Presentation

Armed conflicts appear to have evolved over the past seventy years: inter-state conflicts have become rare and most wars now consist of armed clashes between government armies and one or more rebel armed groups. In the territories of so-called "failed states", there are even clashes between armed groups, none of which can really claim to be their country’s regular army. The conduct of war itself proves to be quite different from the classic model analyzed by strategy specialists: face-to-face confrontation, in which the most powerful (or the best tactician) triumphs, has been replaced by guerrilla warfare or even indirect violence. But this evolution does not constitute a rupture as such: these forms of armed political violence are not new; analysts no longer consider them to be marginal and recognize their importance or even centrality (even though certain groups such as the Organization of the Islamic State (OEI) sometimes engage in face-to-face confrontation).

Bibliography

• Aron R., Paix et guerre entre les nations, Paris, Calmann-Lévy, 1962.
• Autesserre S., Peaceland, Conflict Resolution and the Everyday Politics of International Intervention, Cambridge University Press, 2014.
• Badie B., L’Impuissance de la puissance : essai sur les incertitudes et les espoirs des nouvelles relations internationales, Paris, Fayard, 2004.
• Barash D.P. & Webel C.P., Peace and Conflict Studies, Londres, Sage, 561 p, 2014.
• Battistella D., Paix et Guerres au XXI^e siècle, Auxerre, Sciences humaines Éditions, 159 p, 2011.

Educational formula

The objective of this class is twofold: to provide students with a framework for analyzing present and future conflicts and to train future analysts and/or decision-makers to assess a conflict situation, an ongoing armed conflict, or a post-conflict situation, and to seek possible solutions. The class is organized in three-hour sessions during which students present their group work. They can either provide an in-depth analysis of a conflict situation, an ongoing or past armed conflict; present a cross-sectional theme concerning several conflicts; or develop a fictional policy scenario.