Research seminar on public security via the constraint of power (violence, states, arms) in domestic and international politics. Examines devices (virtue, balance, separation, mixture and Constitutions); applications in city-states (Greece & Rome), naval mercantile politics (Venice & Britain), the "Republic of Europe," the USA (1787-1861), and nuclear arms control; and theorists (Polybius, Michiavelli, Publius, Calhoun et al).

Individual research to be taken under direction of faculty member. Students wishing to complete work on an honors paper should contact the Political Science Department.

Consult department for detailed descriptions. Recent topics include: Globalization; Race & Criminal Justice; Democracy & Markets in Postcommunist Europe.

Consult department for detailed descriptions. Recent topics include: Globalization; Race & Criminal Justice; Democracy & Markets in Postcommunist Europe.

This course examines the causes, dynamics, and resolution of civil wars. The first section of the course examines competing theoretical arguments regarding causes of civil war, looking at how economic and political grievances may motivate groups to rebel against the government; why political leaders may sometimes encourage violence; and what role factors such as ethnicity, national identity, and a sense of insecurity play in the initiation of internal conflict. The second section of the course looks at how civil wars are fought, with discussion of guerilla warfare, counterinsurgency strategies, terrorism, and the role of humanitarian aid in conflict settings. In the third part of the course, focusing on the resolution of internal conflicts, topics include international intervention and peacekeeping; negotiated political arrangements such as power-sharing and partition; and post-conflict justice strategies such as domestic and international trials and truth commissions. Throughout the course, we will consider specific cases of civil war - for example, wars in El Salvador, Kosovo, the Philippines, Sierra Leone, Sudan, and Uganda.

This seminar is designed to serve as a "capstone" experience for advanced undergrduates interested in American politics. It exposes students to some of the issues currently being studied and debated by the leading scholars in the field. For each topic we will read works that take competing or opposing positions on an issue; for example we will examine the current controversy over the causes and and consequences of divided government. Students will write a research paper analyzing one of the debates.

In this course we shall explore how recent developments in evolutionary theory relate to larger questions raised by students of complexity and complex adaptive systems. We shall study how they together provide a basis for important critiques of standard approaches in political science and enable fascinating and powerful understandings of politics and political phenomena -- including national identity and identity change, state formation, revolution, globalization, and leadership. An important vehicle for the application of these insights for understanding politics is computer simulations featuring agent-based modeling. Students will use "PS-I" an agent based computer simulation platform, to develop their own models, conduct experiments, test hypotheses, or produce existence proofs in relation to popular theoretical positions in contemporary political science. No knowledge of computer programming is required.