Prevention and Resilience in International Politics

Many current crises – wars, climate change, pandemics, democratic backlashes – demonstrate the relevance of prevention and resilience, as much as their key challenges: First, to act preventively at all; second, to justify the necessity of effective preventive action ex post, and third, to build up resilience. At the same time, there is broad agreement that "prevention is better than cure": In addition to being considered a normative imperative, prevention is usually also less costly, in terms of human lives, economic costs, but also time. Yet, prevention and resilience-building fail often, with dramatic consequences. In light of these considerations, we want to explore the concepts of prevention and resilience theoretically and empirically. What are the normative and legal foundations of preventive action? Can prevention and resilience-building become guiding principles of (international) politics, and how? What psychological, social, and political conditions make them so challenging? What role do prevention and resilience-building play in international cooperation? Why do they succeed in some cases, but not in others? To gain a broad perspective on these phenomena, we will look at examples from various fields of international politics such as conflicts, arms control, disasters, atrocities, hunger, and environment.

Hence, this class aims at introducing the students to the concepts of prevention and resilience, familiarizing them with political science research on these two interrelated topics. We will develop an analytical grid of prevention instruments, conditions, and challenges, which will then be used to study different cases of effective and failed prevention and resilience-building. The class will be held in English, so the ability to read, discuss and write in English is a prerequisite.