SOCI 216 - Sociology of War

In the modern world, war has usually been thought of as a clash between rival states. But, especially since WWII, much armed conflict has taken place between states and other kinds of entities — national liberation movements, criminal syndicates, warlords, terrorist groups. In an extreme case such as Somalia, states have totally disintegrated. This course asks what the consequences of this change are for our sociological understanding of the nature of warfare. It examines case studies of armed conflict in the present and recent past — Afghanistan, Kashmir, warlordism in West Africa, Northern Ireland, armed leftist movements in Western Europe during the 1970s; and in late colonial period and its aftermath, the Mau-Mau Rebellion, the Algerian war of independence, the Rhodesian War. A particular focus is on treating war as a cultural phenomenon, and to ask questions about the self-understandings of formal and informal military organizations and their consequences.

Credits: 1.00
Corequisite: None
Prerequisites: None
Major/Minor Restrictions: None
Class Restriction: No Senior
Area of Inquiry: Social Relations,Inst.& Agents
Liberal Arts CORE: None
Formerly: SOAN 216

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