Our economy is global, and a crisis on the other side of the globe can affect us directly and quickly. To move beyond stereotyped views of war and to develop an understanding of the full experience of warfare from the perspectives of different individuals and groups. To analyze and interpret the impact of warfare on society as a whole. To consider ways of ending and preventing wars, and of making and keeping peace. The title of the theme, after all, emphasizes the making of war and peace, rather than war and peace in general, and the making of peace has to do with ending or preventing war, which again directs a good deal of attention toward warfare.
Few people fight wars just to fight.
This interconnectedness between the making of war and peace is what helps to glue the individual courses in the theme together. The syllabus for each course will explain briefly what the theme is about, and how that course relates to the theme. Each course in the theme will use assignments directed toward the theme objectives. Each course will emphasize different objectives to different degrees, but all will engage each of the four objectives. The members of the theme group will exchange syllabi and assignments and conduct discussions to assist each other in identifying useful areas of overlap and connections between the assignments used in the individual courses.