Course Description

The conventional story on war- and peacemaking almost always speaks of great deeds by Great Men. It tells how genius generals win wars and how skillful diplomats strike peace deals; how heroic soldiers fight and how selfless peacemakers unite; and, crucially, how wars end where peace begins and vice versa. Inspired by Tolstoy’s narrative of war as an assemblage of serendipity and chance, this course will look at war/peace beyond the lens of rationality and of strategic interests. Following Latour’s reading of Tolstoy, it will introduce a less anthropocentric and – hopefully - more pluralistic perspective by allowing other actors to make peace/war, such as UN reports and US drones, reconciliation workshops and surveillance techniques, etc. Building on Foucault’s inversion of Clausewitz, it will explore war as a general grid through which modern society can be analyzed even – and especially - during so-called peacetime.

Course requirements

Students are expected to fulfil the following requirements:

1. To post individual entries online to the course-blog (50%). The entries should include a summary of and a critical response to the weekly readings and should be posted online no later than midnight of Tuesday before class. Each response should be maximum one page long (single space, 12, Times New Roman, decent margins). Each student is expected to hand in 10 entries in total for the entire semester. Reflective entries after the class are highly encouraged and will add to the overall grade an extra 10%.

2. To present the readings in a critical, concise and comprehensive way as a group in the class (30%). The presentations must take place twice in the semester for each group and must not take longer than 15 minutes.

3. To actively, critically and contructively participate in the group and in the plenum discussions in class (20%).

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