Course Requirements / Grading

Note: All readings are due 1 week after they are assigned.

Course Philosophy

• This is the class for people who want to make a difference (and have a life, too).
• It is an advanced class for people who take the peace and conflict field seriously.
• Students have taken some of my other classes may find some of the core materials repetitive. For these situations I will offer "place out" alternative assignments.
• The primary focus will be on society-wide (or at least community-wide) conflict. Many of the insights and procedures required for dealing with the conflicts are, however, applicable to small-scale interpersonal conflicts. I will modify assignments somewhat for students who are primarily interested in this type of conflict. (The overall workload and  level of sophistication required will, however, be comparable.)
• I interpret peace building and conflict resolution as a very broad field which includes conflict resolution and the traditional, peace movement as well as the full range of dispute resolution and peacebuilding roles.  Also included are "adjacent fields" like human rights, development, security, and advocacy.
• I do not use tests. Instead, I ask you to complete a number of fairly structured assignments that demonstrate that you've mastered key insights from the class. These assignments incorporate a fair amount of flexibility, allowing you to focus on those aspects of the course that you find most viable.
• The focus of the course is practical theory which provides a basis for adapting to unforeseen circumstances. I don't believe in "one-size-fits-all" cookbook strategies.

Course Goals

• Goal #1: Give you an initial set of skills that will enable you to be a valuable part of whatever  volunteer or professional peace and conflict resolution-related efforts you might decide to become part of.
• Goal #2: Give you a framework for acquiring the additional skills and experiences that you will need to be successful in this field.
• Goal #3: Help you determine what activities are most likely to be consistent with your personal goals, personality, and background.
• Goal #4: Demonstrate new kind of educational program -- complexity-oriented peacebuilding designed to teach adaptive skills based on "practical theory" that will be applicable again a very broad range of conflict situations.

Class Plan / Topics to be Covered

1. The critical importance of improving society's ability to deal with peace and conflict-related issues.
2. Conflict as the engine of social learning. The difference between human betterment and conflict resolution. Conflict from a first-party (as well as third-party) perspectives -- constructive confrontation.
3. Promoting more constructive approaches to conflict -- who wants to do the work and whose responsibility is it? Crafting peace building strategies that people can and want to implement. A personal guide to making a difference.
4. The limitations of the current generation of conflict intervention strategies, the importance of making the jump to complexity-oriented peacebuilding.
5. Determinants of conflict behavior and behavior change -- the relationship between subjective, rational decision-making and subjective, emotional decision-making; theories of positive change, the nature of conflict learning.
6. Case studies of complex conflict--getting beyond simplistic solutions. Cases we might choose to examine as a group include:
   • One or more "over there" conflict such as Libreria, Rwanda, Darfur,
   • Afghanistan the "good war" that we must win (but we're losing),
   • NAFTA, immigration, globalization and all that,
   • Unrightable wrongs and "end of capitalism as we know it" conflict,
   • Israel/Palestine,
   • Others?
7. Practical theory #1: The theory of complexity-oriented peacebuilding -- a realistic strategy for mapping and then dealing with the really tough problems. 
8. Practical theory #2: Challenges -- the dynamics that make conflict more destructive than constructive.
   • Win-lose psychology
   • Cultural differences
   • Unrightable wrongs
   • Escalation
   • Tyrant wannabes and spoilers
   • Many others
9. Practical theory #3: Solutions -- proven incremental steps that can be taken to limit the impact of destructive conflict dynamics.
10. Case studies of individual intervention efforts and large-scale "complex operations."
11. Complexity-oriented analysis of the case studies -- what worked, what didn't, what's unclear.
12. Meeting the challenges -- conceptual design of make-a-difference interventions.
13. The business of peace building -- the translation of conceptual designs into compelling proposals.
14. Frontier challenges -- things that we don't now know that need to find out.

Class Format

In general, the class will be divided into two major sections. The first, general presentation section will last about 40 minutes and include time for lectures, media presentations, and questions and answers. The second part of the class (approximately 35 minutes) will focus on small group, problem solving activities in which I expect everyone to actively participate. These will include discussions, problem-solving exercises, and simulation games. 

The primary focus will, however, the development of workable solutions to real-world conflict problems at the level of individual projects.  

Get Acquainted E-mail

To make it easier for me to get to know participants in the class I'm asking everyone to send me a get appointed e-mail with the following information.

• Full name
• Name that you prefer me to use
• Major / year (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior)
• Career aspirations Picture (if possible)
• Reason for taking the course
• Related courses that you’ve taken
• Anything else about yourself that you think I should know.

Due Thursday, January 17

Send to crc@colorado.edu and include PACS 4500 Get Acquainted in the subject line.

Grading

Your grade for the course will be based on both class participation and written assignments.

Written Assignments – 64%

The largest part of your course grade, 64%, will be based on written assignments. Of this, 45% will be based on three "structured term paper" assignments with the other 19% based on your answers to weekly study questions.

Study Questions -- 19%

For the study question assignment, I am asking you to send me your notes on what you see as most important insights that you learned from each set of readings (and related class activities). More specifically, I'm asking you to address a series of study questions which will be posted on the course Schedule page.

As you can see, the study questions raise a general topic and then ask you what you see as the most important ideas related to that topic. There may also be cases in which I ask you to do a specific activity. I expect to receive about 250 words on each question.

You should feel free to write in an outline / short phrase, rather than sentence, format. Your notes can be quite informal as long as they are understandable. While your notes should demonstrate that you have read, understood, and thought about the material, you should also feel free to be critical and to explore the relationship between the materials and current events. I expect different students to focus on different things.

As long as it's clear that you have read and understood the material, you can be assured of getting a "B." "A"s will be reserved for those who exhibit some fairly sophisticated and creative insights.

Conflict Project Proposal – 45%

The biggest part of your grade will, however, be a project proposal that will ask you to apply the ideas presented in class and in the readings. The project will develop in three installments a detailed proposal for a realistic and workable conflict project designed to address real-world conflict problem.  There will be plenty of opportunities over the course of the semester for students to work together asking hard questions about whether or not specific project components would really work and developing ideas for overcoming difficulties.The fact that the final report will be written in the form of a proposal will also develop valuable grant writing skills.

I will provide a fairly detailed outline as a starting point for these assignments. Students can, however, modify this outline in ways that they believed would strengthen their proposal.

While you will need to investigate your case thoroughly, I don't see this as a major research project. Almost all of the information that you will need to complete this assignment will come from readings and in-class activities. You will, however, need to find a few good outside sources on a conflict issue that you find especially interesting.  
Since the project takes the place of conventional midterms and finals, I am asking you to include at least 45 citations to class readings or lectures.  The citations should demonstrate that you know how to apply class ideas.

Each installment of the proposal may be redone for a better grade provided that the redos are submitted no more than two weeks after the original paper was returned.

Papers are due on the due date even, if you can't attend class. If you are having trouble getting an assignment completed on time send me an e-mail explaining why you need an extension. I am usually willing to give modest extensions. Apart from this, late papers will receive a modest grade penalty.  I do not penalize late papers heavily -- it is always worth your while to finish the assignments.

Class Attendance, Discussion, and Activities – 36%

The second major component of course will be a series of in-class activities which require you to explore, develop, and discuss the basic insights presented in class and in the readings. Also included will be numerous simulation games to give you an opportunity to actually apply class insights.

Given the importance of these activities, I give those who attend and enthusiastically participate credit for doing so. In fact, it is impossible to get a decent grade in this class without attending regularly. If, for reasons beyond your control, you miss a significant number of classes talk to me as soon as possible about options for making up this crucial part of the course.

The 36% of your grade stemming from these activities will consist of three parts.

Attendance – 12% 

I realize that everyone is likely to miss a few days for reasons beyond their control. For this reason I give everyone three free, no-penalty "sick days." (You are still required to get the notes for any classes that you miss). Those who miss up to three additional days can get full attendance credit (but only partial group activity credit) by doing a make-up assignment provided that they make arrangements for doing so within 3 weeks after returning to class. Those who encounter more serious attendance problems should talk to me and we'll work out some appropriate arrangement.

Make-up Assignment: Find something on the Web pertaining to the class that you can read or listen to for about an hour and then to write a 350 word report describing what you learned (include a link to what you read or listened to). (There are lots of possibilities in the Beyond Intractability system and I can make suggestions if you'd like.)  Before starting work you should email me to make sure that what you want to look at is acceptable. 

Groups – 12% 

The second part of you class attendance grade will be a group grade. I will randomly divide the class into groups of about eight who will work together on a variety of  activities. As I will explain in more detail in class, each group will be required to record (using a relatively standard meeting facilitation process) the ideas generated. The group grade will then be determined by the number of ideas listed and by the general sophistication of those ideas.

Since group participants are likely to have very different overall course grades from one another, groups will not receive an absolute grade (A, B, C+, etc.). Instead, they'll receive a plus or minus grade. If a group does well, then everybody's grade will get a boost. If a group does poorly then everyone's grade suffers.

Individual Participation Grade – 12%

The final element of the in-class activities grade will be an individual participation grade which will bump up the grades of those who are enthusiastic, engaged, and insightful and lower the grades of those may be just coasting.  There will be major penalties afor students who spend class time surfing the web, doing e-mail, working on other classes, text messaging, or distracting other students.

Personal Class Grade Webpage

All class grades and comments will be posted on your personal class grade webpage. The address of this page will be known only to you and will use a 10 digit code number to assure that no one else has access. I will be sending you an e-mail with your secret address. Save this and it's your responsibility to keep it private. For security purposes the University prevents me from including your name on your grade page. The only way that you can tell that it is your page is with the secret number.

Political Diversity

This class, by its very nature, addresses controversial political issues. In fact, Peace and Conflict Studies is widely seen as offering a liberal, progressive approach to foreign policy. While there is some truth to this perception, it is not as well-founded as you might think. Over the course of the semester I will explain what appears to be a major convergence in views of those who approach issues of war and peace from perspectives commonly associated with the military and the religious right as well as the diplomatic and secular left. Still, it's impossible to do justice to this topic without critically reviewing politically sensitive arguments on all sides of the issue.

While I may gently push students to consider alternative ways of thinking about things, I will not, in any way penalize students, on the basis of the political beliefs expressed in their work. Anybody who feels uncomfortable about any of these issues is encouraged to talk to me. You will find that I will be quite accommodating.

Apology for Voice Recognition Errors

I use voice recognition software because of problems that I have with my fingers. Occasionally, this results in spectacular and often inexplicable typographical mistakes. I apologize in advance. And, obviously, let me know if I've written something that is difficult to understand.

Peace and Conflict Studies
Guy Burgess -- burgess@colorado.edu -- 303-492-1635