HI-116 War, Conflict and Peace Politics Since 1900 (Spring 2025)

After completing the course, students should:

Knowledge

• Be familiar with the emergence of organized international cooperation – non-governmental, as well as intergovernmental – and how Norway as a small state and society has related to it.
• Be able to give explanations both for wars and for the development of international norms and institutions in the period – in complex, historical perspectives.
• Be familiar with key theoretical perspectives in the study of international political history.

Skills

• Be able to raise issues that can shed light on current topics within the field covered by the course of study.
• Be able to select and analyze primary sources that can contribute to answering the issues that are raised.
• Be able to develop his/her own argumentation as a justification for both problematization and conclusions, in written form.
• Be able to prepare and carry out presentation of the course's knowledge material in oral contexts.

General competence

• Be able to assess possible connections between historical conflicts and historical international institution-building on the one hand, and local, national and international social conditions in one's own time, on the other hand.
• Be able to participate in factual debate on international issues in private, as well as public contexts.
• Have strengthened their foundation for further developing academic working and thinking methods in further studies.

A central point of departure in the course of study is that international norm development and organisation have historically largely taken place in response to crises, conflicts or war, and have reflected changing international power relations. We look at the main lines and turning points in terms of institutionalized international cooperation throughout the period from the end of the nineteenth to the beginning of the twenty-first century, with the list of Nobel Peace Prize winners as the "axis of time." With this as a backdrop, we draw particular attention to the following historical events/processes:

World War I 1914-18: We look at debates about the reasons why the World War broke out, got the scope it got, and lasted so long. However, the greatest emphasis is placed on the ideas that the war gave rise to with a view to a more peaceful international development after the war. These were partly about ideas that can be characterised as liberal internationalism, and which led to the formation of the League of Nations, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), and to the further development of the Hague Court. However, it was also about proletarian internationalism, which was clearly anti-imperialist and promoted by the Communist International. By taking a closer look at one or two examples of international cooperation efforts, we will identify dilemmas related to the power relations that prevailed in the interwar period on the one hand and the development of norms that would later characterise «the international community» on the other hand.

The Vietnam War: The wars that raged from the end of World War II until 1975 in the area of Southeast Asia that in the 1800s had become French Indochina also influenced international politics. From an Asian point of view, it was partly a war of liberation and partly a civil war. At the same time, the Vietnam War was a hot element in the global Cold War. In particular, we look at what with Vietnamese eyes can be called the American War from the first half of the 1960s to 1973 and how it affected debates about war, peace and international order – also in Norway.

Palestine and Israel: The Middle East as a region has been characterized by conflicts and war throughout the period covered in this course. We review the development of the conflicts in phases, with the main emphasis on the relationship between the Palestinian population and Israel after the establishment of the Israeli state in 1948. In this context, the students will become familiar with how Israel, the neighboring states and the Palestinians as a people have been understood and portrayed by the Norwegian authorities and in the Norwegian public at different times.

Lectures, seminars and independent work with literature and one essay.

Compulsory seminars are held in smaller groups related to the work on the essay. The essay must be submitted within a given deadline. Written feedback is then given on it, with the aim that the student will be able to prepare for the presentation of it for the oral exam.

The course has a workload of 270 hours.

• Individual, written essay (2,500 words +/-10%) must be approved
• Participation in seminars

Individual, oral exam.

The oral exam consists of two elements in context, first a prepared oral presentation of a revised version of the essay that has been submitted, and then a conversation based on parts of the study course's syllabus. Graded grade.