Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POL2105: Total War, Total Peace

This module descriptor refers to the 2019/0 academic year.

Module Aims

The module aims to explore the different levels of violence and socio-economic mobilisation employed by societies during war. It differs from traditional approaches by being global in approach and in exploring warfare and societies from the much deeper past. Another key aim is that knowledge of the course material will be developed with a focus on your research, participation, and engagement, through simulations and interactive learning activities rather than through passive consumption of lectures. Thus, you will be encouraged to learn empathically by coming to appreciate the contingencies and limitations faced by practitioners when engaging in strategic decision-making.

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. Understand distinctions between forms of warfare, levels of violence, and strategic context over the long term. 2. Demonstrate good knowledge of the disparities in the levels of violence and socio-economic mobilisation achieved by various belligerents in particular conflicts.
Discipline-Specific Skills	3. Understand the links between politics, society, economics, and warfare. 4. Display good awareness of a range of conceptual frameworks to understand the complex and changing interaction between war and societies.
Personal and Key Skills	5. Demonstrate empathic appreciation of policy decisions. 6. Demonstrate awareness of contingency in decision-making processes. 7. Study independently and manage time and assessment deadlines effectively. 8. Communicate effectively in speech and writing. 9. Demonstrate critical and analytical skills through module assessments. 10. Demonstrate proficiency in the use of the internet, online journal databases and other IT resources for the purposes of tutorial and assessment preparation. 11. Demonstrate effective applied writing.

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:

the World Wars
the Napoleonic Wars
industrial wars
‘tribal’ and ‘nomadic’ warfare
non-Western ‘total’ wars
wars and ‘policing operations’ of empires
post-WW2 conflicts
civil wars

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	128	0

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

Category	Hours of study time	Description
Scheduled Learning & Teaching Activity	22	11 x 2-hour seminars
Guided Independent Study	50	Private study reading and preparing for seminars
Guided Independent Study	78	Preparation for essay and pre-seen exam including researching and collating relevant sources; planning the structure and argument; writing up the essay

Online Resources

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

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

Black J. 2010. The Age of Total War, 1860-1945. Plymouth: Roman and Littlefield, 1-12.

Giddens, A. 1985. ‘Capitalist development and the industrialization of war’. In: The Nation State and Violence. Cambridge: Polity, 222-254.

Heuser, B. 2010. The Evolution of Strategy: Thinking War from Antiquity to the Present. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Howard, M. 2005. ‘Total war: some concluding remarks’. In: Chickering, R., Förster, S., and Geiner, B. (eds). A World at War: Global Conflict and the Politics of Destruction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 375-383.

Howard M. 2009. War in European History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Keegan J. 1994. A History of Warfare. London: Pimlico.

Imlay, T. 2007. ‘Total war’, The Journal of Strategic Studies 30:3, 547-570.

Philpott, W.J. 2006. ‘Total war’. In: Hughes, M. and Philpott, W.J. (eds). Palgrave Advances in Modern Military History. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 131-152.

Saint-Amour, P.K. 2014. ‘On the partiality of total war’. Critical Enquiry 40:2, 420-449.

Strachan, H. 2000. ‘Essay and reflection: on total war and modern war’. The International History Review 22:2, 341-70.