Peace, Conflict Solution and International Organisations and Conventions in the 20th Century

The aim of the summer school is to concentrate attention on the problems of peacemaking and peacekeeping and on the institutions and policies by which the international community continues to strive for international peace. These methods include conventional peace treaties like the one that followed the First World War, but also intergovernmental bodies, notably The League of Nations and the United Nations. By its capacity to impose and lift sanctions and even carry out military operations the latter produced important innovations in the fields of conflict solution and peacekeeping. 20th Century wars have stimulated efforts to bound and limit tensions and prevent conflicts from arising or escalating. The international system of conventions serving this purpose has been strengthened, a significant example being the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations in 1948.

This set of problems can be amply illustrated by specific examples from the history of the 20th Century. Some of the more important and typical ones will be analysed by the teachers of the summer school in a series of lectures.

The course is open to PhD-students primarily. During the workshops participants are required to present relevant aspects of their own work