Undergraduate Program Status
Elective | 4th year |
The course surveys scholarly and policy debates on contemporary international intervention and statebuilding. It builds around three major blocks: liberalism, international norms, and decolonisation which serve as frames for discussion of more specific themes and cases, including humanitarian intervention, Responsibility to Protect, liberal peace as well as illiberal intervention and authoritarian peace. The course critically examines both the liberal peace perspective, focusing on institution/capacity building and good governance, and a variety of critical debates which expose the neo-colonial discourses of international interveners. Against these divisions, the course aims to look closer at the intersection between the local, transnational, and global politics to examine the relations among different actors involved in the intervention and statebuilding project. It seeks to familiarise students with theoretical, analytical and policy understanding of the contemporary practices of statebuilding and, for this purpose, integrates a variety of corresponding assignments.
By the end of the course, the students will have:
• Acquired familiarity with the major debates in the field of international intervention and statebuilding, from both the liberal and critical perspective
• Become able to recognise the assumptions organising these debates and what kind of discourses they both represent and produce
• Approached the field from a variety of levels of analysis and actors involved in the international intervention and statebuilding, including practitioners on the ground and local stakeholders
• Enhanced their articulation skills in policy and scholarly genres
1. Seminar preparation and participation in class discussion 10%
2. Seminar presentation 20%
3. Policy brief 20%
4. Book review 25%
5. Take home exam 25%
