International relations

The Politics of Armed Groups: Rebels, State and Society

Module code: 014IRID
Level 6
30 credits in autumn semester
Teaching method: Seminar
Assessment modes: Not yet finalised

Why do people take up arms? How do armed groups govern in a divided state? If wars are so profitable, how can peace come about?

On this module, you’ll study armed groups to understand modern violent conflict and ways to address it. You’ll:

• analyse mobilisation, organisation, governance and the political economy of armed groups
• assess policies that seek to end armed conflict
• develop employability skills through a policy brief assessment
• study an armed group from across the world.

Module learning outcomes

• Systematically understand different theories of armed mobilisation and the behaviour of armed organisations during war
• Devise arguments in relation to armed mobilisation and armed organisations based on in-depth knowledge of the state of the art of the relevant fields
• Show appreciation of the difficulties of data collection on armed mobilisation and how this affects scholarly analysis and media reporting
• Critically evaluate the assumptions underlying common policy interventions addressing armed organisations during and after war
• Applying the acquired analytical skills to extend knowledge of armed mobilisation to concrete empirical cases