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 Civil-Military Relations  posted by  member150_php   on 2/11/2009  Add Courseware to favorites Add To Favorites  
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Abstract/Syllabus:

Petersen, Roger, 17.584 Civil-Military Relations, Spring 2003. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology: MIT OpenCourseWare), http://ocw.mit.edu (Accessed 09 Jul, 2010). License: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA

Spring 2003

A U.S. Army soldier greets local Muslim shoppers as he hands out voter registration leaflets at the market place in Tojsici, Bosnia and Herzegovina, 1997. (Photo by Sgt. Angel Clemons, U.S. Army. Image courtesy of the U.S. Department of Defense.)

Course Highlights

This course features an extensive reading list.

Course Description

This course centers on mechanisms of civilian control of the military. Relying on the influential texts of Lasswell, Huntington, and Finer, the first classes clarify the basic tensions between the military and civilians. A wide-ranging series of case studies follows. These cases are chosen to create a field of variation that includes states with stable civilian rule, states with stable military influence, and states exhibiting fluctuations between military and civilian control. The final three weeks of the course are devoted to the broader relationship between military and society.

Syllabus

Course Overview

The course centers on mechanisms of civilian control of the military. Relying on the influential texts of Lasswell, Huntington, and Finer, the first classes clarify the basic tensions between the military and civilians. A wide-ranging series of case studies follows. These cases are chosen to create a field of variation that includes states with stable civilian rule, states with stable military influence, and states exhibiting fluctuations between military and civilian control. The final three weeks of the course are devoted to the broader relationship between military and society.

Requirements

  • As the course is a seminar, class attendance and participation are critical.
  • The major requirement is a comparative research paper (20-30 pages long). In this paper, students must systematically compare civilian control mechanisms (or their absence) across at least two countries. Other projects are subject to approval by the instructor.
  • Students will also be required to make oral presentations and to write short position papers.

Grading

The research paper will account for half of the grade. Class participation and short assignments will each account for a quarter of the grade.

Calendar

Lec # Topics
1 Introductory Class
2 General Issues I
3 General Issues II
Cases
4 The United States
5 The Soviet Union I

The Case of the Great Purge
6 The Soviet Union II - Transition, Attempted Coup, and the Post-Soviet Military
7 Latin America I
8 Latin America II
9 Turkey and Pakistan
10 Japan (Prof. Richard Samuels to lead the class)
11 Africa
12 The Military in Multiethnic States
13 The Military and Social Change I
14 The Military and Social Change II



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