Building Peace in Divided Societies. 3 credits

Catalog description

Explores the roots of peacebuilding as a conflict resolution strategy in terms of changes over time, basic assumptions underpinning the emergence and continuance of conflict, building peace, and challenges to community participation as well as varied reactions to the building peace enterprise. The tensions theoretically and practically between building peace and continuity of the conflictual status quo will be explored in detail throughout the course. The focus on communities intersects and often conflicts with the more prominent global peacebuilding frame, often considered an elite endeavor as well as the political economy of the status quo as evidenced in the United States. Why, for example, does the term peacebuilding not appear regularly when considering domestic US conflict and its effects? There are, of course, more questions than answers. However, the focus of the course is to expand our thinking, conceptualizing, and theorizing regarding the current state of peacebuilding. Offered by Conflict Analysis & Resolution . May not be repeated for credit.