Course description

This interdisciplinary MA explores the processes through which actors have attempted to define and build peace in areas affected by war and violence, particularly since the end of the Cold War.

Drawing on expertise from the fields of politics, history, anthropology and the arts, this newly revamped course will offer you the opportunity to engage with conflict management, conflict resolution, conflict transformation, peace building and state building theories and practices.

In particular, it will focus on social agency for peace, the question of the nature of the `peaceful state’, and the ever-fraught question of the reform of the international system.

Aims

You will be able to develop a critical understanding of:

1. Key issues and debates related to the theories in Peace and Conflict Studies such as conflict management, conflict resolution, and conflict transformation. We will investigate how thinking about peace has changed across the different generations of theorizing, with particular reference to the main debates in International Relations theory.
2. Concepts and practices used within the international peace architecture, especially peace negotiations, mediation, peacekeeping, peace building and state building. We will examine how these practices are supposed to work together and explain why peace processes stagnate or falter despite such concerted efforts.
3. The range of international actors and organizations, their policies and practices, and the benefits as well as shortcomings of their interventions. Here, we will also analyze the factors that are blocking international and localized efforts to promote peace.
4. The range of social science topics that influence peace building, state building, conflict management, etc., (including political, historical, anthropological understandings of peace and related programming strategies). Students will become familiar with the methodological and normative underpinnings of these disciplines.

Special features

The programme is developed to offer a novel configuration for research and teaching which will uniquely associate perspectives of practitioners.

Teaching and learning

Delivery of the course will take a range of forms, including lectures, seminars, tutorials, directed reading, a research/field trip and independent study. Much of the delivery will be problem based/enquiry-based learning.

This MA will be influenced and informed by the research of both staff and postgraduate research students at the department including research projects on:

• political space in the aid industry;
• local/hybrid approaches to peace building;
• critical peace studies;
• the role of the state in peace and security programming;
• ethnographic approaches to understanding violence;
• refugees and internally displaced persons;
• the political economy of conflict;
• Performance in conflict zones.

Coursework and assessment

Assessment is by taught examinations, coursework, assignments, group assessment and presentations.

Course unit details

You will study a total of 180 credits during the course.

Requirements

The university is open to all students who fulfill the following requirements:

• Copy and original of Secondary, University Certificates and Transcripts
• Birth certificate
• Certificate of good conduct
• Application Letter
• CV and Experience Letter
• Admission fee $
• Passport sized photos
• File
• Pass entry exams.

Course Structure: