Course Schedule & Assignments

Reading Assignments and Power Points

• Theme: The critical importance of improving society's ability to deal with peace and conflict-related issues.
• Topics discussed and class activities:  Class overview, introductions, conflict as a global warming-class problem. 
• Slideshow(s): Conflict Challenge Slideshow: .PDF
• Required Readings:  The first major reading assignment for the course -- a short handbook that we have just completed for the United States Institute of Peace on Track II Peacemaking. Since this is unlikely to officially make it through the publication process for at least nine months, we decided to give you an advance, "working paper," version. We see it this is a very succinct and comprehensive overview of the broad range of peace building efforts (excluding formal diplomatic negotiations).
  
  Things are going to be a little bit chaotic, with drop-add and next week's Martin Luther King holiday. So, I don't expect you to have this read before until Thursday, January 29.  It is, however, important that you finish reading this by then, since it will be a major foundation for the discussions that follow.
  
  You can download the paper from the class website:
  http://conflict.colorado.edu/pacs4500-s09/track2-draft21--ickb-working-paper.pdf
  
  
• Study Questions 1-1: Since this is two-week reading assignment, I decided to go with a double (500 word) study question:  Which of the Track II Peacemaking approaches mentioned are likely to make significant contributions and are worth pursuing vigorously? (I assume that you will find a fair number of such approaches.)  Which approaches do you think are much less likely to work and should be de-emphasized or reconfigured in ways that might increase their effectiveness? Explain the reasoning behind your answers. 

• Theme: Introduction to concept paper project
• Topics discussed and class activities:  Conflict as the engine of social learning. Introduction to conflict projects -- some initial examples.
• Slides 1: .PDF
• Readings
  • Continuation of Track II Peacemaking Handbook
• Study Question 2-1: No study questions this week (double questions last week).

• Theme:  Introductory guide to developing and implementing important, make-a-difference projects capable of dealing with real-world conflict complexity.
• Topics discussed and class activities:  The scale and complexity of the conflict challenge, conflicts and disputes, polarization, interlocking conflict, profiteers, directory-based approaches, mechanical and organic metaphors, theories of change.  Active versus passive approaches, first versus third person approaches, guide to making a difference, checklists.
• Readings
  • Continuation of Track II Peacemaking Handbook
• Slides 1: .PDF
• Slides 2: .PDF
•  Study Question 3-1:  Based on lectures, class discussion, and your own insights, what do you see as the most important keys to developing projects that will successfully promote more constructive approaches to conflict  (250 words).
• Bring and be prepared to discuss your initial project ideas in class this week

• Theme:  Addressing the paradox -- how small-scale projects can transform large-scale conflicts.
• Topics discussed and class activities:  Option assessment and conceptual project design. Columbine elementary school intervention game.
• Readings:  This week I'm asking you to look at several articles from Beyond Intractability which offer other, "big picture" ways of looking at conflict problems.  these include a short article describing the process of conflict assessment, which in one way or another, is the foundation of almost all interventions.  Articles on meta-conflict resolution and levels of action add additional, crucial ideas as does the article on complex adaptive systems.
  • Conflict Assessment
  • Levels of Action, including top elite, middle-range, and grassroots
  • Meta-Conflict Resolution
  • Complex Adaptive Systems
• Slides 1: .PDF
• Slides 2: .PDF
• Study Question 4-1: Based on readings, lecture, and the Columbine game, what advice would you offer to someone interested in promoting broad support for efforts to improve the public schools. (If you would prefer, you could use a different public policy challenge for this question.)

• Theme:  Power -- the ability to get what you want (and, hopefully, advance the cause of justice)
• Topics discussed and class activities: The three faces of power; the backlash effect; hard, soft, and smart power; force; threat
• Slides 1: .PDF
• Slides 2: .PDF
• Readings:  Power is key to the success of efforts to advance the cause of justice and promote more constructive conflict.  This week we will look at a series of articles by Maire Dugan focusing on the nature of power and more constructive power options.  We will also start looking at the basic principles underlying successful negotiations.
  • Power
  • Power Inequities
  • Exchange Power
  • Integrative Power
  • Empowerment
  • Nonviolence and Nonviolent Direct Action
• Study Question 5-1:  What you see as the most constructive and destructive forms of social power?  What uses of power are illegitimate? How can illegitimate uses of power be combated legitimate power?  To what extent do you think that the nature of this power is misunderstood by the general public?  (500 Words)
• Study Questions (Weeks 1-4) Due February 13 (8AM)

