PLTC344

Every day the news media brings us horrifying accounts of bloody conflict described as the result of ethnic or cultural difference. This course examines different ways to understand and investigate how such conflicts start and how they can be resolved. Are such conflicts more prevalent now than during the cold war era? If so, why? Is cultural difference really the cause of such conflicts, or is difference merely a convenient frame, obscuring more fundamental causes? What makes neighbors turn against each other? Can there be lasting reconciliation? What role should the international community play in such conflicts? Prerequisite(s): any 100-level course in politics.