PLTC281

Intrastate conflicts have been the dominant form of political violence since 1945. While their number has fallen since the end of the cold war, they have caused more than 15 million deaths since 1945, and in the words of a World Bank overview, represent "development in reverse." Beyond their enormous human cost, these conflicts impact many elements of politics, such as state building, political institutions, and the ordering of political power. This course examines the causes, dynamics, prospects for peace, and lasting legacies of political violence in a variety of cases, through a mix of reading, lectures, discussion, writing, and presentations. Recommended background: Familiarity with statistics and calculus is helpful, but not required.