2012 Summer School in Comparative Conflict Studies

Venues: Belgrade (Sebia)
Period(s): Jul. 9 - 16, 2012
Application deadline: May 11, 2012

International Intervention in a Globalised World
Dr. Maxine David

Course Description:
The fundamental organising principle in the international system has long been one of state sovereignty. Thus, states are considered to have authority over a defined and internationally recognised territory, protected from external intervening forces. The associated principle of non-intervention has been challenged in more recent times by successive interventions into the sovereign affairs of states by international organisations, notably the United Nations and NATO, as well as other states. In the early 2000s the international “community” adopted the principle of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), widely debated by reason of the obligations it places on states to protect the wellbeing of their citizens and the vulnerability of states to outside interventions when they fail to protect those citizens. As a result, it is reasonable to ask whether the principle of sovereignty has been superseded by the principle of human rights protection.

In this course, students will be introduced to the underpinning concepts and competing understandings of intervention in situations of conflict, state collapse, humanitarian and human rights emergencies. Students will learn to identify and deliver a critical analysis of those factors that shape international intervention and will apply this knowledge to a few of the case studies that have been particularly significant in respect of developing international-level responses to crises.

The Role of Social Memory Studies in Conflict Analysis and Transformation
Dr. Orli Fridman

Course Description:
This course will explore the role and contribution of Social Memory Studies to the study of Conflict Analysis and Conflict Transformation. The way societies collectively remember and forget is central to the understanding and analysis of dynamics of conflict as well as of post-conflict. The way entire communities (and not only individuals) preserve and remember the past, commemorate it, or deny and obliterate it, can deepen our understanding of peace and conflict studies. Additionally, memory work and the creation of mnemonic communities can shed light on processes in conflict transformation and its practices.

In this course, students will be introduced to some underpinning concepts in social memory studies and in conflict studies. Students will then apply this knowledge to a number of case studies, allowing them to further investigate the role of memory in conflict analysis and conflict transformation.
In each of the case studies students will be introduced to current memory work of local activist groups as related to efforts to transform violent pasts.

From the discourse of brotherhood and unity to the discourses of EU integration: the case of "transition" in Serbia
Dr. Jelisaveta Blagojevic

Course Description:
Since the time when Serbia was one of the six republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRJ), the country has been through very difficult cultural, political and ideological challenges and changes. While the dominant socialist ideology in former Yugoslavia, organized around Tito’s idea of “brotherhood and unity”, helped to pacify and diminish differences between various ethnic and religious groups, Serbian society during the period of the Milošević regime has deployed different ideological patterns characterized by national pride, territorial integrity, and the policy of “all Serbs in one country” politics. These ideas were brought together under the banner of securing national and cultural identity, as well as territorial integrity.
In dominant political and ideological discourses, contemporary Serbian society is most often characterized as a society “in transition”, colloquially referred to as “Serbia after democratic changes”. In such discourses, everything in Serbia in the past 15 years is “in transition”: the justice system, the economy and culture, but also our lives, our freedoms and our rights. Our recent historical trans experience generally refers to the path from communism and socialism to capitalism and liberal democracy, recognized as synonymous with European Union (EU) integration. At the same time, while “transiting” from one ideology to another, Serbian society is carrying the heavy burden of recent historical events: wars, ethnic cleansing, isolation and the collapse of all institutions, among others.

For further description of the course content, please see the CFCCS webpage

Full tuition for the 2012 Summer School in Comparative Conflict Studies is 400 euro. Reduced tuition of 200 euro is available for applicants from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia. This reduced tuition is also available for students from other conflict or post-conflict regions.

Applicants from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia may apply for accommodation and travel scholarships. A limited number of travel and accomodation scholarships may be available.

Please fill out the application on the CFCCS Webpage!

Dunja Resanovic
Research Assistant and Project Coordinator
Center for Comparative Conflict Studies (CFCCS)
e-mail: dunja@cfccs.org