ASTK18107U The Political Legacies of War and Conflict

Civil wars bear multifaceted consequences for the economy, society, and individuals. Generally, insights on obvious material consequences of civil war prevail throughout the literature, whereas we know less about the societal and political consequences of war. Moreover, the literature on the consequences of civil war and conflict – e.g. terrorism – largely addresses changes on the macro-level – such as reconciliation, democratization, and state-building processes –, while neglecting important transformation processes on the micro-level.

In the past few years, however, a growing body of work is dealing with the consequences of wartime violence for individuals’ political and social behaviour and attitudes. These rather invisible consequences of war are more difficult to grasp than, for example, counting the numbers of fatalities or the decline in economic growth. Nevertheless, “insofar as civil wars have an intrinsic political dimension, it is more than plausible to think that war experiences and related psychological distress will have political consequences” (Ballcels 2012, 314).

With respect to this, the aim of the seminar is to introduce the micro- and meso-level social processes of war. It will provide an overview of the dominant theories and studies in this field of research, with a special focus on the legacy of war exposure on post-war social and political life. Special attention is devoted to the impact of war on dimensions of social cohesion and reconciliation. The course thus addresses both issues of political behaviour and transformation processes. 

While the focus of the seminar lies on former civil war countries, e.g. Sri Lanka, Columbia, Uganda, the course will also take a brief look at the potential political consequences of terrorism and conflict in Western Democracies.

Issues that will be covered in the course of the seminar:

1.       Definition and concepts in the study of Civil War

a.        The Political Psychology of War

b.        Research area and controversies

2.       Exemplary case presentations

a.        e.g. Sri Lanka, Kosovo, South Africa, etc.

3.       Psychological consequences of war

a.        Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Syndrome

b.        Posttraumatic Growth

4.       War and subjective well-being

5.       Civil War and civil society

a.        Social trust

b.        Social networks

6.       War and voting behaviour

7.       War and ethnic prejudice

8.       War and political and social tolerance

9.       Micro-level reconciliation

10.    The long-term consequences of war

  a.     e.g. impact of WWII on political and social behaviour

11.    Conflict/terrorism and political attitudes

12.    Overview over data sources