniques will be studied in depth. We will work with active non-violence as an “alternative defence” from the macro level to the intra-personal level, with lessons learned from Gandhi and others, and the problem of whether ‘the same’ knowledge may be applied for violence or peace, depending on goal, attitude and rhetoric of the knower. The relation between and around state and civil society, UN/ UN agencies, NGO’s, peace movements and actors, and power will be assessed.
A crucial exercise in the search for peace is the examination of cultural elements promoting violence or peace, conflict or creative conflict resolution. Creative ways of working with such cultural elements (literary, rhetoric, artistic, political etc) will be encouraged. Forms of communication will be explored in the search for their abilities/limitations to promote peaceful development under varying conditions of symmetry and power. The role of mass media will be examined, with a focus on the difference between war/violence journalism and peace journalism.
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[1] Johan Galtung and George Kent: A Master Degree in Peace and conflict resolution. University of Honolulu,
Hawaii, 1988.
