RESOURCES ADDRESSING CONFLICT AND DEVELOPMENT ISSUES

INTRODUCTION AND RATIONAL

This assignment provides class members with the opportunity to review the current state of knowledge on conflict and development issues as reflected in published journal articles and World Wide Web resources. Group oral and written reports are intended to provide a service to the entire class by acquainting us with a spectrum of publications, the issues they address, the methodologies they use and the most significant findings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE ASSIGNMENT

The class will be divided into groups of three or four members each. Each group will be given responsibility for several publications and asked to prepare (a) a written report, to be distributed to all class members and (b) an oral report to be given in class.

The following publications and resources will be the subject of reports:


_ JOURNALS FOCUSING ON CONFLICT #1
_ Conflict Studies
_ Cooperation and Conflict
_ Journal of Conflict Resolution
_ International Journal of Conflict Management
_ U.S. Institute of Peace Journal

_ JOURNALS FOCUSING ON CONFLICT # 2
_ Journal of Peace Research
_ Peace and Change
_ Peacekeeping and International Relations
_ Peace Research Reviews
_ Terrorism and Political Violence

_ DEVELOPMENT JOURNALS
_ Development
_ World Development
_ Third World Quarterly
_ Economic Development and Cultural Change


_ DISCIPLINE ORIENTED JOURNALS
_ American Political Science Review
_ American Sociological Review
_ Human Organization
_ Comparative Political Studies
_ World Politics


_ THE WORLD WIDE WEB:

 

Identify useful WEB sites and other resources. Provide examples of the most potentially useful materials and evaluate them.

_ DATA BASES

Identify and evaluate useful data bases for the study of conflict and development including those available through the Social Science Computing Laboratory and on line through Eaglenet and the World-Wide web.

FORMAT FOR WRITTEN REPORTS

Written reports should be typewritten. Please make sufficient copies to distribute one to each member of the class. Make your reports accessible, but use a compact format to save paper and mass. The reports dealing with journals should cover the following. (Note: Though I would like to have a summary of scope and editorial policy for each journal, you should feel free to focus on two or three journals when reviewing articles if you wish.

_ Summary of scope and editorial policy

Please provide a very brief review of each publications scope of subject matter and editorial policy, as it relates to conflict and development issues, addressing the following questions:

_ Problems and priorities

In this section, list in rough priority order, about 7 of the most important conflict and development issues/problems addressed in the journals you reviewed. Note any significant patterns and/or trends in policy and emphasis.

_ Enumeration of materials

In this section, provide citations for about 12 articles that seemed particularly interesting or significant. Briefly spell out your selection criteria.

_ Particularly Significant Article

From the above list, pick four articles that you regard as most significant. For each of these articles provide a brief, clear, succinct abstract of no more than half a page, emphasizing the problem being investigated and the principal findings.

 

_ Important questions

Based on your research state precisely the three research questions, which if addressed and answered would move the study of conflict and development issues forward most productively.

_ Web Site

If the journal has a Web site, please provide the address and a brief summary of the information that is available.

FORMAT FOR THE WORLD WIDE WEB ASSIGNMENT

The above format will obviously not be suitable for a survey of the more unfiltered materials available on the World Wide Web. What would be most helpful is to provide class members with an enumeration and synopsis some of the most useful sites. My own review of this resource has been far from exhaustive, however I should expect that your report would include sites relating to tall or most of the following:

_ Sites describing relevant U.S. government and organizations: Agency for International Development, U.S. Department of State, Central Intelligence Agency, The National Institute for Democracy, U.S. Institute of Peace, etc.
_ Sites describing relevant multilateral organizations: World Bank, International Monetary Fund, United Nations Development Program, Overseas Private Investment Corporation, etc.
_ Sites describing relevant non-governmental organizations and "think tanks": A good place to begin seeking information on development organizations is the INTERACTION website. INTERACTION is a consortium of more than 100 development organizations. There are a multiplicity of organizations, not easily categorized, for example: The Institute for Multi-Track Diplomacy, Refugees International, The American Friends Service Committee (and the London Based Quaker Peace and Service), The Heritage Foundation, Freedom House International, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, etc.
_ Sites that present the point of view of militant movements. I am only personally familiar with the site of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), however I am sure that there are many others.
_ Sites of relevant journals, other than those listed above.
_ Sites of nations facing significant conflict and development issues. Many nations now have web sites that they use to provide general information. They may also include an "official" point of view regarding conflict and development issues. In some instances there are also sites for regions within nations. (Tamil Nadu state on the Southeastern tip of the Indian subcontinent has its own Web page, for example).

Obviously it will not be possible this group to survey all of the materials available. The goal is to identify, filter and evaluate a representative sampling of materials that will, in your judgment, be most useful for the class. You should also provide information on search strategies and search engines that you found most useful.

FORMAT FOR ORAL REPORTS

Oral reports are to be not more than 15 minutes in length. Please time your presentation so that you do not run over. The goal of the oral reports is to be interesting, engaging and produce the maximum value added for the members of the class. Use whatever format and mode of presentation that you believe will best achieve this result.

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