PLSC 291Introduction to Peace and Conflict Studies

3 credits · Political Science · Penn State

This course is an examination of how human beings get into and out of violent conflicts, and how conflicts transform. It sizes up the costs of war, examines the processes and challenges of peace, and reflects on the characteristics of human conflicts at all levels. The course is interdisciplinary, drawing together perspectives from political science, global and international studies, cultural anthropology, psychology, sociology, economics, military history, war game theory, and studies of literature and expressive culture. Course modules engage with diplomacy, nonviolence, failed states, ethnic struggle, gender mainstreaming, psychology and sociology of human aggression, economics of war and peace, globalization and conflict, and cyber warfare.