ECTS : 3
Description du contenu de l'enseignement :
In their classification of the world's political regimes according to their degree of democracy, Lührman et al. (2018) estimate that less than 10% of the world's population currently lives in "total democracy". Since the 1920s, the number of closed autocracies has declined significantly, while that of liberal democracies has increased. Nevertheless, the majority of countries remain in grey zones, divided between democratic systems with authoritarian practices, and authoritarian regimes that can be, however, legitimized by regular electoral processes.
What's more, while global armed conflicts are no longer on the scale of those of the 19th and 20th centuries, armed violence in its various forms has increased in number and duration in many parts of the world.
Situations of political tension, whether or not accompanied by armed violence, are therefore frequent environments for international professionals. Many executives and employees of companies, journalists, humanitarian aid workers, diplomats, and experts are confronted with complicated, high-risk working conditions, both for themselves and for their contacts. And this is not limited to agents operating from societies under political stress. Interactions between stable and crisis-ridden spaces are also subject to both methodological and ethical rules that differ profoundly from what they might be in pacified contexts.
The aim of this course is to give students who are called upon to work in or interact with politically tense environments or subjects to episodes of collective violence, a mastery of both the methods and the ethical fundamentals imposed by these types of situations.
Sessions will be organized around three main themes:
(1) Professional efficiency in adverse contexts (approaching recalcitrant agents, obtaining inaccessible data, guaranteeing double-checking),
(2) Safety & security (one's own, that of others, that of one's data),
(3) Mastering the economic, societal, and political dynamics of unstable environments.
Compétence à acquérir :
This course enables students from different disciplines and dedicated to all types of professions to acquire the fundamentals of the codes expected of project management professionals in tense or even conflict-ridden environments. This course will provide a comprehensive, practical and realistic toolbox that students will be able to use at any point in their career.
At the end of the course, the students enrolled will have an advanced understanding of
(1) the specificities of working in spaces that are under political tension or conflict-ridden
(2) the working methods to adopt in such environments
(3) the ethical stakes related, and the does and don’ts to follow in such contexts.
Mode de contrôle des connaissances :
The assignments for this class are the following:
(1) Two reports based on case studies (35% each)*
(2) A final exam at the end of the semester (30%).
*The paper, of roughly 2 000 words, should not only summarize the content of the assigned material, but also—and more importantly—assess arguments critically, draw out the reading’s relevance to the themes of the course.
Bibliographie, lectures recommandées :
ALLAN, Stewart, ZELIZER, Barbie, Reporting War: Journalism in Wartime, Routledge, 2004
CHABAL, Patrick, DALOZ, Jean-Pascal, Culture Troubles. London: Hurst, 2006
CROCKER, Chester A., HAMPSON, Fen Osler, AALL, Pamela (eds.), Turbulent Peace. Washington DC: U.S. Institute of Peace Press, 2001
DOYLE, Michael, The Question of Intervention, Yale University Press, 2015
GEERTZ, Clifford, The Interpretation of Cultures, New York: Basic Books, 1973
HOCKING, Brian, Localizing Foreign Policy: Non-Central Governments and Multilayered Diplomacy, Basingstoke: Macmillan, 1993
KALDOR, Mary, New and Old Wars. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1999
KEOHANE, Robert, After Hegemony: Cooperation and Discord in the World Political Economy, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984
MAYALL, James, Nationalism and International Society. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990
NANES, Matthew, Policing for Peace. Institutions, Expectations, and Security in Divided Societies, Cambridge University Press, 2021
SMITH, David, Peace Jobs. A Student’s Guide to Starting a Career Working for Peace, Information Age Publishing, 2016
WALDER, Francis, The Negotiator. The Masterclass at Saint-Germain, Unicorn Publishing Group, 2021
WILLIMAS, Paul, Lawyering Peace, Cambridge, University Press, 2021
ZAKARIA, Fareed, The Post-American World, London: W.W. Norton, 2008.