Causes of War

The course provides an overview of the most important theories and empirical studies on the causes and consequenses of political unrest, internal armed conflicts and interstate wars.

Knowledge - the student shall:

• have knowledge about the terms, theories and empirical research concerning the causes and consequenses of armed conflicts
• have knowledge of central trends concerning armed conflicts and important explanations
• have knowledge of current data within peace and conflict research

Skills - the student shall demonstrate the ability to:

• treat one of the topics covered in the course in an independent analytical text (comparative analysis, syntheses, replication) which fulfills the requirements for scientific writing
• orally discuss and reflect over one's own written work and topics covered in the lectures

Lectures/group discussions, 4 hours per week throughout the semester. Supervision of the term paper takes place mainly as a part of the seminars. If 6 or fewer students attend the course the two first weeks of teaching, the course will be offered as an individual study course with supervision.