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War Crimes and Genocides in 20th Century and Beyond

General Information
Teacher: 
prof. dr Norbert Kapferer
Room: 
12
ECTS: 
4
Number of Hours: 
30
Wednesday 14:00 - 15:30
Preliminary requirements: 

- Interested in History of conflicts in International Relations in 20th century and beyond

- Interested in theories of war and in studies of cases of war crimes

-Interested in studies and historical cases of genocides;

- Interested in studies of totalitarianism, nationalism, racism and anti-semitism

Course Description: 

1.Introduction : Methods of historical analysis

2.Introduction: Theories of war and conflicts

3.Introduction : Theories and facts about war crimes

4. Introduction: Theories and facts about genocides

5.Advice and organization of students preparations and presentations

6. Management of discussions

Aims of the course: 

W1.Theories and historical facts about war crimes and genocides

W2. Ottoman Empire, “Third Reich”, Soviet Union as examples

W3. Totalitarian and nationalistic cleaning Ideologies

W4. German and Soviet war crimes

W5. War crimes and genocides on trial

U1. Ability to historical analysis of wars and conflicts

U2 Ability to compare different war crimes

U3. Ability to identify and qualify genocides

U4.Ability to critical reflection and reconstruction of the past

K1. Learning Responsibility, Tolerance, Respect of Diversity;

K2. Ability to Teamwork

Teaching methods: 

  1. Introduction and presentation of theories of historical analysis

  2. Supervised Seminar with the combination of textanalysis, case studies and Paper- or Powerpoint presentation of students and following discussion

Evaluation & Completion: 

  1. Constant p resence in teaching hours;

  2. Participation in discussions;

  3. Presentation (Paper or Powerpoint) of one topic of I.R Studies;Time :20 minutes;

  4. Oral Exam on one topic of I.R.Studies; Time 20 minutes – Five Questions;

  5. An Essay on one topic of I.R.Studies (15 pages including front page, index and list of literatur)

Students can decide what they prefer, Oral exam or Essay.

Basic Literature: 

Daniel Goldhagen, Worse than war. Genocide, Eliminationism and the ongoing Assult on Humanity, New York 2009

James Gow, War and war crimes, the military, legitimacy and success in armed conflict, London 2013

David M. Crowe, War crime , genocide and justice. A global history, New York 2014

Leslie A.Horvitz/Christopher Catherwood, Enzyclopedie of war crimes and genocides, New York 2002

Ian Kershaw: Stalinism and Nazism: Dictatorships in Comparison, (ed. with Moshe Lewin) (Cambridge, 1997) ISBN 0-521-56521-9

Additional Literature: 

Hannah Arendt: Origins of Totalitarianism, 1949

Timothy Snyder: Bloodlands. Europe between Hitler and Stalin 2011

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