Building Democracies from Conflict - Violence, Power-Sharing and Institutional Design London School of Economics and Political Science

Overview

Key facts

London School of Economics and Political Science's Building Democracies from Conflict - Violence, Power-Sharing and Institutional Design main purpose is to diagnose the central problems, and examine what political responses are most appropriate using multiple case studies.

The first part of the course mostly looks at the problems. We begin with an examination of Iraq as an example of armed intervention and regime change. Themes include the politics of intervention, mass violence, constitution building and power-sharing, and the rise (and fall?) of Islamic State. More generally we will examine the micro-foundations of nationalism, grievances and conflict. Since the end of the cold war, almost all wars are ‘civil wars’ so we will consider what causes civil wars, what sustains them, why some last much longer than others, and how do they end? There will also be a focus on the strategies of terrorism and suicide terrorism.