University of Cambridge, Pembroke College

The conflict environment in which peace mediators operate has changed considerably since the end of the Cold War. The discrete Cold War conflicts between a state and a major political rebel group, each backed by a Cold War power, have fragmented into localized, urbanized, and criminalized conflicts of the kind we see in Syria, Afghanistan, Mali, and South Sudan today. At the same time, peace mediation as a field has become increasingly professionalized and standardized through the international codification of peace mediation norms and techniques of peace process design. This course considers how the process design tools, concepts of conflict analysis, and norms underpinning "peace mediation" are evolving to negotiate peace in increasingly complex intra-state conflicts. The course begins by examining the traditional realist and liberal concepts of conflict analysis and techniques of peace process design developed to understand and manage conflict during the Cold War and immediate post-Cold War era. Using critiques from peace studies, comparative politics, global IR theory, sociology and post-colonial theory, the course highlights the weaknesses of these traditional IR approaches to peace mediation in the post 9/11 international security environment.

This course examines how animal behavior is shaped by evolution. Students consider a wide variety of the problems that animals have to face, including how to find sufficient food, how to avoid predation and how to choose a mate. Using examples from across the animal kingdom, students attempt to explain many of the key puzzles of life. For example, how do parents decide how much food to give to each offspring, and how much to save for themselves? Why might animals forego reproduction and instead help to raise the offspring of others? How do animals communicate, and what determines the form of the signals they use? Evolutionary theory allows us to make and test predictions about these and other questions. By comparing the behavior of different species, and using controlled field and laboratory experiments, students are able to find solutions to many problems raised by the study of animal behavior.

A research project that assigns students to expert professors in their proposed research topic. The course takes the students' research capabilities to a more professional level. This can be most closely compared to what is called a supervised research project in the USA.