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GEOG 460
Spring 2005 TR 1.00-2.15
Hosler 218A
Prof. Colin Flint
flint@geog.psu.edu
312C Walker
865-2493
Office Hours TR 11.30-12.30
We live in a world at war. Though this may be a constant condition for humanity, it seems the current conflicts will have direct and indirect impacts upon your life. How can we make sense of the causes and consequences of a world of conflict?
There are many ways of answering the overarching question. This class offers a particular perspective, that of political geography. We will approach the world as an integrated political, economic, and cultural system, but by using a collection of essays we will read many different theoretical perspectives on the geography of war. Emphasis will be placed upon understanding the processes of geopolitics, imperialism, nationalism, and identity politics (including religion), and the geographic concepts of territoriality, borders, regionalization, network relationships, and scale.
Such a project requires a commitment from each of you to read material critically and discuss it in class with your fellow students. You will also be required to write in a way that synthesizes, utilizes, and critiques academic material while relating it to developments in the real world.
You will come out of it with a set of tools to better evaluate the questions, why is the world at war and what is my position within it?
After taking this class students will:
To provide the information necessary for your work the course will consist of lectures, readings, (a few) videos, and in-class discussions.
A collection of essays, The Geography of War and Peace (GWP), edited by Colin Flint (Oxford University Press, 2005) complements the lectures, and is required reading.
Also, to allow us to talk more specifically about some of the topics additional readings are on reserve at the EMS library in the Deike Building.
The class is centered upon the readings from the Geography of War and Peace (GWP) book. A critical and careful reading of this book is the basis for your grade and class discussions. If you do not want to read this book, drop the class. Also, this class requires almost weekly written assignments; if this is not what you want then dropping the class is probably your best bet.
Response Papers: On Tuesday of each week, I will collect 1 page response papers for the upcoming (that Tuesday and the Thursday) reading. The papers may be single-spaced using a font equivalent to Times Roman 12 point. You do not have to write a paper each week. But these response papers will be graded, the best 8 out of a possible 10 will count towards 60% of your final grade. So, if you choose to only submit 8 papers only these will be the basis for your grade. If you submit 9 or 10 I will count the best 8. It is your responsibility, not mine, to keep track of how many papers you have submitted and how many are left to do.
Posted on the ANGEL site is a grading rubric for these response papers. The same grading rubric applies to each of the week's papers - one size fits all!
Yes, this means that these papers are formulaic, but it will make them easy to manage for you, and you will see the goals of these papers: i) defining what is the geographic approach and ii) seeing whether or not it adds to our understanding of contemporary war and peace. Additional goals are to nurture your ability to argue with clarity and brevity.
Final paper: The final paper counts towards 30% of your final grade. It is a 15 page (double-spaced: font equivalent to Times Roman 12 point) paper that explores any conflict or peace process of your choice (any place in the world and any time period). The goal of the paper is to see the way this conflict/peace process has been analyzed by one set of non-geographic academics (international relations, historians, economists, sociologists, etc.) and then apply any two of the geographic concepts we have discussed in class. The main questions to be addressed by your paper are: What new insights (if any) are gained from the geographic approach? Does the geographic approach create new understandings regarding the causes of the conflict, the conflict was fought, the parties involved, and the manner it was resolved (or was unable to be resolved)?
I will provide a detailed rubric for this paper later, and we will have ample time to discuss paper outlines and structure in class. I do expect about 5 academic references for this paper outside of GWP.
Introduction to the geography of war and peace: January 11 & 13
Chapter 1, Introduction, Colin Flint, GWP.
Chapter 2, Geographies of War, Jeremy Black, GWP.
How have geographers thought about war and peace over the years? January 18 & 20
Chapter 3, Geography and War, Geographers and Peace, Virginie Mamadouh, GWP.
Colin Flint "Changing Times, Changing Scales: World Politics and Political Geography Since 1890" in Reordering the World: Geopolitical Perspectives on the 21st Century. Edited by George Demko and William Wood. Westview Press, 2nd edition. 1999, pp. 3-18.
Conflict, Violence, and Politics in an Unequal World: January 25 & 27
Chapter 4, Violence, Development, and Political Order, Herman van der Wusten, GWP.
Chapters 1 and 3, Political Geography: World-Economy, Nation-State, and Locality, Peter Taylor and Colin Flint, 4th edition, Prentice Hall, 2000.
Global Patterns of Conflict: February 1 & 3
Chapter 5, The Political Geography of Conflict, John O'Loughlin, GWP.
Chapter 2, Political Geography: World-Economy, Nation-State, and Locality, Peter Taylor and Colin Flint.
Nationalism and War: February 8 & 10
Chapter 6, Soldiers and Nationalism, Gertjan Dijkink, GWP.
Chapter 7, Amazonian Landscapes, Lorraine Dowler, GWP.
Chapter 5, Political Geography: World-Economy, Nation-State, and Locality, Peter Taylor and Colin Flint.
Religion, Genocide and War: February 15 & 17
Chapter 8, Religion and the Geographies of War, Roger Stump, GWP.
Chapter 9, Geographies of Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing, Carl Dahlman, GWP.
Terrorism: February 22 & 24
Chapter 10, Dynamic Metageographies of Terrorism, Colin Flint, GWP.
Borders, Territory and Wars: March 1 & 3
Chapter 14, Territorial Ideology and Interstate Conflict, Alexander Murphy, GWP.
Chapter 15, Peace, Deception, and Justification for Territorial Claims, Ghazi-Walid Falah, GWP.
Chapter 16, Conflict at the Interface, David Newman, GWP.
Resource Wars: March 15 & 17
Chapter 11, The Geography of 'Resource Wars', Philippe Le Billon, GWP.
Drugs, Water and War: March 22 & 24
Chapter 12, Landscapes of Drugs and War, Michael Steinberg and Kent Mathewson, GWP.
Chapter 13, Navigating Uncertain Waters, Leila Harris, GWP.
Geographies of Peace, anyone? March 29 & 31
Chapter 17, The Geography of Peace Movements, Guntram Herb, GWP.
Chapter 20, The Geopolitics of Post-war Recovery, Brendan Soennecken, GWP.
April 5 & 7 NO CLASS. I AM AT A CONFERENCE
April 12 & 14 "Fog of War" movie and class discussion.
April 19 & 21 Reviewing the concepts and preparing for the final paper.
April 26 & 28 Putting the concepts together: preparing for the final paper
By remaining in this class after being presented this syllabus, it is understood that you will follow and be bound by the EMS College policies on academic integrity.
The College policies may be found at www.ems.psu.edu/admin/integ.html. It is my policy that plagiarizing from any other sources (including published works and web-sites) is a form of cheating that will definitely result in an "F" for the assignment and maybe even the course. Your written work must be independently produced, and must not display cross-over or direct similarity with the work of a classmate; this too is a form of cheating that will definitely result in an "F" for the assignment and maybe even the course.
You are required to read all that assigned materials and discuss them in class. You are required to participate in the classroom discussions. Attendance and participation is expected. Class participation counts towards 10% of your final grade. Woody Allen's rule (80% of life is just showing up) does not apply to this class.
Spring Break is the week beginning March 7.
There will be no class on April 5 and 7 (I must attend a conference). We will use this time to begin the final paper.
No late response or final papers will be accepted, with the exception of documented medical and family emergencies. If you have interviews, weddings, etc. plan ahead!