Post-Conflict Development

Catalog description

Determining the appropriate response to atrocities of gruesome scale, such as genocide and crimes against humanity, is one of the most difficult tasks scholars and policymakers have had to grapple with in post-conflict societies. This course examines key concepts and explores theoretical and practical problems in confronting political and structural violence, including deprivation of basic material needs, human rights violations, and ethnic cleansing and genocide. We explore recent attempts to establish just outcomes in transitional settings and assess different transitional justice mechanisms, such as truth and reconciliation commissions, war crimes tribunals, and the International Criminal Court. Students have the opportunity to analyze a variety of topics in their assignments, such as retributive, restorative, reparative, and distributive justice, and the relationship between transitional justice and development, displacement, gender, and media.