• Theme:   The basics -- projects that work
• Topics discussed and class activities:  After spending some time talking about fairly difficult conflict situations, we are going to focus on project designs that have proven to be effective when applied to complicated but still tractable disputes.It is projects like these provide the fundamental alternative to destructive-conflict-as-usual practices.
• Readings
  • Ripeness-Promoting Strategies
  • Convening Processes
  • Integrative or Interest-Based Bargaining
  • Consensus Building
  • Ground Rules
  • Facilitation
• Slides 1: .PDF
• Slides 2: .PDF
• Study Question: 6-1: Assume that you are in a situation in which you think that there was a basis for mutually beneficial agreement between two, usually competitive interest groups (that do not have a history of working together). What steps do you think that the parties should, with the help of a facilitator, follow to reach an agreement. (500 Words)
• Project Installment #1  DELAYED UNTIL March 6 - 8AM

• NO CLASS for Section 2 Monday February 23rd -- Instructor family health emergency
• To make up for the missed class I'm asking students in the Monday class to listen to the War Briefing, an excellent Frontline (Public Television) documentary on the war in Afghanistan
• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/warbriefing/
• Section 2 will meet as scheduled on Tuesday, February 24
• We will be watching the same War Briefing documentary.
  
• Theme:  Peacebuilding starting with the United States' wars in Iraq and Afghanistan
• Topics discussed and class activities:  This week we will move from relatively simple domestic, public policy, conflict resolution problems to much more difficult issues of war and peace. In this regard, I thought that the best place to start would be the war in Afghanistan – the so-called "good war" that Obama seems committed to "winning."  As you will see, this is an extraordinarily difficult and dangerous situation.  While we could start this section of the course by offering advice to others about how they should deal with their wars, I thought that we had an obligation to first try to figure out how we, in United States, might better handle our own wars
• Slides: .PDF
• Readings
  • Democratization
  • Nation Building
  • Stabilization and the Problem of Insurgency
  • Peacebuilding
  • In addition to the above articles from Beyond Intractability also skim the United States Army Counterinsurgency Manual.   This Manual was written by General Petreaus and a team committed to correcting the terrible blunders that characterized the first several years of the war. You will see that the Manual incorporates a great many insights from the peace building fields. You'll also see that it applies those insights in ways which raise a series of difficult moral issues which we will discuss on Thursday and next week.
• Study Question 7-1:   What do you see as the essential elements of any effort to help societies recover from failed states and tyranny. (350 words)
• Study Question 7-2:   Based on readings and class discussions what do you see as the difference between peace building and counterinsurgency and what, if any, role do you see for peace builders in counterinsurgency warfare? (150 words)

• Theme:  Building a comprehensive strategy for Iraq / Afghanistan
• Topics discussed and class activities:  Tyranny control institutions, failed states, brainstorming Afganistan
• Slides: .PDF
• Readings and Study Questions: 
• No readings or study questions this week. Work on your project.
  
• Project Installment #1  Due March 6 - 8AM

• Theme:  Cross-cultural considerations.
• Topics discussed and class activities:  Peace movement versus peace workers; moral imagination; truth, justice, peace, and mercy; cross-cultural issues
• Readings
• Culture and Conflict
• Culture and Worldview Frames
• Cross-Cultural Communication
• Communication Tools for Understanding Cultural Differences
• Culture-based Negotiation Styles
• Slides:  PDF
• Study Question 9-1:  In what ways should classic, United States-centric alternative conflict resolution processes be be adjusted to account for cultural differences. (500 Words)  

