War, State, and Society in the Modern Era

Rosella Cappella Zielinski, Boston University

This seminar examines three primary questions: What is war? How has war changed? What is the relationship between war, and other institutions, namely state formation, democracy, and social relations? This course, emphasizes warfare in the west, focusing on Europe and the United States, specifically how states fight wars (versus non-state actors) and how changes in warfare affect the relationship between state and society. While the stress of this course is wars of the 20th century, to understand how war has evolved, this course begins with wars of the middle ages.