by Why We Fight can work as a short unit on conflict within a longer class on economic development, international relations, political economy, comparative politics, or conflict studies. Here are some ideas and resources to do so. 1 week Unit I’d recommend having students engage with Part I of the book only, especially chapters 1–5. This will give them a good overview of the causes of war literature. You could use a selection of the slides below to walk students through the strategic concepts in lectures. Alternatively, students have enjoyed small group work, where they met in or out of class to apply the concepts to a familiar case (e.g. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine, or tensions between China and Taiwan) and then present back ideas to the class. 2–4 Week Unit I’ve taught the
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Chris Blattman considers the following as important: Teaching page, Why We Fight
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Why We Fight can work as a short unit on conflict within a longer class on economic development, international relations, political economy, comparative politics, or conflict studies. Here are some ideas and resources to do so.
1 week Unit
I’d recommend having students engage with Part I of the book only, especially chapters 1–5. This will give them a good overview of the causes of war literature.
You could use a selection of the slides below to walk students through the strategic concepts in lectures. Alternatively, students have enjoyed small group work, where they met in or out of class to apply the concepts to a familiar case (e.g. wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine, or tensions between China and Taiwan) and then present back ideas to the class.
2–4 Week Unit
I’ve taught the bulk of the material in 7–8 classes as part of a broader class on international development (syllabus).
Lecture slides:
Introduction: Pre-conceptions ♦ The incentives for peace ♦ Unchecked leaders & uncertainty ♦ Commitment problems ♦ Intangible incentives ♦ Misperceptions ♦ Paths to peace I ♦ Paths to peace II ♦ All PDF ♦ All PPTX
I like to run the first class as an activity and discussion, where I pick a few contemporary conflicts (not covered in the book), break the class up into groups, and then have them work together to list commonly-described causes of that conflict, then each group summarizes their discussion to the rest. Then we return to these conflicts throughout the next few weeks, examining, refining, discarding, and classifying some of these preconceptions.
Full course
Recently I did all of the above and taught the book over 9 weeks to a class of second year Master’s students (syllabus), though I think this would have worked well with high school and undergraduate students.
Assignments
There are a variety of possible assignments:
- Here is an example problem set with solutions, to help students work through some of the examples in the book.
- If I am teaching this material as a longer unit or full class, I have students work through a contemporary conflict in small groups, and then report back to the class with presentations. See weeks 4–6 of this
- See weeks 4–6 of this syllabus for an example.
- Or I ask students to read and critique policy reports or contemporary books on dealing with violence, from UN reports to US plans for tackling gang violence.
- See weeks 8–9 of this syllabus for an example.
Technical appendix
Here is an online appendix for the “pie-splitting” examples in the book, in case you want to work through them in class or as a problem set.
Endorsements
Blattman’s aim is to provide a general framework for analyzing the problem of war (whether between countries, political factions within a country, or gangs) with the intention of informing the design of policies, institutions, or other interventions.
I think the primary audiences for the book are undergraduates or masters-level students, journalists, policymakers, practitioners, and general readers trying to inform themselves about why war happens and what we can do about it. Blattman is quite successful in executing this task.
Graduate students and scholars would also benefit from the way that Blattman organizes a vast literature.
I would wholeheartedly recommend this as *the* book for those either starting war studies or working in relevant fields.