Elke Zuern

The Council on Foreign Relations has succinctly noted: “The future is African.” This course offers a comprehensive introduction to international politics from the perspective of African states and societies. We will consider how states on the continent are shifting global politics from economic relations and consumer trends to humanitarian interventions and international justice. We will begin our exploration by considering the dramatic changes that African societies have experienced from colonialism to decolonization and the present. We will engage key questions regarding postcolonial governance and popular demands for democracy. How have Africans engaged their governments to call for reform or revolution? Where has this led to effective democracies? Why have some states experienced civil wars? What role have external influences, from Western aid to the expansion of Chinese influence, played on the continent? We will consider the demands of protesters and the causes for rebellion and seek to understand both pressure for and resistance to reform. At the end of the fall semester, students will simulate the US President’s National Security Council to debate a US response to an imagined political crisis on the African continent. In the second semester, we will consider cases of humanitarian crises and conflict. What are the appropriate responses to widespread human-rights violations as they are occurring? Are there cases in which military intervention is warranted? If so, who should intervene? What else can be done? Once the violence has subsided, what actions should the international community take to support peace and justice? We will explore critical ethical, legal, and political questions by considering key cases of intervention and nonintervention, including Rwanda, Darfur, and Libya. Finally, we will evaluate different pathways in pursuing truth, justice, and reconciliation in the aftermath of gross violations of human rights. Cases include the domestic processes established by South Africa’s pioneering Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Rwanda’s Gacaca, as well as the ongoing work of the International Criminal Court. Toward the end of the second semester, students will conduct a UN Security Council simulation to debate possible actions in a simulated humanitarian crisis. Finally, we will end the academic year with an exploration of what an “African future” will mean not just for Africans but also for societies across the globe. During the year, students will engage ideas, readings, and debates in class conversations, in short posts to the class, and in papers. Students will also conduct research projects both on their own and with a partner.

This course will engage key questions in international relations, development studies, and politics from the perspectives and experiences of African states and societies. We will begin with the African continent’s introduction to international politics and economics through trade in goods and slaves to imperialism and colonialism. We ask not just what Europeans wanted but also how Africans responded and resisted. We will also investigate present-day campaigns to address colonial-era human-rights violations. With the end of colonial rule, independent African states became full, but subordinate, members of the international system. As the Cold War reached new heights, states were pressed to choose between capitalism and communism, to ally with the West or the Soviet Union. We will explore the forms of economic and political development that states and social actors pursued. What sorts of aid did they receive? What conditions were attached to that aid? What room was there for democracy? What role did institutions like the World Bank play in aggravating or alleviating conditions of poverty? We will bring our discussion of international aid and development up to the present by discussing China’s dramatically expanded role on the continent, providing loans, building infrastructure, and engaging in trade. We will conclude the fall semester by considering the extent to which China presents a different model of development and international politics or just an updated version of earlier models.

This class combines Sarah Lawrence students and students from the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility; all class sessions will take place at Bedford. Consequently, all students must be at least 21 years of age.

The course provides a unique opportunity for SLC students to investigate key questions of international humanitarian intervention and justice while also considering US support for human rights at home. The class will consider: What are the appropriate responses to widespread human-rights violations in another country as they are occurring? Are there cases in which military humanitarian intervention is warranted? If so, who should intervene? What else can be done short of military intervention? Once the violence has subsided, what actions should the international community take to support peace and justice? This course will explore critical ethical, legal, and political questions. We will consider key cases of intervention and nonintervention since the end of the Cold War, from Somalia to Kosovo and Libya. The class will employ lessons from those cases to consider the challenges to addressing humanitarian crises in Syria and Ukraine. Finally, we will evaluate different pathways to pursuing truth, justice, and reconciliation in the aftermath of gross violations of human rights. Cases include the International Criminal Tribunal and domestic courts established in postgenocide Rwanda, South Africa’s pioneering Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the ongoing work of the International Criminal Court. This class will conclude with a UN Security Council simulation in which each student will represent a country currently on the Council to debate possible actions in a simulated humanitarian crisis.

