• The Olympia Summer Seminars 2013 will take place at IOA from July 4 to 15, 2013, in two parts: 4-10 and 10-15, 2013.
• OSS 2013 will possibly include 7 cycles: cycle A on conflict, cycle B on religion, C on terrorism, D on negotiations, E on political risk analysis, F on “approaches and methodologies in the social sciences” and G on international security. Cycles E and G are pending final confirmation.
• Cycle A will run through the full duration while cycles C, E and G will run from July 4 to 10^th, while cycles B, D and F from July 10 to 15^th.
• Beach trips with a visit to the Mercouri Wine Estate will take place in the afternoons of Monday July 8^th and Friday July 12^th while cycle A’s and all continuing students’ field trip will take place on Wednesday July 10^th. Students not interested in the beach will have the option to follow an alternative sightseeing program in the afternoons of July 8^th and 12^th. This can include Kyparisia, Neda, Foloi, Andritsaina and Epikourios Apollo’s temple etc.
• Faculty for cycle A will be determined by Stathis shortly. For cycle B, it will include Rashmi Singh from St. Andrews’ CSTPV together with Kitromilides, Kalyvas and Keridis. Cycle C can include Gofas, English, Kalyvas, Singh, Papasotiriou, Kiesling and Donatella Della Porta from EUI. Cycle D will consist of Babbitt and Chigas. Cycle E of Wolfang Picolli and Eurasia, cycle F of Gofas, Kalyvas, Della Porta etc and G of Bar-Ilhan University’s BESA Center.
• Sponsors will include: Leventis and Adenauer Foundations, NATO, the EU Commission, the National Bank of Greece, Olympic Airways and, possibly, Latsis.
• With NATO we might organize a one-day workshop with its secretary general, Rasmussen.

CYCLE A: Conflict & Political Violence

Course description

The study of conflict and political violence has made tremendous strides in the past two decades: new tools and new perspectives have advanced our understanding of its causes, dynamics, and consequences.  In particular, the rigorous empirical and theoretical study of the various forms of conflict and political violence has gained considerable traction. The objective of this course is to capture the most recent developments in the field.  In exploring the intersection of large-scale collective action and political violence, we will draw from several disciplines: primarily political science (including both subfields of international relations and comparative politics), but also history, sociology, and economics.  We will discuss historical, quantitative, and experimental approaches that have been deployed in the study of conflict and we will examine a broad cross-section of topics, including the causes and dynamics of civil war, ethnic conflict, mass violence, genocide, riots, and terrorism; and the logic of rebel group formation, cohesion, and performance. Our geographic focus will be broad, reflective of the faculty’s diverse expertise.  At the end of the course, students will have acquired a good grasp of the ongoing research on conflict. An integral part of the course is a workshop where students can present their ongoing research and receive feedback from faculty and peers.

The faculty includes:

• Alexander B. Downes (Ph.D. Chicago), Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs, The George Washington University and author of Targeting Civilians in War
• Ana Maria Ibañez (Ph.D. Maryland), Associate Professor, Department of Economics, Universidad de los Andes
• Stathis Kalyvas (Ph.D. Chicago), Arnold Wolfers Professor of political science, Yale University; director of Yale’s Program on Order, Conflict, and Violence and author of The Logic of Violence in Civil War
• Sinisa Malesevic (Ph.D. University College Cork), Professor, School of Sociology, University College Dublin and author of The Sociology of War and Violence

 

CYCLE B: Terrorism & Counterterrorism

July 4-10, 2013

Course Description

Terrorism, and our response to it, are among the most compelling of global political issues: they dominate news headlines, public anxiety, and political strategies alike. Yet few attempt to analyze systematically this pressing phenomenon. Surely, no amount of analytical precision will rid us of the existence of terrorism, but if we want to respond effectively to the policy challenge that it poses we need first to respond effectively to its analytical challenge. To this end, the seminar seeks to provide an overview of the state-of-the-art in the study of terrorism, while also debate whether there is a significant continuity or transformation in terrorist behaviour. Topics that will be covered include: the place of terrorism within the broader context of political violence; the causes of terrorism; the inherent difficulties in defining terrorism and compiling reliable data on terrorist attacks; the distinction between ‘old’ and ‘new’ terrorism; the politics of terrorist risk perception; the global war on terror and counterterrorism.

The faculty includes:

• Richard English (Ph.D. Keele), Director of the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence (CSTPV) and Bishop Wardlaw Professor of Politics in the School of International Relations, University of St. Andrews
• Andreas Gofas (Ph.D. Warwick), Marie Curie Fellow, University of Sheffield; Lecturer in International Relations, Panteion University of Athens.
• Stathis Kalyvas (Ph.D. Chicago), Arnold Wolfers Professor of political science, Yale University; director of the Program on Order, Conflict, and Violence at Yale and author of The Logic of Violence in Civil War.
• Sinisa Malesevic (Ph.D. University College Cork), Professor, School of Sociology, University College Dublin and author of The Sociology of War and Violence
• Harry Papassotiriou (Ph.D. Stanford), Professor of International Politics, Panteion University of Athens; IIR Director.

 

CYCLE C: Religion & International Politics

July 10-15, 2013

 

Course Description

The idea that religion matters in international politics is no longer a subject of much controversy in academia. Yet, this welcome break from a rather long-standing disciplinary “securalizing” silence/bias has, nevertheless, yielded rather little in terms of robust theorizing on how religion matters to politics at the national, international, and transnational contexts. This cycle offers a survey of the state of the field when it comes to understanding the nexus between religion and politics. Our regional focus will be comparative, with particular emphasis on cases from Turkey, EU, and Greater Middle East. We will examine the role that religious issues play in the practice of international relations and, in particular, their influence on nationalism and identity politics, democratization, international norms, foreign policy, conflict and violence, and peace and negotiation, so as to allow students to leave the cycle with a provocative and rigorous overview of an evolving and fascinating field of inquiry.

The faculty includes:

• Dimitris Keridis (Ph.D. Tufts), Associate Professor of International Relations, Panteion University of Athens.
• Paschalis Kitromilides (Ph.D. Harvard), Professor of Political Science, University of Athens

 

CYCLE E: History & Philosophy of IR

July 10-15, 2013

Course Description

The discipline of IR has been deeply divided on many theoretical issues throughout its history. Many of these debates have been linked to developments in the philosophy of social sciences. Indeed, to slightly paraphrase Lakatos’s felicitous observation, “philosophy of IR without history of IR is empty; history of IR without philosophy of IR is blind”. This remark captures accurately the aim of this course, whose purpose is twofold: a) to provide an overview of the state-of-the-art in IR theory; and b) to maintain a focus on the flow of theoretical ideas in the history of IR and connect this evolution with issues in the philosophy of social sciences in a synthetic and accessible way. By the end of the course, students will have acquired a good grasp of the main meta-theoretical issues in the discipline of IR and the social sciences more broadly. An integral part of the course is a workshop where students can present their ongoing research and receive feedback from faculty and peers.

The faculty includes:

• Andreas Gofas (Ph.D. Warwick), Marie Curie Fellow, University of Sheffield.
• Stefano Guzzini (Ph.D. EUI), Professor of Government, Uppsala University; Senior Researcher at the Danish Institute for International Studies.
• Harry Papassotiriou (Ph.D. Stanford), Professor of International Politics, Panteion University of Athens; IIR Director.