• To examine the different experiences of attempts at successful and unsuccessful conflict resolution, management and prevention strategies
• To introduce students to the major theoretical works of conflict resolution, in particular consociationalism and its critics
• To explore through case studies a number of post cold war peace processes
• To discuss the different methodological approaches to the analysis of conflict resolution strategies including large scale macro studies and case studies.

• By the end of the module students should be in a position to place contemporary developments in conflict resolution, management and prevention in an historical and theoretical framework.
• Students should be comfortable with using the available on-line databases on the study of conflict.
• Students should have engaged in at least one case study and presented oral and written outlines of their work.

Theories and Concepts

• Conflict Resolution, Management, Prevention and Transformation - clashing theories or condition specific responses?
• Consociational Theory and the work of A. Lijphart
• Consociational `Plus'' - adding the external dimension.
• Changing political culture or division of spoils - the critique of Horowitz.
• Is nationalism the problem?

International Peace and Security Architecture

• The role of the UN
• Regional Organisations
• the African Union and its peacekeeping facility
• European Security - the EU and NATO
• Different International Perspectives - the US and EU `security strategies'' compared.

International Responses

• Conflict Prevention - Macedonia and Rwanda
• Mediation and peace agreements - Northern Ireland, Cyprus
• Traditional Peacekeeping - UNIFIL (and Liberia ?)
• Peace Enforcement Missions - Somalia, (and Bosnia?)
• Armed Intervention - Kosovo

• Bellamy, Alex, Paul Williams and Stuart Griffin. (2004). Understanding peacekeeping Polity Press.
• Holzgrefe, JL and Robert O. Keohane eds. (2003) Humanitarian intervention :ethical, legal, and political dilemmas . Cambridge University Press.
• Horowitz, Donald (1985) Ethnic Groups in Conflict , (University of California Press).
• Horowitz, Donald (2001). The deadly ethnic riot . University of California Press.
• Lijphart, Arend (1977). Democracy in Plural Societies: A Comparative Exploration . New Haven: Yale University Press. (and the extensive journal articles by Lijphart on consociationalism
• Wheeler, Nicholas (2000). Saving Strangers, Humanitarian intervention in international society . Oxford: OUP.
• Woodhouse, Tom Robert Bruce, and Malcolm Dando eds. (1998). Peacekeeping and peacemaking: towards effective intervention in post-Cold War conflicts Basingstoke: Macmillan.
• Woodhouse, Tom and Oliver Ramsbotham eds. (2000). Peacekeeping and conflict resolution . London : Frank Cass, 2000
• Zartman, William (ed.). 1995: Elusive Peace: Negotiating an End to Civil Wars . Washington D.C.: Brookings Institution.

MA in International Relations
MA in International Security and Conflict Studies
MA in Globalisation