Entry requirements

Fulfilment of the requirements for a Bachelor's degree, from an internationally recognised university. Proficiency in English equivalent to the Swedish upper secondary course English 6.

Learning outcomes

After the course, students should be able to:

• Critically deliberate upon the different components of the concept of peace and demonstrate knowledge on the different ways in which peace can be measured.
• Demonstrate a deepened understanding of the different explanations to peaceful relations between states and be able to apply concepts such as "security communities" and "zones of peace".
• Understand the central dynamics that has underpinned peace in countries that have not experienced civil war, despite sharing numerous characteristics with countries that have had such conflicts.
• Demonstrate a clear understanding of empirical examples of different types of peace.
• Be able to connect conceptual understanding, theoretical deliberations and empirical knowledge about peace.
• Independently delimit, design and write a final course memo within the specified time limit.
• Communicate in English, in writing and/or orally.

Content

Peace and conflict research arose as a field devoted to understanding the causes of war; contemporary peace and conflict research also focuses on conflict resolution and peacebuilding. Causes of peace, however, are understudied. Shifting the focus from causes of war to causes of peace can generate profound insights about peace - as well as war - as it asks new questions which may highlight factors previously overlooked.

Empirically, the peace and conflict research field focuses on countries in conflict or in a post conflict stage, thus, countries that have not experienced armed conflicts often goes under the radar/ are usually receive limited attention. For example, the question of why some countries have not experienced civil war despite being part of a region with widespread warfare has received limited attention. This course arises from this lacuna and with the ambition of understanding the causes to inter- and intrastate peace it will focus on the concept of peace, peace theories and empirical peace puzzles.

The course centers around three themes. The first theme - The Concept of Peace - focuses on different ways of conceptualizing and measuring peace including deliberations about concepts such as the Peace Continuum, Quality of Peace, the Peace Triangle, and Philosophies of Peace. The second theme - Peace Theories - centers on theoretical frameworks for understanding peace such as gender equality and peace, the democratic peace, and security communities. The third theme - Peace Puzzles - covers empirical peace puzzles and focuses on different types of surprising cases of peace.

Instruction

Instruction/teaching is given in the form of lectures and various seminars. The language of instruction is English.

Assessment

Examination and final grading is based on student performance in two respects:

• A final course memo in the form of a written academic paper.
• Active participation during seminars and lectures.

Grades: Pass with distinction (VG), Pass (G), Fail (U).

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the University's disability coordinator.

Uppsala University does not accept cheating and plagiarism. Suspected incidents of cheating or plagiarism are reported to the Vice-Chancellor, which may issue a formal warning to the student or suspend the student from studies for a certain period.