War and Peace

New Thinking About the Causes of War and War Avoidance

Georgetown University Law Center

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First Day Assignments

Spring 2012

 

Textbooks for Reading Assignments

2012 Reader: A compilation of documents and reading materials prepared by Professor Moore for this seminar; available in the Law Center's copy center or online.

Reserve Materials: Materials indicated here as “Readings, On Reserve” are available in the Law Library.

Required Book: John Norton Moore, Solving the War Puzzle (2004). Optional: Donald Kagen, On the Origins of War and the Preservation of Peace; and R.J. Rummel, Death by Government (1997). All available at bookstore.

January 20

I. Theories of War and War Prevention

A. Introduction and Overview: Theories of War and War Prevention

1. Some Classics About War

Readings, Volume 1: 1-4 THUCYDIDES, THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR 5-7, 48 para. 23 (Rex Warner trans., New York: Penguin Books 1983) (this trans. first published 1954). The Peloponnesian War took place between 431 and 404 B.C. Thucydides served as a general in this war in 424 B.C.

5-14 SUN TZU, ON THE ART OF WAR 17-25 (Lionel Giles trans., Hong Kong: Hong Kong Book Co.) Sun Tzu wrote in the late 4th, early 5th century B.C.

15-53 Immanuel Kant, Eternal Peace, in ETERNAL PEACE AND OTHER INTERNATIONAL ESSAYS v-xxiv, 6-89, 166-68 (Boston: World Peace Foundation 1981). Kant wrote this essay in 1795.

Readings, On Reserve: #1 KARL VON CLAUSEWITZ, ON WAR, xvii-xix, xxxii-xxxiii, 3-18, 19-30, 596-601 (New York: Random House 1943). Clausewitz's ON WAR was written between 1819-30 and was edited and published by his wife after his death.

II. Competing Perspectives About the Nature of War on the Eve of the War to End All Wars

Readings, Volume 1: 54-59 NORMAN ANGELL, THE GREAT ILLUSION vii-xiii, 210-13 (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons 1913).

60-73 FRIEDRICH VON BERNHARDI, GERMANY AND THE NEXT GREAT WAR, v-viii, 16-37 (Allen H. Powles trans., New York: Longmans, Green & Co. 1914).

Readings, On Reserve: #2 BARBARA TUCHMAN, THE GUNS OF AUGUST 24-26 (New York: Macmillan 1962). Discussing the Angell and von Bernhardi books.