This core course will survey
various approaches to dealing with intergroup conflicts: preventing escalation,
minimizing harmful consequences, ending violence, improving intergroup
relations and building stable peace. We will begin by discussing processes of
conflict management, which take place during an ongoing conflict. We will then
discuss various routes to conflict resolution and a formal ending of the
conflict. Finally, we will address processes of reconciliation and
peacebuilding, intended to improve intergroup relations in post-conflict
settings and prevent conflict recurrence. Throughout the course, we will survey
the works of scholars from different disciplines on each of these topics in order
to become familiar with different perspectives and arrive at an integrative
understanding. We will also discuss real world cases in which different
approaches to dealing with conflict have been implemented with varying degrees
of success.