BROWN UNIVERSITY

10317: Human Rights and Humanitarianism: Past, Present, Future (Summer 2026)

(pre-college seminar)

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This course probes the nature of human rights and humanitarianism, which aim to help people across the globe suffering from large-scale disasters and/or human rights violations. Humanitarian organizations—including United Nations humanitarian agencies, non-governmental organizations, and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement—spend billions of dollars each year providing life-saving aid in response to armed conflicts, disasters arising from natural hazards (including earthquakes and flooding), and large-scale disease outbreaks (including pandemics, such as COVID-19). Additionally, human rights organizations—such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International—aim to document human rights violations and advocate with governments and non-state armed groups to protect populations across the globe. However, these organizations perpetually struggle to undertake their work in a principled, impactful manner. Human rights and humanitarian organizations work in politically charged environments (with governments and other stakeholders trying to control their work) and can suffer from internal bureaucratic impediments. Students in this course will probe what of this system works, what falls short, and how this system can work better.

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10191: Humanitarianism: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly (Summer 2024)

(pre-college seminar)

This course probes the nature of the international humanitarian system designed to help people across the globe suffering from large-scale disasters. Humanitarian organizations—including United Nations humanitarian agencies, non-governmental organizations, and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement—spend billions of dollars each year providing life-saving aid in response to armed conflicts, disasters arising from natural hazards (including earthquakes and flooding), and large-scale disease outbreaks (including pandemics, such as COVID-19). However, these organizations perpetually struggle to undertake their work in a principled, impactful manner. Humanitarian organizations work in politically charged environments (with governments and other stakeholders trying to control humanitarian work) and suffer from internal bureaucratic impediments. Students in this course will be exposed to the good, the bad, and the ugly of the international humanitarian system.

 

 

POLS1825B: The Politics of the Laws of War (Spring 2023)

(undergraduate seminar)

From the wars that befell ancient Sumerian city states to contemporary armed conflicts raging in countries such as Ukraine, Syria, and Ethiopia, laws and norms have shaped combatants’ behavior. What are the laws of war? What explains how this body of laws evolved? Why do some combatants adhere to the laws of war, whereas others intentionally target civilians, torture detainees, recruit child soldiers, and perpetrate sexual and gender-based violence? In this seminar, students will probe these questions from different angles: as political scientists, historians, international legal scholars, and policy practitioners. Students will develop expertise in the content of the contemporary laws of war, explore the politics of how the laws of war operate (or fail to operate) during wartime, and engage with the current landscape of legal and political issues inherent in armed conflicts today.

 

POLS 1821R: Sovereignty, War, and the Modern International System (Fall 2022)

(undergraduate seminar)

How does international law regulate states’ behavior regarding the use of international force? How should international law affect domestic politics and authority? What kinds of international rules, regulations and norms exist? What authority do they have? Should states obey international law even when it conflicts with their interests and that of their citizens? Is a law-governed order attainable in a world of sovereign states? This seminar explores the evolution of international law, its relation to state sovereignty, and how these factors shape the modern international system. Topics will include the historical emergence of sovereignty, the evolution of human rights, the politics of laws governing the resort to the use of international force, and the Responsibility to Protect.