POLS 382 — Topics in Contemporary Security
Fall 2023: The Power of Protest in Global Politics
Instructor
Dr. Ches Thurber
414 Zulauf Hall
cthurber@niu.edu
Office Hours: M/W 9:30 - 11:00 am
Schedule an appointment
Teaching Assistant
Titik Firawati
Ph.D. Candidate (ABD)
tfirawati@niu.edu
What is this course about?
From the Arab Spring to Black Lives Matter, nonviolent resistance movements have proven capable of sparking tremendous political change. In some cases, they have toppled dictatorships and fostered democratic transitions. In others, they have sparked deadly violence. This course will explore the role of protest movements in global politics. We will ask questions, like:
- What constitutes “nonviolent” resistance?
- Is it effective? When? Why?
- Why do some nonviolent movements turn violent?
- What, if anything, can the international community do to help nonviolent movements succeed?
What will you learn in this course?
In this class, you will become familiar with major debates surrounding the practice of nonviolent, or “civil” resistance. You will learn about several important historical cases, as well as the ways in which social “scientists” have tried to analyze those cases to develop a more general understanding of how protest movements work and the impacts they have.
In the liberal arts tradition, I am interested not just in the topical knowledge you acquire, but the skills you develop that you will use in your professional careers and as engaged public citizens. We will work a lot on writing in this course. These won’t be long research theses. Instead, you will be crafting short, argumentative papers, like the ones you are likely to write in your future professional lives in business, law, or public policy. You will be doing some research and honing your research skills, but the emphasis will be on building logical arguments, and backing up those arguments with evidence.
How will the class run?
This will be a fully asychronous online class. Content for each week will be made available on Blackboard Friday evening and assignments will generally be due 10 days later: Sunday at midnight. Our weekly routine will involve reading some texts, watching some lecture videos, completing a short online quiz, and posting 3 times to the class discussion board.
How can you contact me?
Please feel free to email me or the course teaching assistant, Titik Firawati, at any time. We will try to respond within about 24 hours during the week. I will be holding office hours on Mondays and Tuesdays between 9:30 and 11:00. I strongly encourage you to take advantage of this; since we don’t have class in person, this is the best chance I have to get to know you! Sign up for an appointment at this link. Enter your NIU email address and Calendly will automatically set up a Teams meeting for the two of us at the time that you selected.
What Materials Do You Need?
All readings for this course will be posted on Blackboard or made accessible online through the NIU library. We will read a lot from two texts in particularly, both of which are available in electronic version through the library. These are:
- Erica Chenoweth and Maria Stephan, Why Civil Resistance Works: The Strategic Logic of Nonviolent Conflict. New York: Columbia University Press, 2011.
- Adam Roberts and Timothy Garton-Ash, eds. Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009.
While you do not need to buy any textbooks for this course, students will be asked to sign up for the online service Packback which costs $49. A passcode can be purchased from the NIU bookstore, allowing costs to be covered by scholarships or financial aid, if applicable. If this does not apply to you, you can instead pay online directly through Packback.
What is Packback?!?
We will be using an online suite of learning services called “Packback.” We will primarily be using Packback in two ways: 1) As a discussion board with weekly posting requirements, and 2) as a mechanism for writing and submitting your papers. The advantage of Packback is that it provides greater opportunities for engagement and feedback, especially in the context of an online asynchonous class.
The disadvantage of Packback is that it will cost you money. I take this drawback seriously and am assigning Packback this year only after getting very positive reviews from students who used it with me in in classes over the past three years.
By midnight every Sunday, you will be required to post THREE times on the Packback discussion board. In one post you will pose a question for your classmates. In the other two you will respond to questions your classmates or I have posed.
We will also be using Packback as the mechanism for submitting the four papers you will be writing over the semester. This is a new Packback feature, which they are calling “Deep Dives.” Think of it like an advanced version of Grammarly for college writing. You write your paper directly in Packback, or you can copy and paste your paper from another word processor if you prefer. Packback will help you spot grammatical issues, make stylistic suggestions, and assist you with citations. My goal is that by Packback assisting with these elements, 1) you will be able to make grammatical and citation corrections before you submit your paper, thus earning a higher grade; 2) I will be able to focus my feedback on the substance of what you have written. Again, I used this in my international security class last fall and have decided to use it again based on the strong positive feedback of former students.
Evaluation
Discussion Board Posts (25%): For each week of the course, there will be an online discussion board. Students are expected to contribute at least one post of 200 words in length each week, by midnight on Sunday.
Reading Quizzes (10%): For each week of the course, there will be an online multiple choice quiz on the readings and video lectures. Students will be able to re-take the quiz one time. Quizzes must be complete by midnight on Sunday.
