The course offers broad and varied perspectives on peace and peace-related themes for students with some prior knowledge of international studies. It deals with both theory and practical politics as well as social-psychological perspectives. The instructor will use concrete examples from countries and conflicts he has worked in over 30 years. Students will use books, articles, websites and videos as learning materials. While quite broad in its scope, this course shall provide students with the opportunity to go deeper into one or two particular problem areas simultaneous with reading course literature and attending the lectures. While the course deals with the very serious problems humankind now faces, students will learn positive thinking and be enabled to continue their studies with hope.
This course aims to provide students with important historical knowledge concerning peace. During the course, students are expected to make up a plan for a mini-exhibition on peace and carrying out it at Kyoto Museum for World Peace, Ritsumeikan University, where the instructor serves as the Honorary Director. He is also one of the Board Members of International Network of Museums for Peace. Kyoto Museum for World Peace was established in 1992 as the first and the only university-attached peace museum in the world. It has been visited by about 1 million people including young generation. Peace museum is one of the important ways to make people known about past and on-going violence throughout the world. As Kyoto Museum for World Peace organized an urgent mini-exhibition on the Tragedy of Gaza last January, we hope to continue to send messages for peace to the rest of the world. In this course, I would like to introduce varieties of topics with regard to peace, and develop discussions together with the students.
The ultimate goal of international cooperation for development is to alleviate poverty and correct economic disparity. The key factors for achieving this goal are to plan the relevant individual development projects and implement them with macro-economic consideration for the donor side and to foster self-sustainability by encouraging active participation by the recipient side. This course is composed of basic theory for international cooperation for development, study on economic development in the East Asian countries, and introduction of some specific international cooperation activities based on instructor’s personal experiences. The intent is to discuss proper development strategies, particularly for countries in transition to market-based economies in the Mekong River Basin region. Students will also learn macro economic analysis and its methods on developing countries through the course program.
This course will aim at a solid understanding by students of preventive diplomacy (conflict prevention) and peace-building. Preventive diplomacy comprises various attempts to prevent or forestall tensions from escalating into actual acts of group violence. Peace-building includes endeavours to consolidate peace and efforts for nation-building after a conflict is over. The course will examine in depth the variety and ramifications of a number of means to resolve modern ethnic conflicts - both their potentialities and limitations.
