Civil Wars in Theory and Practice

Transcription

1 Civil Wars in Theory and Practice PLIR 8500/5500 T 6:00-8:30 p.m., Cocke 115 Professor Jonah Schulhofer-Wohl S-283 Gibson Hall Office hours: W 4:00-5:00 p.m., F 9:00-10:00 a.m j.sw@virginia.edu This course delves into the dynamics of civil wars. It draws on literature in political science, economics, sociology, anthropology, and psychology to understand how civil wars are conducted. We start at the level of the armed actors, considering the structure of government armed forces and rebel groups, their tactical effectiveness, and the role of resources (including external support), ideology, and ethnic and religious identities in shaping their actions. This foundation lets us move on to consider the use of violence in civil war. We study violence from the perspective of the armed organization, as a strategic tool employed purposefully and as a phenomenon that is jointly produced through interactions with civilians. Next, the course explores the interactions of opposing and allied armed organizations. What drives alliance formation? How stable are alliances? How do organizations respond to the actions of their enemies? Finally, we shift the level of analysis to the individual. We study who participates in armed organizations, and the process by which these individuals become accustomed to using violence. The final three weeks of the course apply what students have learned, by examining in-depth: the trajectory of a single armed group; the history of an entire war; and the life of a combatant as described in autobiographical memoirs. Requirements Grades will be determined on the basis of in-class participation (10%), one minute oral presentation based on a written (5 pp.) critical review of one of the assigned readings for the week (30%), a research proposal (7-10 pp.) for the final paper due at the beginning of the 7 th week of classes (10%), and a final research paper (25-30 pp.; 50%). Undergraduate students will be graded based on in-class participation (10%), one minute oral presentation based on a written (5 pp.) critical review of one of the assigned readings for the week (15%), a research proposal (7-10 pp.) for the final paper due at the beginning of the 9 th week of classes (30%), and a final research paper (20 pp.; 45%). For all students, papers should be written in a 12 pt font, double-spaced, with margins of no more than 1.25 inches on the sides and no more than 1 inch on the top and bottom. Readings For each week, the syllabus lists a set of required readings. Optional readings, if any, are indicated as such. Most readings are posted in an e-reserve on the class s Collab website under Resources. In addition, the following books, available at the UVa bookstore, are required: Christia, Fotini Alliance Formation in Civil Wars. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. Gebru Tareke The Ethiopian Revolution: War in the Horn of Africa. New Haven: Yale

2 Grossman, Dave On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. Kalyvas, Stathis N The Logic of Violence in Civil War. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. Milazzo, Matteo J The Chetnik Movement and the Yugoslav Resistance. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Sinno, Abdulkader H Organizations at War in Afghanistan and Beyond. Ithaca: Cornell Weinstein, Jeremy M Inside Rebellion: The Politics of Insurgent Violence. New York: Wood, Elisabeth J Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador. Cambridge: *Beah, Ishmael A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. *Jeapes, Tony (Maj. Gen.) SAS: Operation Storm: Secret War in the Middle East. Greenhill Books (Updated version, with previously redacted portions included, of Jeapes SAS: Operation Oman. London: W. Kimber, 1980). * Students are required to read at least one of these memoirs for Week 14. Jan. 15 (Week 1): Introduction Overview of the course. What is a civil war? How do the forms of civil war (e.g. insurgencies, coups, splits in the military, urban, rural) differ? What questions do we have about how civil wars are fought? Discussion of levels of analysis in the study of civil wars. Sambanis, Nicholas What is Civil War? Conceptual and Empirical Complexities of an Operational Definition. Journal of Conflict Resolution 48(6): Kalyvas, Stathis N Civil Wars. In Carles Boix and Susan Stokes, eds., Handbook of Political Science. New York: Oxford University Press, Kalyvas, Stathis N The Changing Character of Civil Wars, In Hew Strachan and Sibylle Scheeipers, eds., The Changing Character of War. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Eckstein, Harry On the Etiology of Internal Wars. History and Theory 4(2): For class discussion, pick one civil war from Sambanis (2004) list (available by downloading the dataset and related files through Familiarize yourself with the war by reading the coding notes about it (available in Civil War Coding Notes document in the replication folder for Doyle and Sambanis, Making War and Building Peace, and skimming a few news articles. Recommended Kalyvas, Stathis N The Urban Bias in Research on Civil Wars. Security Studies 13(3): Kalyvas, Stathis N Promises and Pitfalls of an Emerging Research Program: The Microdynamics of Civil War. In Stathis N. Kalyvas, Ian Shapiro and Tarek Masoud, eds, Order, Conflict, Violence. Cambridge University Press, 1-14 Odom, William E On Internal War: American and Soviet Approaches to Third World Clients and Insurgents. Chapel Hill: Duke Selections. 2

