Arguing the OE, Episode 18: The Local Dynamics of War Class 14-01 Class Project - Introduction

This episode is the first of five episodes on the topic of causality in politics and war. In Episode 18, I preview four presentations by the students in the Scholars Seminar on the "Local Dynamics of War." At this stage, the students have focused their study on Ian Shapiro (The Flight from Reality in the Human Sciences), Craig Parsons (How to Map Arguments in Political Science), and William Connolly (The Fragility of Things). Each group has been asked to unpack a reading or series of readings in terms of two types of causation, IV-DV causal claims (i.e., independent variable, dependent variable) on the one hand and that causation that arises from the interaction of self-organizing systems on the other. Two of the presentations will explore Iraq in terms of the strategic decision to go to war and the planning and conduct of the war. A third presentation will explore the challenges attendant to the Afghanistan campaign. A fourth presentation will explore the current crisis in Syria. Do note that these are academic exercises, not public speeches. However, the students' work showcases how integrating the social sciences into our strategic and planning processes increases our granular understanding of the world and the rigor of our thinking.