IS 436 - War and Peace in Africa

Lecture Hours: 3
Lab Hours: 0
Credit Hours: 3

This course is presented as an argument. Africa has had serious conflicts in the past twenty-five years, with casualties between 3,800,000 and 6,899,000. There are more U.N. peace keeping troops in Africa than on any other continent, as of 2006 seventy five percent of all UN peacekeepers were in Africa; the U.N. has conducted nineteen “complex peace operations” since the end of the Cold War, ten of them in Africa. During the last decade, more than half of Africa’s states have been in warfare. It is home to most of the world’s conflicts. The fact that Africa leads the international system in conflict begs for an explanation why. The fact that these wars do not look like classical wars also begs for an explanation. The class is run as a seminar. Therefore, while there will be class lectures, the course will largely revolve around discussions of the readings assigned for that week.