• Theme:  Overcoming oppression
• Topics discussed and class activities:  
• Readings
  • Oppression and Conflict: Introduction
  • The Nature and Origins of Oppression
  • Forms of Oppression
  • Maintaining Oppression
  • Overcoming Oppression: Awakening the Sense of Injustice
  • Overcoming Oppression through Persuasion
  • Overcoming Oppression with Power
• Slides:  PDF - 3-16
• Slides:  PDF - 3-18 
• Slides:  PDF - 3-18 Extra
• Study Question 10-1:   What do you see as the relationship between peace building in the struggle against oppression?  What do  these articles tell you about how best to simultaneously pursue peace and justice? (500 Words)  
• Study Questions Weeks 5,6,7,9 Only Due March 18 -  8AM
  

• Theme:  Real-world projects -- looking at smart people trying to do the right thing.
• Topics discussed and class activities:  Case studies of individual intervention efforts and large-scale "complex operations."  Fundraising strategies.  Mission statements.
• Readings:  For this week, I would like you to look at the websites of several foundations that fund peacebuilding work. I would also like you to look at the recent grants made by these organizations.  Start by looking at The Ford Foundation and the Educational Foundation of America.
  • Ford Foundation --  Grantmaking Process | Current Interests | Recent Grants (Search for an area that interests you, identify grants made, and Google those grants for more information)
  • Educational Foundation of America -- Look at How to Apply; Areas of Interest; and Annual Reports (for listing of recent grants which you may need to google for more information)
  • You might also want to look at other funding sources. The goal of this activity is to give you a real-world sense of the funding process and the kinds of projects that are being funded. Other foundations that you might want to examine include:
  • Rockefeller
  • Compton
  • Colombe
  • MacArthur
  • Andrus
• Finally, I would like you to look at the SPIN Search system (This must be accessed from the University of Colorado. The University buys an expensive license to use this system and the license only applies to computers connecting from the University (including its on-campus wireless network).
• Study Question: 11-1; 12-1:  Double study question for this weekend and next. Identify, for your project (or at least something very close to your project) at least three possible funding sources, similar grants that have been made by each founder, and their application procedure. (You can simply copy and paste relevant material from relevant websites.  The challenge is to find realistic opportunities.) You should also identify ways in which you may have to spin your project to make it more attractive to the funder.
• Slides 1: PDF
• Slides 2: PDF  
• Project #2 Postponed -- Now Due April 16 - 8AM

• Theme:  Peace and conflict projects: finding creative ideas
• Topics discussed and class activities: Funding peace and conflict projects, finding peace and conflict projects and organizations, analysis of Soldiers of Peace
• Readings
• See week 11
• Slides 1: PDF
• Slides 2: PDF
• Study Question: See week 11

• Theme:  Peace and conflict projects: finding creative ideas (continued)
• Topics discussed and class activities: Analysis of Soldiers of Peace, Association for Conflict Resolution sections and section activities, National Conflict Museum
• Readings: No Reading this week work on your paper 
• Project #2: Due April 16 - 8AM
• Slides 1: PDF
• Museum Slideshow: PDF

• Theme:  Loose ends, summing up, and real-world projects.
• Topics discussed and class activities:  The business of peace building -- the translation of conceptual designs into compelling proposals; more stories of real-world peace and conflict resolution efforts; course evaluation and critique.
• Readings: For the last reading assignment and set of study questions for this semester, I would like to start with the assumption that I'm right -- destructive conflict is a "global warming-class" problem. 
  
  I would then like you to look at a short article with a somewhat surprising title "While Detroit Slept" by Thomas Friedman.  Friedman makes the argument that we can't solve today's problems by redoubling our efforts to implement past solutions. Instead, we need to develop and implement radical new approaches based on creative new ideas and technologies.  He is talking about changes which are analogous to making the leap from vinyl records to CD's to i-Pods to ???.  As another example, he argues against simply putting Detroit back on its feet so it  can go back to making cars the way they used to. Instead he argues for creative new approaches to the entire problem of transportation.  I want you to think about how such radical changes might occur in the field of human conflict.
  
  Paralleling this, I would like you to spend some time looking again at the 20 challenges posed by our Conflict Frontiers project.  The way that the frontier challenges website is set up, you need to start with the list of Conflict Frontier Challenges. You then need to click on each challenge and read the short paragraphs describing both "The Challenge" and "What We Now Know."  You should also scan (but you don't have to read) the various starting point resources that we've identified. Note: There are often more than one set of "challenge/what we know" sections on each page.
  
