This course analyzes the effectiveness, limitations, and unintended consequences of military intervention as a tool for managing ethnic conflict, preventing atrocities, and achieving humanitarian ends. It explores these topics through in-depth examination of three recent cases: Bosnia, Rwanda and Kosovo. No auditors, except for Army fellows, are permitted because the course is based on student discussion of the assigned readings.
The requirements are regular attendance and class participation (20% of grade), one in-class presentation on a reading from the supplementary reading list assigned at the start of the semester (10%), a five-page take-home mid-term examination (20%), and a 25-page seminar paper (50%). Students also will prepare preliminary and revised paper proposals during the first half of the semester to ensure an early start to their research. The seminar paper will address a humanitarian military intervention that either was, or could have been, carried out in an internal or inter-state conflict. The paper typically will not address one of the three cases explored in the course.