Non-Western Military History

Catalog description

This seminar will present an introduction to Non-Western military history, covering a wide range of topics including military thought, strategy and tactics, technologies, and cultural factors as they pertained to the waging of war. Non-Western military history is rapidly maturing as a field of scholarly inquiry, particularly with respect to Asia. Therefore, this seminar will introduce students to the latest scholarship and interpretations, which both challenge and complement aspects of the debates about Western superiority mentioned above. Due to the wider availability of source materials and the research expertise of the seminar designer, this seminar will devote more attention to East Asia than to other parts of the non-Western world. Nevertheless, weekly lessons will be arranged topically and will in many cases encompass a variety of geographical areas. Students will be strongly encouraged to think comparatively throughout the class. Students will be challenged to determine if any society had definitely unique approaches to warfare or if the universals are far more important than the specifics.