Actualités et agenda
Nos formations
Présentation
Students are expected to have had an introduction course in international relation and an introduction course in international law, as well as some knowledge of contemporary history. No specific knowledge is required on war, as this course is meant to introduce students to the study of this topic.
The aim of this course is to introduce students to war and conflict studies, using the conceptual tools of critical war studies. Students will learn about the ways in which western military powers have waged war and rationalized it.
This course takes a critical genealogical approach to knowledge and discourses about war. As such, it endeavours to show how those contemporary sets of knowledge and discourses have been constructed throughout history.
In a first part, the course shows how western power have rationalised war as a logical course of action and a purposeful activity. It addresses the topics of the birth of modern warfare and modern strategy, the development of airpower doctrine or nuclear deterrence doctrine and the ways in which military technologies are being developed and acquired.
In a second part, the course studies how western powers have dealt military with issues arising in the rest of the world throughout contemporary history. It addresses the topics of non-state violence, military intervention, counterinsurgency doctrine and its colonial heritage and remote warfare.
Modalités
This course takes place as a series of thematic lectures.