Conflict, Conflict Management and Post-Conflict Reconstruction

Dozent: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Seibel, Dr. Sebastian Haunss

The core seminar offers an introduction to the social sciences’ theories on conflict and the settlement of conflicts, as well as on strategies of post-conflict reconstruction.

The first part of the course is taught by Sebastian Haunss, the second by Wolfgang Seibel.

In the first part the course deals with the role of conflicts in politics and political science, the definitions and typologies of conflicts, and the instruments and methods developed by political science to analyze conflicts and their causes. At this stage of the seminar, conflict will be dealt with at a high level of abstraction. Consequently, it covers conflicts within and between states, and both violent and non-violent ones.

We then will look at the theories of conflict management. The emphasis here is on procedures based on consensus and communication, for example negotiation, mediation, conflict transformation and deliberation. The course topics include both the general procedure of conflict resolution as well as those processes specifically aimed at settling violent conflicts within a state, as, for example, in negotiations between ethnic or religious groups.

In the second part of the core seminar the focus is on the diverse challenges that remain after a peace agreement has been settled, as well as to the political and organizational strategies for post-conflict reconstruction, as commonly practiced by the United Nations in the form of multidimensional peacekeeping operations. The students are introduced to the relevant actors and processes in the planning and implementation of a United Nations peace operation, and to the political and managerial challenges that ensue at these levels. Recent United Nations post-conflict reconstruction efforts will be discussed in a list of case studies which provide examples of the conditions that determine the success or failure of these missions. When looking at these case studies, a central question will be the way in which the negotiated agreements are implemented by the administration.

For further information please visit the course wiki at:
http://www.uni-konstanz.de/shaunss/wiki/index.php?title=WiSe2009_GS_PACM

Literatur:

Leistungsnachweis: Presentation and term paper