Spring 2009 Course Description
Advanced Topics in Public Policy
| Section Title: |
Ethnic Conflict & Humanitarian Intervention |
| Instructor(s): |
Alan Kuperman |
| Course: |
P A 388K - Advanced Topics in Public Policy
(previously Seminar in Topics in Public Policy) |
| Unique Number: |
62345 |
| Day & Time: |
Wednesdays, 2:00 PM - 5:00 PM |
| Room: |
SRH 3.103 |
| Waitlist Information: | For LBJ Students: UT Waitlist Information
For Non LBJ Students: LBJ School Waitlist Instructions |
This course fulfills requirements for the following specialization(s):
- International Development
- International Affairs
- Security, Law, and Diplomacy
Description: This seminar analyzes the effectiveness, limitations, and unintended consequences of military intervention as a tool for managing ethnic conflict, preventing atrocities, and achieving humanitarian ends. It explores these topics through in-depth examination of three recent cases: Bosnia, Rwanda, and Kosovo. No auditors are permitted in the seminar because it is based on student discussion of the assigned readings. The requirements are regular attendance and class participation (20% of seminar grade), one in-class presentation on a reading from the supplementary reading list assigned at the start of the semester (10%), a five-page take-home mid-term examination (20%), and a 25-page seminar paper (50%). Students also will prepare preliminary and revised paper proposals during the first half of the semester to ensure an early start to their research.
The seminar paper will address a humanitarian military intervention that either was, or could have been, carried out in an internal or inter-state conflict. The paper may, but need not, address one of the three cases explored in the course.
Books Available for Purchase: All course readings are on reserve. The following five books will be used extensively and are recommended for purchase, as students will be spending many hours with them.
- Steven L. Burg and Paul S. Shoup, The War in Bosnia-Herzegovina (New York:M.E. Sharpe, 1999).
- Tim Judah, Kosovo: War and Revenge (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000).
- Alan J. Kuperman, The Limits of Humanitarian Intervention: Genocide in Rwanda (Washington: Brookings Institution Press, 2001).
L. R. Melvern, A People Betrayed: The Role of the West in Rwanda's Genocide (New York: Zed Books, 2000).- Laura Silber and Allan Little. Yugoslavia: Death of a Nation (New York: Penguin Books, 1997).
Return to Spring 2009 Course Schedule
