2024 Faculty Courses Liberal arts and basic science courses Humanities and social science courses
Essence of Humanities and Social Sciences32: Peace Studies
- Academic unit or major
- Humanities and social science courses
- Instructor(s)
- Shino Hateruma
- Class Format
- Lecture (Face-to-face)
- Media-enhanced courses
- -
- Day of week/Period
(Classrooms) - 5-6 Wed
- Class
- -
- Course Code
- LAH.S506
- Number of credits
- 100
- Course offered
- 2024
- Offered quarter
- 1Q
- Syllabus updated
- Mar 14, 2025
- Language
- English
Syllabus
Course overview and goals
This course provides the fundamentals of peace studies. Peace Studies has evolved from a study to achieve a world without war to one to preserve human rights, eliminate disparity, protect the environment, and construct and maintain peace during the late 1960s to the early 1970s. This course covers the wide-ranging issues in international society in its search for solutions for peace.
Furthermore, to familiarize the students with problems for peace, this course introduces a case of Okinawa to learn to apply the peace studies concepts to actual cases. Through the case study, the students think about the cost of war and conditions for achieving peace.
The goal of this course is to cultivate the students’ ability and perspective in considering the problems of war and peace. In addition, this course aims to enhance the communication skills to share ideas and opinions, thereby deepening their understanding of peace through discussions in English.
Course description and aims
At the end of this course, students will be able to:
1) explain the basic concepts of peace studies;
2) identify problems in the past and present wars, conflicts and violence from the perspective of peace studies; and
3) develop awareness about current affairs happening in the international society and discuss it with the knowledge obtained in this course.
Keywords
Peace, war, human security, environment, gender, Okinawa
Competencies
- Specialist skills
- Intercultural skills
- Communication skills
- Critical thinking skills
- Practical and/or problem-solving skills
Class flow
Concepts and issues in peace studies will be introduced at each lecture. Students are highly encouraged to participate in group discussions that are arranged according to the theme.
Course schedule/Objectives
| Course schedule | Objectives | |
|---|---|---|
| Class 1 | Introduction: peace, security and war | Understand the difference between peace and security, and the academic perspective of peace. |
| Class 2 | The definition of peace: negative peace and positive peace | Understand the basic concept of peace studies. |
| Class 3 | The absence of security: war between nation states, regional conflicts, terrorism and weapon proliferation | Recognize the approach to negative peace by understanding the basic concepts of war and the issues related to violence. |
| Class 4 | The absence of peace (1): human rights, human security, gender | Recognize the approach to positive peace by focusing on human-centered security. |
| Class 5 | The absence of peace (2): economic disparity, environment | Recognize the approach to positive peace by focusing on environmental and economic issues. |
| Class 6 | Mid-term exam (in-class) Case study (1): the background and facts of the battle of Okinawa | Understand the causes and results of the war through the concepts learned in the previous classes. |
| Class 7 | Case study: the battle of Okinawa and after | Understand the complexity of problems of a war by reconsidering the battle of Okinawa from various perspective. |
Study advice (preparation and review)
To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to course material and supplemental readings mentioned during the class.
Textbook(s)
None required.
Reference books, course materials, etc.
David P. Barash & Charles P. Webel, Peace and Conflict Studies, 5th edition, Sage, 2022.
Handouts for class will be available on T2SCHOLA.
Evaluation methods and criteria
Students' course scores are based on midterm exam (30%), final report (50%) and class participation (20%).
Related courses
- LAH.S426 ： Essence of Humanities and Social Sciences26:International Relations
Prerequisites
No prerequisites. Ability to discuss, read and write in English is necessary.
Other
Seven total classes will be held for this course: April 10 (Wed), April 17 (Wed), April 24 (Wed), May 1 (Wed), May 8 (Wed), May 15 (Wed), May 22 (Wed).
This course is 500-level course.
Tokyo Tech’s “wedge-shaped style education” enables students to pursue liberal arts education in a phased manner throughout undergraduate and graduate programs.
Students are encouraged to take 100-level to 600-level courses in order. As such, master’s students must begin Humanities and Social Science courses at the 400 level (in 1Q/2Q of the first year for those entering in April, and 3Q/4Q for those entering in September), then proceed to 500-level courses (in 3Q/4Q or later for those entering in April, and 1Q/2Q of the following year or later for those entering in September).