Integrating Project Seminar (395-0-1)

Topic

Critical Perspectives on Territorial Conflict

Instructors

Matej Jungwirth

Meeting Info

University Hall 318: Mon, Wed 2:00PM - 3:20PM

Overview of class

Critical Perspectives on Territorial Conflict

What distinguishes wars over territory from other types of conflicts? What is the connection between territorial conflict and population transfers between states? How are the lost lands and forced displacement of people remembered and commemorated in the loss-incurring states? In this seminar-style course we will examine these intertwined questions through class discussions and an array of assigned academic articles, book chapters and contemporary and historical case studies of territorial conflicts.

We will begin with canonical accounts of territory's indivisibility and unique value, then study the aftermaths of territorial loss for the geographically "shrunk" states. We then turn to population transfers and ethnic cleansing as well as the resulting changes in ethnic composition of states and the unique nature of displaced co-citizens from the lost territories as a new type of national minority. In the second half of the course, we will study the legacies of territorial conflict through scholarship on the inter-generational transmission of trauma, collective memory and path-dependent analysis of territorial conflict in historical perspective.

In the final two weeks, we will investigate two case studies of territorial conflict-Finland's loss of Karelia in WWII and Armenia's loss of Nagorno-Karabakh in 2023-and the contemporary resurgence of territorial claims in the US foreign policy and beyond.

Class Attributes

Attendance at 1st class mandatory