3 Jan. 22 (Week 2): The Structure of Armed Forces U.S. Department of the Army Organization of the United States Army. Pamphlet Leites, Nathan Constantin and Charles Wolf Rebellion and Authority: An Analytic Essay on Insurgent Conflicts. RAND Report 462. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, Shy, John A New Look at the Colonial Militia. Chapter 2 in A People Numerous and Armed: Reflections on the Military Struggle for American Independence. New York: Oxford Jan. 29 (Week 3): The Consequences of Armed Force Structure in Civil Wars: Part 1 Taber, Robert War of the Flea: A Study of Guerrilla Warfare Theory and Practise. New York: L. Stuart. Chapters1-4, especially The Guerrilla as Missionary. Wood, Elisabeth J Insurgent Collective Action and Civil War in El Salvador. Cambridge: Feb. 5 (Week 4): The Consequences of Armed Force Structure in Civil Wars: Part 2 Weinstein, Jeremy M Inside Rebellion: The Politics of Insurgent Violence. New York: Sinno, Abdulkader H Organizations at War in Afghanistan and Beyond. Ithaca: Cornell Chs Shapiro, Jacob N. and David A. Siegel Moral Hazard, Discipline, and the Management of Terrorist Organizations. Working Paper, Princeton University. May. Feb. 12 (Week 5): Violence in Civil Wars Part 1: Civilians as Target Kalyvas, Stathis N The Logic of Violence in Civil War. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Balcells, Laia Rivalry and Revenge: Violence against Civilians in Conventional Civil Wars. International Studies Quarterly 54 (2): Lyall, Jason Does Indiscriminate Violence Incite Insurgent Attacks? Evidence from Chechnya. Journal of Conflict Resolution 53(3): Humphreys, Macartan and Jeremy M. Weinstein. 2006: Handling and Manhandling Civilians in Civil War. American Political Science Review 100(3): Feb. 19 (Week 6): Violence in Civil Wars Part 2: Warfare Kalyvas, Stathis. N Warfare in Civil Wars. In Isabelle Duyvesteyn and Jan Angstrom, eds. Rethinking the Nature of War. Abingdton: Frank Cass, Ramsay, Kristopher W Settling It on the Field: Battlefield Events and War Termination. Journal of Conflict Resolution 52(6): Jurdeini, Paul A., McLaurin, R.D., and Price, James M Military Operations in Built Up Areas U.S. Army Human Engineering Laboratory, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Technical Memorandum Lyall, Jason Are Co-Ethnics More Effective Counter-Insurgents? Evidence from the Second Chechen War. American Political Science Review 104(1):

4 Feb. 26 (Week 7): Types of Civil Wars Sambanis, Nicholas What is an Ethnic War? Organization and Interests in Ethnic Insurgency. Working paper, Yale University. Mueller, John The Banality of Ethnic War. International Security 25(1): Kaldor, Mary New and Old Wars. Second Edition. Cambridge: Polity Press. Selections. Kalyvas, Stathis N New and Old Civil Wars: A Valid Distinction? World Politics 54(1): Martin, Kimberly Warlordism in Comparative Perspective. International Security 31(3): Gat, Azar The Pattern of Fighting in Simple, Small-Scale, Prestate Societies. Journal of Anthropological Research 55(4): March 5 (Week 8): Alliances Walt, Stephen M The Origins of Alliances. Ithaca: Cornell Selections. Christia, Fotini Alliance Formation in Civil Wars. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Bennett, D. Scott Testing Alternative Models of Alliance Duration, American Journal of Political Science 41(3): Weitsman, Patricia A Alliance Cohesion and Coalition Warfare: The Central Powers and Triple Entente. Security Studies 12(3): Spring Break March 19 (Week 9): Recruitment Humphreys, Macartan and Jeremy M. Weinstein Who Fights? The Determinants of Participation in Civil War. American Journal of Political Science 52(2): Shapiro, Jacob N., Eli Berman, and Joseph Felter Do Working Men Rebel? Insurgency and Unemployment in Iraq and the Philippines. NBER Working Paper Series, Working Paper Krueger, Alan What Makes a Terrorist? Economics and the Roots of Terrorism. Princeton: Princeton Selections. March 26 (Week 10): The Individual as a Member of the Group Sambanis, Nicholas, Schulhofer-Wohl, Jonah, and Moses Shayo Parochialism as a Central Challenge in Counterinsurgency. Science 336(6038): Browning, Christopher R Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland. New York: HarperCollins. Selections. Hardin, Russell The Crippled Epistemology of Extremism. In Albert Breton, Gianluigi Galeotti, Pierre Salmon, and Ronald Wintrobe, eds. Political Extremism and Rationality. Cambridge: 4

5 April 2 (Week 11): The Individual and Violence Grossman, Dave On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. Wright, Evan Generation Kill: Devil Dogs, Iceman, Captain America and the New Face of American War. New York: Penguin. Selections. April 9 (Week 12): Applying Theory: The Group Milazzo, Matteo J The Chetnik Movement and the Yugoslav Resistance. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins April 16 (Week 13): Applying Theory: The War Gebru Tareke The Ethiopian Revolution: War in the Horn of Africa. New Haven: Yale April 23 (Week 14): Applying Theory: The Combatant Beah, Ishmael A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. Jeapes, Tony (Maj. Gen.) SAS: Operation Storm: Secret War in the Middle East. Greenhill Books (Updated version, with previously redacted portions included, of Jeapes SAS: Operation Oman. London: W. Kimber, 1980). April 30 (Week 15) TBD 5