Philip Tankovich - Final Post

In choosing this course, I had decided to educate myself in the field of politics - one which I was not very familiar with before this class. I was attracted by the title of the class, and seeing that Tolstoy would be the introduction to a political class - I made the choice to take this class and do not regret it one bit. Throughout the cross-references of themes and ideas throughout the centuries, we have been able to construct a global lens through which one can view the dynamic of power and furthermore, its ability to induce war and peace. 

Beginning with Tolstoy was an excellent idea. Having the subject of the course correlate with a great work of literary and historical value gave the effect, as a student without much political background I was able to more readily dive into the matter and find its connection to the modern world. The central idea of Tolstoy that history is the 'will of mankind expressed throughout time,' has carried forth through all the texts, whether we are examining nuclear warfare or counter-insurgency techniques. Although the Big Boys club is still full of powerful people, it is the plethora of individuals called the 'masses' that dominate the direction of history. With Tolstoy, we were able to start in fertile ground that allowed us to build further developments into the nature of war and peace making - thanks to the historical roots of the novel as a foundation, and its ability to be interpreted in a contemporary fashion as time moves incessantly forward. 

All the documents we read, wrote about, and discussed in class were relative to the notion of war and peace. Some were more accessible than others (Taussig being the hardest to understand - I would remove this reading form the syllabus). Nevertheless, each week ideas were being built upon and extended to fit the new paradigm according to the schema of the reading. Ultimately, the course feels as though it has made a logical progression forward in terms of the logistics and mechanics of power and its relation to war and peace, thanks to both the chronological trend in viewing both historical and modern sources, as well as the development of thematic content which seemed to condusively support the following weeks idea. For instance, the introduction of Foucault after Tolstoy to provide a rather counter-discourse was clever in its ability to provide a point of relativity form which one could gather information. Thenceforth, the reading of Latour summarized the non-acting influences in history to provide an elongation on Tolstoy's idea.

Ultimately, this class brought to light the underlying power mechanics of war and peace - and their meaning and interpretations throughout history. The mixing of time, places, and cultures has developed in my mind a rather global perspective on how the dynamics of politics come into effect, as well as given me a rather horrible insight into how corrupt the world can be - especially in the last article regarding the Mavi Marmara. Nevertheless, I have learned something from this class and take with me more knowledge of war, peace, and their underlying infrastructure.