Course description

From Syria to South Sudan and Myanmar genocide, war crimes, and other atrocities remain a recurrent of contemporary conflict. This course examines the politics and practice of efforts to prevent these crimes. It will focus on why atrocities happen and what motivates the perpetrators and the different approaches to addressing the root causes of atrocity crimes, the pathways to escalation, and the specific triggers. The course examines different preventive tools and approaches and the political issues and problems that emerge in the practice of prevention in various parts of the world. It will also cover topics related to atrocity prevention and state violence, gender and sexual violence, humanitarian crisis, and policy-relevant mechanisms and approaches to mass atrocity crime prevention. The course will focus on contemporary and historical situations. Students will also have the opportunity to experience some of the practical challenges associated with atrocity prevention through an immersive multi-week simulation embedded into the course and its assessment.

Archived offerings