POL383 Political Violence and Liberal Modernity

POL383 Political Violence and Liberal Modernity 

Credits: 15
Semester: 2

Assessment: Item 1: 40% Research Essay Item 2: 60% Exam

Module Convenor: Dr Jean-François Drolet

This module will introduce students to some of the most important intellectual debates concerning political violence and late modernity as a principle of socio-historical formation.  More specifically, the course will draw on literature from various fields such as political theory, philosophy, sociology and international relations to consider the relationship between political violence  and the changing nature and consequences of structural phenomena associated with the process of 'liberal modernisation' since the end of the nineteenth century (e.g.  secularisation,  societal rationalisation, technology, the transnationalisation of production and exchange, decolonisation, the constitutionalisation of the global order, the criminalisation of war etc.).   The themes covered include state violence, civil war, revolution, imperialism, genocide, ethnic cleansing, humanitarian warfare and terrorism/counter-terrorism.