COURSES

ALEXANDER B. DOWNES

Department of Political Science, Duke University

POLSCI 106D: International Security (syllabus, PS106_SYLLABUS_2011)

Lecture course with discussion sections. Includes segments on the causes of war, military effectiveness, deterrence and coercion, nuclear proliferation, and the war in Iraq.

B-52 Bomber

POLSCI 186: Civilians in the Path of War (syllabus, PS186_SYLLABUS_2010)

Course focuses on the origins and evolution of the combatant/noncombatant distinction; theories of why states and rebels target civilians; and case studies of civilian victimization in the 20th century.

Kathe Kollwitz, Deutschlands Kinder Hungern! (1924)

POLSCI 200D: Democracy and International Relations (syllabus, PS200D%20Syllabus%202005)

Senior seminar on the role of regime type in theorizing about IR, mainly in the security realm. Begins with democratic peace theory and its critics, then explores democracy and military effectiveness, preventive war, civilian victimization, war termination, and other subjects.

Operation Desert Storm, 1991

POLSCI 286: Theory and Practice of International Security (syllabus, PS286_SYLLABUS_2011)

Upper-level seminar on literature in security studies. Begins with a consideration of some of the major theoretical paradigms in IR, and then moves on to selected topics in the field.

Operation Barbarossa, 1941