• Study Question: 14-1: Based on the readings and your own thoughts, what are the most promising and/or highest priority steps they should be taken to address the problems of destructive conflict and injustice? (500 words)
• Slides: PDF 
• Slides: PDF

• Theme:  Frontiers of the field: the big problems facing the your generation.
• Topics discussed and class activities: Frontier challenges -- things that we don't now know that need to find out and knowledge that we have but don't utilize.
• Readings:  No new readings this week work on your final paper.
• Slides: PDF
• Slides: PDF
• Study Question: No new study questions this we work on your final paper. 

NO Final Exam -- Final Paper and Study Questions Due by E-Mail May 6

Conflict Project Proposal Assignment

• The project proposal assignment is a two and a half part, semester-long project that will be submitted in three installments (see above schedule for due dates).
• The goal of the project is to fully develop and describe in a compelling proposal (or concept paper) ONE realistic, workable, make-a-difference conflict projects. It may be either of the following:
• Common Purpose Project -- in the spirit of President Obama's call for a new kind of post-partisan politics in which we all work together to solve difficult social problems. possibilities include (but are not limited to):
• Educational reform projects
• Immigration reform projects
• Economic restructuring projects
• Infrastructure planning projects
• Public land management projects
• Workplace common purpose project
• Constructive Conflict Project --  designed to help the parties more constructively address difficult, intractable, and often violent conflicts for which there is little or no near-term possibility for a mutually agreeable resolution of the core issues. (Prospects for a literal or figurative cease-fire may, however, be more promising.) Options include:
• Abortion
• Homosexual marriage
• Immigration
• Israel/Palestine
• Hutu/Tutsis
• India/Pakistan
• The project may approach conflict from either a first-party, advocacy perspective or a third-party intermediary perspective.

• The concept paper (about 2500 words) will be backed up by an annotated commentary (about 3000 words) built around the Concept Paper Development Questionnaire in which I ask you to explore different ways in which a project might be structured. 
• The questionnaire should ultimately include at least at least 25 citations to class materials.
• The questionnaire is for class purposes only and can be written in less formal, essay-test style

• The second part of the project will focus on refining the ideas developed in Part I  into a sharply focused and compelling project design. This, more demanding part of the assignment, will require you to combine the ideas that you identified using the questionnaire into a project design it really works. 
• As you do this, I  recognize that you will not be able to (and probably shouldn't) include all the ideas that you included in the questionnaire project.  This is because questionnaire encouraged you to think about the full range of possibilities. Inevitably, this lead you to listing ideas which, while interesting, would pull you in too many different directions. 
• For this assignment, I want you to focus on a single, realistic project.  You should not fall into the trap of trying to do everything. You should focus on doing something modest, very well.
• As you do this, I want you to address the following questions and/or include the following elements in your concept paper (which should be carefully and tightly written and should not exceed 2000 words):
• Succinct, "grabber" statement (to convince the reader that your concept paper is worth their time)
• Very short project summary
• What would be done?
• Why would it be done?
• How would it work?
• Who would do it?
• Why are they qualified to do it?
• When would it be done?
• How much would it cost?
• How will you guarantee that the project will be successfully completed?
• How will the project be evaluated?
• While you don't have to follow this outline, you do have to address these questions.
• The concept paper should be carefully written and well formatted and be suitable for handing to prospective project participants and funders.  (You may even want to direct this toward a particular funding source.)
• In addition, I expect you to include a more lengthy commentary providing more detailed background information. This commentary, which can be created by cutting, pasting, and editing much of your questionnaire project, should provide more detailed information that funders (and your instructor) might want should they become really interested in your project While this can be more informally written, it should still hang together as a real paper. It should not be just a bunch of disjointed cut and paste segments from the questionnaire. For this I expect  2-3000 words.  
• The commentary should include at least 25 citations to class materials in addition to the citations included in the questionnaire product.
• The concept paper will be submitted in two parts:  
• A rough draft or detailed sentence by sentence outline is due April 16. (I'll try to get you my comments within a few days.)
• The final paper is due May 6.
• Most of your grade will be based on the final product.  While the intermediate draft is, primarily, intended to help you create the final document, it will also be graded and you'll get points for the amount of progress that you have made by mid-April.

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