Individual research to be taken under direction of faculty member. Students wishing to complete work on an honors paper should contact the Political Science Department.

Individual research to be taken under direction of faculty member. Students wishing to complete work on an honors paper should contact the Political Science Department.

Individual research to be taken under direction of faculty member. Students wishing to complete work on an honors paper should contact the Political Science Department.

Individual research to be taken under direction of faculty member. Students wishing to complete work on an honors paper should contact the Political Science Department.

Individual research to be taken under direction of faculty member. Students wishing to complete work on an honors paper should contact the Political Science Department.

Individual research to be taken under direction of faculty member. Students wishing to complete work on an honors paper should contact the Political Science Department.

Consult department for detailed descriptions. Recent topics include: Globalization; Race & Criminal Justice; Democracy & Markets in Postcommunist Europe.

This course examines the causes, dynamics, and resolution of civil wars. The first section of the course examines competing theoretical arguments regarding causes of civil war, looking at how economic and political grievances may motivate groups to rebel against the government; why political leaders may sometimes encourage violence; and what role factors such as ethnicity, national identity, and a sense of insecurity play in the initiation of internal conflict. The second section of the course looks at how civil wars are fought, with discussion of guerilla warfare, counterinsurgency strategies, terrorism, and the role of humanitarian aid in conflict settings. In the third part of the course, focusing on the resolution of internal conflicts, topics include international intervention and peacekeeping; negotiated political arrangements such as power-sharing and partition; and post-conflict justice strategies such as domestic and international trials and truth commissions. Throughout the course, we will consider specific cases of civil war - for example, wars in El Salvador, Kosovo, the Philippines, Sierra Leone, Sudan, and Uganda.

Are decentralization reforms fostering local community participation and improving the quality of democracy in Latin America? Are they, insted, posing a threat to democracy and development? In the last thirty years, Latin Ameican countries have undergone major reforms that devolved fiscal resources, administrative responsibilities, and political authority from the central governments to the states and municipalities. These decentralization reforms have radically altered the political landscape in Latin America, even inthe countries that have since then tried to recentralize power, such as Venezuela. What were the main causes of the decentralization movement? Who were the main national and international actors who pushed forward these reforms? What have the main political, fiscal, and policy consequences of decentralization been? These are some of the questions this course will focus on. The experiences of decentralization in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Bolivia, Venezuela, and Mexico will be studied. Although prior knowledge of Latin American politics is not required, additional readings will be assigned to the students who have not taken at least one introductory course in Latin American politics, history or cultures.