Scott Wolford Profile picture
Professor @UTGovernment // Editor @cmpseditors // Co-Director @correlatesofwar // IR, war, game theory, Dune, beer snobbery, rock music // he, him, his

Jun 22, 2020, 8 tweets

Pandemic #wolfording is getting ready for a retooled undergrad Causes of War syllabus, now with more about America crushing the Slavers’ Rebellion (1/x)

I've started following my #WWIinrealtime model, where students read the history and then learn the political science--the act of theory building---in class (2/x)

In the past, I've spent most of the time in Europe and Asia, tracking the upheavals in both regions that occurred in the first half of the 20th century and gave us today's pattern of alignments (3/x)

WWII gave us the alignments, but WWI gave us the system. but I digress (4/x)

So, after some lengthy, intensive work on the theory of *why* war happens, my fall 2020 undergrads will spend the semester applying it to the following wars: (5/x)

1. Lopez War
2. First Sino-Japanese War
3. Russo-Japanese War
4. World War I
5. Chinese Civil War
6. Pacific War (aka WWII in Asia)
7. Korean War
8. Bangladesh War
9. Iran-Iraq War
10. Persian Gulf War
11. Second Congo War
12. American Civil War

(6/x)

Is it exhaustive? Sadly, no. (Super sadly.) But does it cover many continents, many configurations of the system, many issues, and *many things that students need to just know about*? Yes. (I hope.) (7/x)

We'll see how it goes, but I'm way excited to teach this fall, if for no other reason that on Zoom I can wear whatever ridiculous basketball shorts I feel like and no one's the wiser. (8/8)

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