Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POL2116: Political Economy of Armed Conflicts

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

Module Aims

The overarching objective of the class is for you to develop interdisciplinary and scientific skills critical for understanding the complexity of the politics and economies of armed conflict. Through a combination of readings, critical discussions, watching documentaries & media analysis, lectures, analysis of current events, and participatory exercises (e.g. group work and presentations), you will develop a core base of knowledge about war economies and resilience of illicit economies of wars.

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. Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of economic foundations of wars 2. Appreciate economic foundations of inter-state and intra-state armed conflicts through a wide range of examples of current and historical conflicts
Discipline-Specific Skills	3. Appreciate the complexities of the topic and the interlinkages between politics, sociology and economics perspectives aimed at providing a wholistic understanding of economic foundations of armed conflicts. 4. Acquire and display a range of conceptual frameworks and theories from various relevant fields.
Personal and Key Skills	5. Demonstrate empathic appreciation of policy decisions. 6. Demonstrate awareness of contingency in decision-making processes. 7. Demonstrate the ability to work independently, within a limited timeframe, and without access to external sources, to complete a specified task. 8. Communicate effectively in speech and writing. 9. Demonstrate critical and analytical skills through tutorial discussions and 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:

Conceptual and theoretical frameworks in studying armed conflicts
Historical trends
Political economy of natural resources
Licit and illicit economic roots of armed conflicts
Transformation of war economies into peace economies

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 and Teaching Activities	22	11 x 2hr lecture/seminar classes
Guided independent study	50	Private study reading and preparing for lectures/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).