Dr Denisa Kostovicova CBG 7.03

This course is available on the MSc in Comparative Politics, MSc in Conflict Studies, MSc in Culture and Conflict in a Global Europe, MSc in Culture and Conflict in a Global Europe (LSE & Sciences Po), MSc in European Studies (Research), MSc in European and International Public Policy, MSc in European and International Public Policy (LSE and Bocconi), MSc in European and International Public Policy (LSE and Sciences Po), MSc in Global Politics, MSc in Human Rights, MSc in Human Rights and Politics, MSc in International Development and Humanitarian Emergencies and MSc in Women, Peace and Security. This course is available with permission as an outside option to students on other programmes where regulations permit.

Priority will be given to students on the MSc in Culture and Conflict in a Global Europe, MSc in Culture and Conflict in a Global Europe (LSE and SciencesPo), MSc in European and International Public Policy, MSc in European and International Public Policy (LSE and SciencesPo), MSc in European and International Public Policy & Politics (LSE and Bocconi), MSc in European Studies (Research) and MSc in Conflict Studies. 

This course has limited availability (is capped), and requires that students (regardless of Department or MSc programme) apply for access via the Graduate Course Choice process.

The course offers a theoretically informed account of the challenges faced by countries transitioning from conflict to peace in the era of globalisation, and examines them empirically in reference to examples from the Balkans, the Caucasus and the Middle East. The regions chosen are those which have experienced particular difficulties in effecting a peaceful process of transition to democracy, market economy and integration in a multilateral system. The course will start with an introduction to theories of globalisation, a comparative analysis of the legacy of totalitarianism and authoritarianism and an overview of conflict analysis. The course is structured around three issue areas: political ideologies and state breakdown; transition economy and organised crime; post-totalitarian society. It looks at nationalism linked to global diasporas and fundamentalist networks, new wars in the context of international intervention, and international protectorates. Transition economy includes both an introduction to transition strategies (privatisation, liberalisation and macro-economic stabilisation) as well as the perverse effects of illegal economic networks and organised crime stemming both from the totalitarian past and the impact of globalisation. The last block of questions investigates post-conflict reconstruction from the perspective of transition justice, (un)civil societies and new minorities. While analysing these issues accompanied with relevant regional illustrations particular attention is made to grasp unique aspects of post-totalitarianism triggered by the simultaneity of transition and globalisation. The course concludes by examining the European Union state-building policies in relation to critical approaches to post-conflict reconstruction.

15 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the MT.

There will be a reading week in week 6 of the MT.

All students are expected to produce one written essay, plus one short presentation on topics assigned to them.

• Mary Kaldor, New and Old Wars: Organised Violence in a Global Era, Polity, 1999;
• Denisa Kostovicova and Vesna Bojicic-Dzelilovic (eds) Persistent State Weakness in the Global Age, Ashgate, 2009;
• Miles Kahler and Barbara F. Walter (eds) Territoriality and Conflict in an Era of Globalization, Cambridge University Press, 2009;
• Anthony Giddens, Runaway World: How Globalisation is Reshaping our Lives, Profile, 2002;
• Ruti Teitel, Humanity's Law, Oxford University Press, 2011; 
• Cohen Stanley, States of Denial: Knowing About Atrocities and Suffering, Cambridge, UK, Polity, Malden, MA, Blackwell Publishers, 2001;
• R Naylor, Wages of Crime: Black Markets, Illegal Finance and the Underworld Economy, Cornell University Press, 2002;
• Richard Caplan, International Governance of War-Torn Territories: Rule and Reconstruction, Oxford University Press, 2005;
• Petr Kopecky & Cas Mudde (eds), Uncivil Society?: Contentious Politics in Post-Communist Europe, Routledge, 2002;
• David Chandler, International Statebuilding: The Rise of Post-Liberal Governance, Routledge, 2010;
• Rory Stewart and Gerald Knaus, Can Intervention Work?, W.W. Norton, 2011;
• Susan L. Woodward, The Ideology of Failed States: Why Intervention Fails, Cambridge University Press, 2017.

Essay (100%, 5000 words) in the LT.