Course Objectives
	Teaching Format
	Advanced Preparation

Leadership for a Democratic Society
Global Context

From Bosnia to Bin Laden: Racial, Ethnic, Nationalist, Religious and Cultural Conflict in the 21st Century

Overview: The rise of old and new nationalisms and the resurgence of racial, ethnic, and religious conflicts have dampened post-Cold War world order optimism. Predictions of the "end of history" and democratic universalism confront ideas of a coming "clash of civilizations" or a new Cold War between secular and religious nationalisms. The world is organized into some 200 independent countries (states) but there are anywhere from 500 to over 2000 actual and potential nations, many of whom aspire to independent statehood. The last decade of the 20th century alone witnessed the birth of over 20 new countries. Meanwhile, the United Nations Charter solemnly enshrines the conflicting principles of the right of national self-determination and the right of existing states to preserve their territorial integrity. All this at a time when growing economic, ecological, scientific, technological and informational interdependence was expected to foster integration not disintegration. Instead, forces of global cultural homogenization increasingly run up against assertive cultural particularism. At home and abroad, American policymakers are faced with the challenges of "Balkanization" posed by a multicultural world and domestic society. The purpose of this seminar is an indepth analysis of the phenomenon often generically labeled as "identity conflict." Its premise is that an effective, realistic, and timely set of American policies across a spectrum of issue-areas from "ethnic cleansing," human rights violations, global migration, virulent nationalisms, to religious extremism must be grounded in an understanding of the complexities underlying these phenomena. The question of whether and how the United States should intervene in such matters is likely to be a front and center foreign policy dilemma for the foreseeable future. And any foreign policy decision will have both domestic sources and repercussions, given America's multicultural society. The seminar is designed to be relevant and useful to executives from a variety of agencies by addressing the impact of these forces on American interests abroad and society at home. Information on the general issues is fleshed out with up-to-date illustrative material from existing and potential hot spots.

Course Objectives: Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• Beyond enhancing the participant's general international "literacy," the basic objective of the course is to increase understanding of the problem of "identity conflict" with material relevant to executives from civilian and military agencies. Understanding in turn helps inform decisionmaking and foster heads-up, imaginative leadership.
• The learning objective of the seminar is threefold.
  • To provide participants with a solid backbone of analytical, conceptual, and factual knowledge about the phenomenon of "identity conflict."
  • To permit participants to become educated self-learners by integrating future information into an organized framework.
  • To enable participants to grasp the moral-ethical dimensions and practical policy significance of the issue and to assess prospects for the future.
• The intended outcome of the course is to provide participants with a flexible understanding of evolving reality, an appreciation for the complexity of that reality, and an ability if not to predict the future course of events then at least to anticipate possible scenarios and assess the unfolding significance of events and trends.

Teaching Format : Information, conceptualization, and analysis are emphasized. Lecture material is interspersed with illustrative video clips. To minimize note-taking and maximize the comfort and attention span of the participants, an up-to-date course manual, which includes copies of all overheads, is provided.

Advance Preparation : No advance preparation is required. Other than the course manual there are no required reading assignments.

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