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Global Programs >>
Graduate Students >> London Peacemaking Seminar
Contemporary War and the
Liberal Conscience
Seminar on European Perspectives on War, held in London
2007 Participants at the Imperial War Museum
March 10-14, 2008 in London
The course investigates how the ‘liberal conscience’ (Michael Howard)
influenced the armed interventions and wars the West has undertaken
since the end of the Cold War. This conscience, the course contends, has
been critical to the framing European and US ideas about war since the
French Revolution. One could argue that with the end of the Cold War,
when the West seemingly saw off its last major ideological competitor,
liberal ideas and values have been offered an unprecedented opportunity
to assert themselves and finally make our military establishments a true
and global ‘force for good’. The course will examine these contentions
in their conceptual and historical context and consider how liberal
norms and values have fared in the exposure to actual conflict since
1989.
 By
the end of the course, you should have developed a good understanding of
how Western ideas on war have evolved over the last two centuries and
the nature and challenges of contemporary conflict. Through your written
papers and class contributions, you will have been provided with an
opportunity to reflect critically on these issues.
The course has a strong European flavour. Your tutor is Dutch. He does
not hold an American political science degree. He has chosen mostly
non-American course texts (and follows British English spelling). In
addition, most of the course takes you away from your usual study
environment, to London.
 There,
you will encounter material artifacts, like museums, buildings and
monuments, that reflect particular views of war that may be starkly or
subtly different from those found in the US. You will also meet, in
their ‘natural habitat’ so to speak, academics, policy-makers, advisers
and soldiers who may also present views of war which are different from
those generally encountered in the US. Nonetheless, the aim of this
transatlantic encounter is to explore, through the observation of
differences, whether there is a shared core of values which is shaping
our approach to contemporary war.
2008
Program Schedule - coming soon!
2008 Syllabus
2008
Course Evaluation
2008 Schedule
There are two parts to the course. I will
teach the first part in Syracuse February 6-9.
The second part will take place in London March 10-14, 2008.
 The
five-day London element will offer a combination of seminars by invited
speakers and visits to relevant institutions. The 2008 schedule is TBC.
In the past the schedule was as follows: We will meet on the first
day in the Imperial War Museum to consider the question how Britain
tries to account for its very rich military past in the light of
radically changed sensibilities regarding war. Later in the week, visits
are planned to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and/or the Ministry
of Defence. We will also, if possible, go to a theatre play on a
politically controversial issue. On the remaining days, a series of
presentations by practitioners of war and diplomacy and leading scholars
will be given at King’s College London. In addition, we will hold some
context and ‘debriefing’ seminars which will allow you to develop the
topics for your research papers. At the end of the week, I will meet
individually with each of you to discuss your final paper. The details
of the London programme should be known by the time the Syracuse element
takes place.
Note
that you must attend the Syracuse seminars in order to qualify to come
to London.
I will teach four seminars in Syracuse on the following topics:
1. Introduction: The Liberal Conscience
Mandatory reading: the Howard books and the relevant section in Doyle
2. The French Revolution and European Warmaking, 1789–1989, or what were
we fighting for and how did we do it?
3. Fighting For Peace, 1989 to the Present, Part I: What do we fight for
nowadays and how do we do it?
4. Fighting For Peace, 1989 to the Present, Part II: Who (or what) are
we up against?
In addition, you will have an opportunity to discuss the course and its
requirements individually with the me in Syracuse.
Requirements
Before you come to London, you will write a 10-page review of one
of the books from the list below. You should focus on identifying
the big thesis of the book of your choice and criticise it. This
should provide you with good preparation and practice in engaging
with the fundamental issues of the course. Also the reviews, which
are due in the week before you arrive in London (send them to me by
e-mail), allow me to gauge more precisely your strengths and
weaknesses, so that I can fine-tune the London week’s seminars. Note
that choosing the littlest book doesn’t necessarily make for the
easiest review!
After you leave London, you will write a 20-page research paper on
an issue of your choosing that you must discuss with me and get
approved.
