Courses
Wars and European Peace Movements since the 19th century
Wars can be cold or hot, interstate or intrastate. Wars can be perceived as politics with other means but also as aberrations of normal behavior. In the 19th and part of the 20th century, wars were considered normal instruments of state politics. After WW-2 this has changed. Peace movements in the 19th century focused on big ideas; in the 20th they became more defensive and 'anti'. Anti-Americanism became part of the peace movement agenda. Issues have changed dramatically over time. Public debates no longer deal with patriotism and 'revanche' but focus on human rights, humanitarian intervention and human security. History tells us of moments where states are unable to solve international problems while peace movements do.
Shifts in thinking will be discussed in the first part of the course. The second part will focus on a particular period selected by the students, for instance the Turn of the Century, the Interbellum, the Cold War or the War on Terror.
Humanitarian Intervention and Human Security
The aim of this course is to understand the origins, the commonalities, the differences and the confusion regarding the concepts of humanitarian intervention and human security. Furthermore, these concepts will be applied to four case studies:
• The NATO air campaign against Yugoslavia, in 1999, was widely seen as a humanitarian intervention, although NATO itself considered it an enforcement operation.
• The safe area installed in Srebrenica in May 1993, protected by UN peacekeepers, had all the characteristics of a human security operation but Dutchbat (the Dutch UN Battalion) considered itself a traditional peacekeeping force.
• In the Palestinian territories, occupied in 1967, human security had been practised by the Israeli's and the Palestinians until the middle of the 1990s. The so-called Oslo-process undermined the human security philosophy.
• The USA/UK military intervention in Iraq, in 2003, was multi-functional according to the interveners. It was self-defence, regime change, as well as a humanitarian intervention. For the Iraqi's, it was liberation and occupation. Human security was the missing link.
