Module Identifier IP30320  
Module Title WAR, POLITICS AND STRATEGY  
Academic Year 2002/2003  
Co-ordinator To Be Arranged  
Semester Semester 1  
Course delivery Lecture   13 Hours (13 x 1 hour)  
  Seminars / Tutorials   10 Hours (5 x 2 hour)  
Assessment Semester Exam   3 Hours   100%  
  Semester Assessment   Essay: 1 x 2,000 word non-assessed    
  Supplementary Exam   Students may, subject to Faculty approval, have the opportunity to resit this module, normally during the supplementary examination period. For further clarification please contact the Teaching Programme Administrator in the Department of International Politics.    

Learning outcomes

On completion of the module, students should be able to:

- Critically assess the literature on the causes of war
- Discuss a range of key concepts and historical and contemporary events in relation to the evolution of war
- Understand the role of legal and moral restraints on war
- Assess the conflicting theories on whether force can be controlled or abolished as a tool of inter-state relations

Brief description

This module provides an analytical foundation to the critical study of war, politics and strategy.

Aims

This module aims to provide a comprehensive basis (concepts, theories, history) for understanding and explaining the most salient issues of war, politics and strategy in the contemporary world.

Content

The module is divided into four parts:

(1) the causes of war;
(2) the evolution of war;
(3) legal and moral restraints on war;   
(4) the control and abolition of war.

Transferable skills

Students will have the opportunity to develop, practice and test a wide range of transferable skills that will help them to understand, conceptualise and evaluate examples and ideas. Throughout the course, students should practice and enhance their reading, comprehension and thinking skills, as well as basic numeric skills and self-management skills. In lectures students will develop listening and note taking skills, as well as analytical skills. In seminars students will enhance their analytical skills and will practice listening, explaining and debating skills, as well as team-work and problem solving. Essay writing will encourage students to practice their independent research, writing and IT skills, and the examination will test these skills under time constraint conditions.

10 ECTS credits

Reading Lists

Books
** Recommended Text
David P Barash (ed). Approaches to Peace. 2000. Oxford University Press
Lawrence Freedman (ed). War. Oxford University Press