War and Diplomacy in Fact and Fiction

Catalog description

This first-year seminar offers an introduction to a number of the key military and diplomatic encounters of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We will explore from a multinational perspective the ways in which peoples and nation-states competed for both power and security. We will seek to understand the ways in which states attempted to balance their national needs for economic and military security with their desires for international prominence and stability. And we will interrogate the ways in which polities, non-state actors, and communities confronted each other and the Great Powers that sought to dominate them. Exploring some of the relevant scholarly literature in international history, we will discuss various great works of literature and film in their historical context. The final assignment will give students the opportunity to write their own short work of historical fiction or a traditional scholarly paper.