Political Violence and Global Order

Inspired by the Kantian idea of “perpetual peace,” liberal scholars envision an ideal world of politics completely separated from violence. However, critics have questioned the top-down nature of liberal peace engagements and cautioned against the hidden forms of violence that may accompany them. In this seminar we will address issues of war and peace through three notable anti-liberal critics: Hannah Arendt, Frantz Fanon, and Carl Schmitt. We will use their different responses to liberalism to examine crucial yet contested topics in international/global politics, such as political evil, state sovereignty, partisan warfare, Just War, anticolonial violence, nonviolence, and peacebuilding. Students will acquire essential skills in analyzing theoretical assumptions behind claims about violence and nonviolence and applying the insights to concrete cases. International Relations and Foreign Policy