POL 449: POLITICS OF CULTURAL CONFLICTS

Weekly Topics and Readings

Week 1 : (August 26th)
Introduction to the study of cultural conflicts: definitions of concepts
No readings assigned

Week 2: (September 2nd)
Philosophical foundations of the modern nation

Pecora, Vincent P. Ed.(2001), Nations and Identities. Blackwell Publishing, Malden (MA):
-Introduction 1-25; Hobbes 45-9; Rousseau 73-81; von Herder 87-92; De Maistre 107-13: Renan 162-76.

Week 3: (September 9th)
Contemporary perspectives on nations and nationalism

Pecora, Vincent P. Ed.(2001), Nations and Identities. Blackwell Publishing, Malden (MA):
-Geertz 279-91; Gellner 292-308; Anderson 309-17; Smith 333-53; Woolf 248-52; Rosenberg 241-47.

Week 4: (September 16th)
The sources of cultural conflicts

Brown, Cote, Lynn-Jones & Miller (2001). Nationalism and Ethnic Conflicts. MIT Press, Cambridge:
-Michael E. Brown, The Causes of Internal Conflicts: 3-25.
-Snyder and Ballantine, Nationalism and the Marketplace of Ideas: 61-96.

Week 5: (September 23rd)
Types of cultural conflicts and how to manage them?

Brown, Cote, Lynn-Jones & Miller (2001). Nationalism and Ethnic Conflicts. MIT Press, Cambridge:
-Stephen van Evera, Hypothesis in Nationalism and War: 26-60
-David A. Lake & Donald Rothchild, Containing Fear: The Origins and Managements of Ethnic Conflicts: 126-160.

Week 6: (September 30th)
The politics of genocide I: the case of Rwanda

Philip Gourevitch (1998). We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with our Families. Picador. New York: Chapters 1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8 & 12.

Mahmood Mamdani (2001). When Victims Become Killers. Princeton University Press, Princeton: Chapter 7.

Week 7: (October 7th)
The politics of genocide II: the case of Rwanda

Brown, Cote, Lynn-Jones & Miller (2001). Nationalism and Ethnic Conflicts. MIT Press, Cambridge:
-John Mueller, The Banality of "Ethnic War": 97-125.

Philip Gourevitch (1998). We Wish to Inform You that Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with our Families. Picador. New York: Chapters 15, 16, 17.

Week 8: (October 14th)
1) MIDTERM EXAM (in class)

2) Canada: nationalism in a modern democracy

Week 9: (October 21th)
Canada: multiculturalism or biculturalism?

Charles Taylor (1991). "Shared and Divergent Values", in Guy Laforest Ed. (1993) Reconciling the Solitudes. McGill-Queen's University Press, Montreal: 53-76.

Pierre-Elliot Trudeau (1968). "Federalism, Nationalism and Reason" in Federalism and the French-Canadians. (1968). McMillan, Toronto: 182-203

Carol L. Schmid (2001). The Politics of Language. Oxford University Press, New York: 101-122.

Week 10: (October 28th)
Belgium: consociationalism

Witte & Van Velthoven (1999). Language and Politics: The Situation in Belgium in a Historical Perspective. VUB University Press, Bruxelles: Chapters 1, 4 & 5.

Week 11: (November 4th)
Brazil: the politics of color

Michael George Hanchard (1994). Orpheus and Power. Princeton University Press, Princeton: Chapters 1 & 3

Week 12: (November 11th)
No class (Veteran's day)

Week 13: (November 18th)
Russia: the rebirth of nations

Tatiana Mastyugina & Lev Perepelkin (1996). An Ethnic History of Russia. Greenwood Press, Westport (CT): Chapters 3 & 4.

Daniel Treisman (1997). "Russia's Ethnic Revival", in World Politics 49 (January): 212-49.

Week 14: (November 25th)
Russia: federalism, religious politics and nationalism

Graham Smith (1996). "Russia, Ethnoregionalism and the Politics of Federation", in Ethnic and Racial Studies 19.2: 391-410.

Gail W. Lapidus & Edward W. Walker (1995). "Nationalism, Regionalism, and Federalism: Center-Periphery Relations in Post-Communist Russia", in Gail W. Lapidus Ed. (1995). The New Russia: Troubled Transformation. Westview Press, Boulder (CO): Chapters 3.

Week 15: (December 2nd)
The Basque Country: the survival of a nation

Mark Kurlansky (1999). The Basque History of the World. Penguin Books, New York: Chapters 1, 2, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 & 16.

Week 16: (December 9th)
Conclusion: The Basque Country, the European Union, globalization and cultural renaissance in the 21st century

William A. Douglas and al. (1999). Basque Politics and Nationalism on the Eve of the Millenium. Basque Study Program, University of Nevada-Reno: 44-67 & 155-207.

Paul Cohen (2000). "On Linguistic Jacobinism and Cultural Balkanization", in French Politics, Culture and Society 18.2: 21-48.