Causes and Prevention of War
MIT OpenCourseWare offers this political science course on why wars start and how they might be stopped. Lectures and readings examine misperception between nations, military strategy and doctrine as drivers of conflict, the role of religion, and how U.S. foreign policy has produced both war and peace. Historical case studies anchor the theory: World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Seven Years' War, the Arab-Israeli conflict and other Mideast wars, and the Peloponnesian War. The course closes by weighing the likelihood and possible shape of future great-power wars. Materials include the syllabus, lecture notes, readings, and assignments as published by MIT, free to access with no certificate offered. It suits students of international relations or history who want a structured framework for comparing conflicts across two and a half millennia.