Texts
This is intended to be a
cutting-edge course about a big issue. The course takes it inspiration
from a wide and extremely rich range of literatures, which includes the
ones on the ‘ideology’ or political philosophy of ‘liberalism’, theories
of international relations (including normative theory), the causes and
nature of war, just war, international law, strategy and European
history. These literatures are used in an attempt to make sense of an
urgent and topical issue: how ideas, norms and values are shaping
contemporary war.
There is therefore no one textbook. You are advised to read as widely as
possible. Do also keep up with the news! However, to give some guidance
the following titles are recommended for your study.
The two basic texts for the course are
the following two concise and elegant works by Britain’s pre-eminent
military historian (and, coincidentally, founder of the King’s College
War Studies Department), Sir Michael Howard:
 *Michael
Howard, War and the Liberal Conscience (Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1981)
*Michael Howard, The Invention of Peace & the Reinvention of War
(London: Profile Books, 2002)
For added context on the main competing ideologies, check out:
*Michael W. Doyle, Ways of War and Peace: Realism, Liberalism and
Socialism (New York: Norton, 1997)
For historical context, you should read either or both of the following:
 *Henry
Kissinger, Diplomacy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994)
—the underlying political philosophy may not be shared by the approach
taken in this course, but it still provides a useful narrative of events
*F. H. Hinsley, Power and the Pursuit of Peace: Theory and Practice in
the History of Relations between States (Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 1963)
—an archetypal British liberal account, first-rate
For an excellent overview of how strategic thought reflected broad
ideological currents, see:
*Azar Gat, A History of Military Thought from the Enlightenment to the
Cold War (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001)
The events, post-Cold War, but pre-Bush the Son, are covered,
respectively from a European and American perspective in:
*William Shawcross, Deliver Us From Evil: Peacekeepers, Warlords and a
World of Endless Conflict (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2000)
*David Halberstam, War in a Time of Peace: Bush, Clinton, and the
Generals (New York: Scribner, 2001)
For an interesting attempt to come to grips with the new Western way of
fighting wars, see:
*Christopher Coker, Humane Warfare (London: Routledge, 2001)
Additional tracts that illustrate the liberal’s struggle with the
contemporary challenge of war and peace, are:
*Michael Ignatieff, Virtual War: Kosovo and Beyond (New York: Picador,
2001)
*Michael Ignatieff, The Warrior’s Honor: Ethnic War and the Modern
Conscience (London: Chatto & Windus, 1998)
*Mary Kaldor, New & Old Wars: Organized Violence in a Global Era
(Cambridge: Polity, 1999)
 Two
very pertinent, short articles are:
*Azar Gat, ‘Isolationism, Appeasement, Containment, and Limited War:
Western Strategic Policy from the Modern to the “Postmodern” Era’, in
Zeev Maoz and Azar Gat, eds., War in a Changing World (Ann Arbor, Mich.:
University of Michigan Press, 2001), pp. 77–91
*James Gow, ‘A Revolution in International Affairs?’, Security Dialogue,
Vol. 31, No. 3 (September 2000), pp. 293–306
Finally, there’s one great book that comes closest to providing a course
textbook (though, sadly, it’s by an American):
*Philip Bobbitt, The Shield of Achilles: War, Peace and the Course of
History (New York: Knopf, 2002)
Read, marvel, engage and reflect critically—and wonder why it was so
much better received in Europe than in the US.
Web Resources
The Faculty
This three-credit seminar will be led by
Jan Willem Honig, Senior Lecturer in
War Studies at Kings College London. His current research and writing is on a history of European strategic thought and practice.
Travel Arrangements
 In addition to tuition fees for the three graduate credits,
students will be responsible for their transportation to, and food and lodging in, London. In recent years the return air fare from Syracuse to London has cost less than $400; and Dr. Honig can arrange for bed-and-breakfast accommodation in the center of London for about $80 a night per room, which can be shared. During the preparation for the 2003 seminar, students on a joint listserv worked together for group rates for flights.
For 2004, Maxwell arranged for students to stay in a hostel in Kings
Cross, London at the students' cost. For groups going in 2005 and
2006, Maxwell recommended local accommodations that the students secured
themselves. For more information about
these accommodations, please contact the Global Programs Coordinator.
Application Process
2008 Global Programs Application Form
Planning Ahead
This page current as
of: July 27, 2007
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