IR490 Half Unit
The Strategy of Conflict in International Relations
This information is for the 2024/25 session.
Teacher responsible
Dr. Anna Getmansky CBG 8.05
Availability
This course is available on the MSc in International Affairs (LSE and Peking University), MSc in International Relations, MSc in International Relations (LSE and Sciences Po), MSc in International Relations (Research) and MSc in Theory and History of International Relations. This course is not available as an outside option.
All students are required to obtain permission from the Teacher Responsible by completing the Student Statement box on the online application form linked to course selection on LSE for You. Admission is not guaranteed.
Course content
This course introduces students to recent literature on conflict onset, management, and resolution, with particular focus on rational-choice theories and simple game-theoretic concepts. In addition, students will have opportunities to apply this knowledge to specific cases of international conflict and compare academic and non-academic accounts of conflicts.
While lectures and reading material focus on theories and examples of conflicts, during seminar discussions students will apply this knowledge to particular conflicts. Class activities will focus on work in small groups, and simulation of decision making in conflicts.
The main goal of the course is to experience how IR theories and concepts can be applied to decision-making in somewhat realistic scenarios.
Teaching
10 hours of lectures and 15 hours of seminars in the WT.
Students on this course will have a reading week in Week 6, in line with departmental policy.
Formative coursework
Students will provide an 800-word outline of their assessed essay by the end of Week 7.
Indicative reading
- Christopher Blattman. Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace. Viking (2022).
- Thomas Schelling. Arms and Influence (Yale University Press 2008)
- Bruce Bueno de Mesquita, Alastair Smith, Randolph Siverson, and James Morrow, The Logic of Political Survival (MIT 2003)
- Susan Rice. Tough Love: My Story of the Things Worth Fighting For. Simon & Schuster (2019)
- Jeremy Bowen. The Making of the Modern Middle East: A Personal History. Pan Macmillan (2022)
- Anita Anand. The Patient Assassin: A True Tale of Massacre, Revenge and the Raj. Simon & Schuster (2020).
Assessment
Essay (100%, 4000 words) in the ST.
Students will select their 4000-word essay topic and essay question from a list provided by the course convenor in the WT.
Key facts
Department: International Relations
Total students 2023/24: 45
Average class size 2023/24: 15
Controlled access 2023/24: Yes
Value: Half Unit
Course selection videos
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