This course will provide a unique opportunity to investigate key questions of democracy in a diverse group at a crucial moment in American history. We will begin by exploring theoretical arguments regarding the merits of various forms of democracy over other regime types. If democracy is presumed to be a better system than its alternatives, why might this be the case and how might we evaluate this? We will consider key historical moments in the rise and decline of democracy from the ideals of early American democracy and its shortcomings, to the Nazi seizure of power and the end of democracy in 1930s Germany, to the triumph of nonracial democracy with the end of apartheid in South Africa. We will investigate whether and how democracies might outperform other regimes. The class will engage empirical research, comparing democratic, transitioning, and authoritarian regimes as far as economic growth and development, human development indicators, interstate and intrastate wars, human rights, and business innovation, including artificial intelligence. Students will consider the role of free speech and censorship by exploring the ways in which a free press and open social networks support basic principles of democracy, as well as how misinformation and disinformation can starkly undermine it. The course will employ theory, history, and empirical data to evaluate the state of democracy in the United States and the possible impact of recent changes to American institutions. Occurring at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility, this course will bring together students from both Sarah Lawrence and Bedford Hills.

What are the appropriate responses to widespread human-rights violations in another country as they are occurring? Are there cases in which military humanitarian intervention is warranted? If so, who should intervene? What else can be done, short of military intervention? Once the violence has subsided, what actions should the international community take to support peace and justice? This course will explore critical ethical, legal, and political questions. We will consider key cases of intervention and nonintervention since the end of the Cold War, including Somalia, Rwanda, Kosovo, Sudan, and Libya. The course will employ lessons from these cases to consider the challenges to addressing humanitarian crises in Syria, Ukraine, and Gaza. Finally, we will evaluate different pathways in pursuing truth, justice, and reconciliation in the aftermath of gross violations of human rights. Cases include the domestic processes established by South Africa’s pioneering Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Rwanda’s Gacaca courts to the ongoing work of the International Criminal Court and the International Court of Justice. This course will conclude with a United Nations Security Council simulation, for which each student will represent a country currently on the Security Council to debate possible actions in a mock humanitarian crisis.

What are the appropriate responses to widespread human-rights violations in another country as they are occurring? Are there cases in which military humanitarian intervention is warranted? If so, who should intervene? What else can be done short of military intervention? Once the violence has subsided, what actions should the international community take to support peace and justice? This course will explore critical ethical, legal, and political questions. We will consider key cases of intervention and nonintervention since the end of the Cold War, from Somalia to Kosovo and Libya. The class will employ lessons from those cases to consider the challenges to addressing humanitarian crises in Syria and Ukraine. Finally, we will evaluate different pathways to pursuing truth, justice, and reconciliation in the aftermath of gross violations of human rights. Cases include the International Criminal Tribunal and domestic courts established in post-genocide Rwanda, South Africa’s pioneering Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and the ongoing work of the International Criminal Court. This class will conclude with a UN Security Council simulation, in which each student will represent a country currently on the Council to debate possible actions in a simulated humanitarian crisis.

At the end of the Cold War, many Western writers wrote triumphantly about the global victory of democracy and capitalism. In the last five years, we have been bombarded with news of autocrats, both at home and abroad, undermining democracy. We hear that democracy is dying while markets and inequality reach new heights. COVID-19 has reinforced many of these trends but also created new opportunities for shifting some of our current trajectories. This seminar will address the connections between liberal democracy and market capitalism as they have reinforced and contradicted one another. It will explore the role of social movements in bringing about change and the alternative ideals they have offered. To understand the challenges that states face, we begin with inequality in the United States and the election and reelection campaign of Donald Trump. We then look backward and forward for a deeper understanding of political and economic regime change in a range of states. In this moment of great significance for the future of American democracy, we will pay particular attention to the United States but will also consider a set of powerful states outside the OECD, which have defined themselves as the BRICS: Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa. To understand present-day challenges and opportunities, we will discuss the rise of neoliberalism, as well as state experiments with social democracy and the redistribution of wealth. We will explore the increase in populist leaders and popular uprisings. As we evaluate the present, we will consider a range of popular responses to these challenges, as well as alternative frameworks for the future.

