Module POL3233 for 2019/0
- Overview
- Aims and Learning Outcomes
- Module Content
- Indicative Reading List
- Assessment
Undergraduate Module Descriptor
POL3233: Military Revolutions and Political Change
This module descriptor refers to the 2019/0 academic year.
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:
- defining military revolutions
- approaches to studying war and the state
- the origins of war
- violence, sovereignty and state formation
- ‘mercenaries’, ‘contractors’, and ‘pirates’
- asymmetric, colonial, and low-intensity warfare
- nuclear weapons
- nationalism
- war and the democratic state
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).
How this Module is Assessed
In the tables below, you will see reference to 'ILO's. An ILO is an Intended Learning Outcome - see Aims and Learning Outcomes for details of the ILOs for this module.
Formative Assessment
A formative assessment is designed to give you feedback on your understanding of the module content but it will not count towards your mark for the module.
| Form of assessment | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essay outline | 500 words | 1-11 | Peer-assessed |
Summative Assessment
A summative assessment counts towards your mark for the module. The table below tells you what percentage of your mark will come from which type of assessment.
| Coursework | Written exams | Practical exams |
|---|---|---|
| 50 | 50 | 0 |
...and this table provides further details on the summative assessments for this module.
| Form of assessment | % of credit | Size of the assessment (eg length / duration) | ILOs assessed | Feedback method |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essay | 50 | 2,000 words | 1-11 | Written |
| Pre-seen exam | 50 | 2 hours/2 questions | 1-11 | Written |
Re-assessment
Re-assessment takes place when the summative assessment has not been completed by the original deadline, and the student has been allowed to refer or defer it to a later date (this only happens following certain criteria and is always subject to exam board approval). For obvious reasons, re-assessments cannot be the same as the original assessment and so these alternatives are set. In cases where the form of assessment is the same, the content will nevertheless be different.
| Original form of assessment | Form of re-assessment | ILOs re-assessed | Timescale for re-assessment |
|---|---|---|---|
| Essay | Essay (2,000 words) | 1-11 | August/September reassessment period |
| Pre-seen exam | Pre-seen exam (2 hours/2 questions) | 1-11 | August/September reassessment period |
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.
Asch RG. 2010. ‘War and state-building’. In: F Tallett and DJB Trim (eds.). European Warfare 1350-1750. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 322-337.
von Clausewitz C. 1976. On War [trns. Howard, M. and Paret, P.]. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
DeGroot GJ. 2010. ‘”Killing is easy”: the atomic bomb and the temptation of terror’. In: H Strachan and S Scheipers (eds.). The Changing Character of War. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 90-108.Rogers CJ. 1995. The Military Revolution Debate: Readings on the Military Transformation of Early Modern Europe. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Knox, M & Murray, W. (eds) 2001. The Dynamics of Military Revolution 1300-2050. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
MaleševiÄ? S. 2010. The Sociology of War and Violence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mann M. 1986. The Sources of Social Power, Volume 1: A History of Power from the Beginning to AD 1760. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Parker G. 1999. The Military Revolution: Military Innovation and the Rise of the West 1500-1800 [Second edition, reprinted]. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Porter, BD. 1994. War and the Rise of the State: The Military Foundations of Modern Politics. New York: The Free Press, 105-147.
Singer PW. 2008. Corporate Warriors: The Rise of the Privatized Military Industry. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Tilly, C. 1992. Coercion, Capital, and European States AD 990-1992. Oxford: Blackwell.
Luttwak EN. 1995. ‘Toward post-heroic warfare’. Foreign Affairs 74(3), 109-22.
Luttwak EN. 1996. ‘A post-heroic military policy’. Foreign Affairs 75(4), 33-44.
