Postgraduate Module Descriptor

POLM088: State-building after Civil War

This module descriptor refers to the 2021/2 academic year.

Module Aims

The module aims to provide you with a conceptual and theoretical background to the most common type of armed conflict in the world today: civil wars. It begins by introducing the academic literature dealing with the types, onset, and duration of civil wars and the various motivations of participants. We will then delve into the different measures taken to restore peace and ensure it persists. We will also closely examine the ways various domestic and international actors have attempted to re-build states through institutional design. Drawing on both historical and recent case studies from around the world, you will be able to acquire a deep understanding of the challenges and opportunities to peace-making and state-building after conflict and discuss them in relation to a number of past or current conflicts.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)
This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here - you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills	1. Clearly distinguish between civil wars and other types of armed conflict. 2. Have a solid grasp of the main causes and drivers of civil wars. 3. Critically assess the relative success of different ways to end civil wars. 4. Gain a solid understanding of the theories underpinning different approaches to state-building after civil war. 5. Gain in-depth empirical knowledge of a number of past or ongoing civil wars and state-building efforts.
Discipline-Specific Skills	6. Critically engage with the literature on the state, political order, and state-building from Political Science and International Relations. 7. Demonstrate clear theoretical understanding of major approaches to the study of the onset, duration, and termination of civil wars from International Relations and Political Science. 8. Improved understanding of the comparative method in Political Science.
Personal and Key Skills	9. Demonstrate improved analytical reasoning. 10. Synthesize large amount of material and present clear arguments and recommendations. 11. Provide constructive feedback to your peers.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:

State-building and civil wars – key concepts and dilemmas
Origins of civil wars: security dilemmas
Origins of civil wars: identities and interests
Civil war onset and duration
Ending civil wars: negotiation, peace-keeping, partition
Constitutional design for divided societies
Strengthening institutions and maintaining political order after civil war
Promoting democracy in weak states
Case studies and student presentations

Learning and Teaching

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

Scheduled Learning and Teaching Activities	Guided independent study	Placement / study abroad
22	278

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled learning and teaching activities	22	11 x 2 hour weekly seminars.
Guided independent study	60	Complete weekly reading assignments.
Guided independent study	188	Research, and drafting of policy memo, paper outline, and final paper
Guided independent study	30	Research and preparation for in-class presentation

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).

PRIO data on armed conflict: https://www.prio.org/Data/Armed-Conflict/

Uppsala conflict data program: http://ucdp.uu.se

ETH Zurich international conflict research data: https://icr.ethz.ch/data/

Political violence at a glance: http://politicalviolenceataglance.org