The events of September 11, 2001, unleashed a bitter and contentious debate regarding not just how states and societies might best respond to the threat of violence but also, fundamentally, what qualifies as terrorism. Just nine days later, and without resolving any of these difficult issues, the United States announced its response: The Global War on Terrorism. Over two decades later, we are no closer to consensus concerning these politically and emotionally charged debates. Americans are belatedly beginning to realize that the greatest threat of terror attacks in the United States originates from domestic rather than foreign actors, often from white nationalists. This course will investigate the use of violence by state and nonstate actors to assert their authority and to inspire fear. The modern state, as it was formed in Western Europe, was born of war per Charles Tilly’s often-quoted phrase: “War makes states, and states make war.” The ability to control violence within a territory has long been the key part of the definition of a functioning state. This class will discuss the evolution of the terminology of terror and terrorism from the French Revolution to the present and consider frameworks to distinguish forms of violence and different types of violent actors. We will explore acts of state terror and their consequences and consider the use of the term ”terrorism” in the popular press, in political rhetoric, and in policymaking by states and international organizations. We will consider a range of nonstate actors that have employed violence—including South Africa’s ANC, Sri Lanka’s LTTE, and white nationalists in the United States—and explore the impact that the use of violence has had for their popular support, for local and transnational communities, and for their ability to achieve their goals. Finally, we will consider new means of terror from drone warfare to cyber warfare. As part of our discussion of US foreign policy, the class will conduct a model diplomacy simulation in which students will assume the roles of members of the US National Security Council.

The events of September 11, 2001, unleashed a bitter and contentious debate regarding not just how states and societies might best respond to the threat of violence but also, fundamentally, what qualifies as terrorism. Just nine days later, and without resolving any of those difficult issues, the United States announced its response: The Global War on Terrorism. Two decades later, we are no closer to consensus concerning those politically and emotionally charged debates. This course will investigate the use of violence by both state and nonstate actors to assert their authority and to inspire fear. The modern state, as it was formed in Western Europe, was born of war. In Charles Tilly’s often-quoted phrase: “War makes states, and states make war,” the ability to control violence within a territory has long been a key part of the definition of a functioning state. The presence of armed groups on a state’s territory, which the state does not or cannot effectively control, is therefore a direct challenge to a state’s authority and has the potential to undermine its recognition as an international actor. After briefly discussing the historical development of modern states, we will investigate the evolution of the terminology of terror and terrorism from the French Revolution to the present. We will explore acts of state terror and their consequences and consider the use of the term ”terrorism” in the popular press, in political rhetoric, and in policy-making by states and international organizations. We will investigate a number of nonstate actors that have employed violence—including South Africa’s ANC, Sri Lanka’s LTTE, ISIS, and white nationalists in the United States, among others—and consider the impact that violence had both for their popular support and for local and transnational communities. As part of our discussion of US foreign policy, the class will conduct one Model Diplomacy simulation in which students will assume the roles of the various members of the US National Security Council.

How should societies commemorate and respond to past injustices that continue to impact community members? This course will investigate various approaches, including apology, repatriation, reparation, and remembrance. What is the best course of action in the aftermath of gross violations of human rights? Which responses are feasible in a particular context, and how might the possibilities shift over time? Where have repatriation efforts been successful? Why have reparations been won in some cases but not others? Our discussions will consider the needs of victims, as well as the interests of states and the possible contradictions between the two. We will focus on the role of power in the international system and international law, as well as the ways in which seemingly less powerful groups have engaged and challenged prominent domestic and international actors. Case studies will include, but are not limited to, Native American demands for the repatriation of remains, postcolonial states’ demands for the return of cultural artifacts, Jewish struggles for restitution in the aftermath of the Holocaust, Japanese American and African American campaigns for reparations, as well as debates over environmental reparations. We will also consider the role of art, narratives, and memorials in expanding discussion in each of these case studies.

This course will investigate how states and societies address the past from official forgetting to remembrance, apology, repatriation, and reparation. What is the best course of action in the aftermath of gross violations of human rights? Which responses are feasible in a particular context, and how might this shift over time? What impact might apologies have? Why have reparations been won in some cases but not others? Our discussions will consider the needs of victims, as well as the interests of states and the possible contradictions between the two. We will focus on the role of power in the international system and international law, as well as the ways in which seemingly less powerful groups have engaged and challenged prominent international actors. Case studies will include, but are not limited to, Native American demands for the repatriation of remains, Jewish struggles for restitution in the aftermath of The Holocaust, Japanese-American demands for redress, postcolonial demands for reparations from former colonizing states, and Black reparations in the United States. We will also consider the role of narratives and memorials in expanding the discussion concerning reparations for slavery and the ways in which demands for justice gain traction among the general public.