Writing Assignments: (3 x 15%) You will complete three short writing assignments over the course of the semester. Each assignment should be between 600 and 800 words in length. You will pick a case of a civil resistance from around the world and become an expert on that case. The first assignment will as for a brief overview of the case, while the second and third will analyze key concepts introduced in the course. The writing assignments are due at 5pm on Friday afternoons as indicated in the course schedule below.
Final Video: (15%) During the last week of class, you will create a 5-10 minute video presentation describing the case you studied over the semester and the lessons you drew from it. Alternative modes of presentation are welcome with approval of instructor.
Video Comments: (5%) During the exam week, you will write comments on the videos of 4-6 classmates.
What should you do if you are falling behind?
While it is extremely important that you stick to the weekly schedule of this class, I recognize that stuff happens. The most important thing is that you communicate with me about your needs. I respect your privacy and will never ask you for personal details of your situation.
If you think you need to delay submitting a written assignment, please talk to me in advance, if possible, and I will try to be accommodating. Any missed exam or written assignment submitted after the deadline without prior authorization will incur a penalty. If you do miss an assignment, still reach out and we will come up with a plan for getting you back on track. There will be a late penalty, but it will be far better than failing to turn in an assignment altogether.
Letter Grade Distribution
| Percentage | Letter Grade |
|---|---|
| > 93.00 | A |
| 90.00 - 92.99 | A- |
| 87.00-89.99 | B+ |
| 83.00 - 86.99 | B |
| 80.00 - 82.99 | B- |
| 77.00-79.99 | C+ |
| 70.00 - 76.99 | C |
| 60.00 - 69.99 | D |
| < 60.00 | F |
Course Policies
Commited to your success: Beyond all else, I am committed to all of your success in this class. I encourage everyone in the class to reach out to me if there is anything I can do in terms of the delivery of the course that would help you be more successful. I might not always be able to make it happen, but I will never discourage you from asking. For example, our use of YouTube’s transcript feature for lecture videos, and the Sunday (as opposed to Friday) deadline, are all the result of prior year student requests.
Names and Pronouns: I ask that my undergraduate students refer to me as either Dr. or Professor Thurber. I’m just old-school that way. I usually use the he/him/this pronouns to refer to myself, but am equally comfortable being referred to with they/them/their. Please let me know how you prefer to be addressed, both in name and pronoun, especially if it differs from what is in the college directory. I will make every effort to address you in the way you wish to be addressed. Please try and do the same for your fellow classmates, as well as for other faculty in the department.
Americans with Disabilities Act and Non-Discrimination Statement: If you need an accommodation for this class, please contact the Disability Resource Center as soon as possible. The DRC coordinates accommodations for students with disabilities. It is located on the 4th floor of the Health Services Building, and can be reached at 815-753-1303 or drc@niu.edu. Also, please contact me privately as soon as possible so we can discuss your accommodations. Please note that you will not be required to disclose your disability, only your accommodations. The sooner you let me know your needs, the sooner I can assist you in achieving your learning goals in this course.
Mental Health and Well-being: I understand that college students may experience a range of academic, social, and personal stressors, which can be overwhelming. You are not alone. Well-being at NIU offers resources, programs, and services. If you or someone you know need assistance with comprehensive or crisis mental health support, Counseling and Consultation Services (CCS) at 815-753-1206 is ready to help 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Additionally, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline can be reached at 988.
Academic Integrity: Good academic work must be based on honesty. The attempt of any student to present as his or her own work that which he or she has not produced is regarded by the faculty and administration as a serious offense. Students are considered to have cheated if they copy the work of another during an examination or turn in a paper or an assignment written, in whole or in part, by someone else. Students are guilty of plagiarism, intentional or not, if they copy material from books, magazines, or other sources without identifying and acknowledging those sources or if they paraphrase ideas from such sources without acknowledging them. Students guilty of, or assisting others in, either cheating or plagiarism on an assignment, quiz, or examination may receive a grade of F for the course involved and may be suspended or dismissed from the university.
This is an issue I take seriously. Unfortuntely it has increasingly become an issue in my courses. The creation of one’s own original work is the core of what a university education is all about. Falsely claiming credit for words or ideas that are not your own undermines that core. I will use software that tracks plagiarism as well as for similarities with classmates’ or even your own prior work. When work looks suspicious, I will often use additional measures to identify the original sources of plagiarized text. In this course, academic dishonest will always result in an F on the assignment and a formal misconduct report filed with the university. The recommendation I make in that report (e.g. failure from the course, suspension, expulsion from the university) will depend on the circumstance.
Artificial Intelligence: The use of AI tools such as ChatGPT is not prohibited in this course. However, I highly discourage their use. No doubt, AI will be an important tool for you in the future, and learning it well will be an important skill to acquire. I am not in a position yet to be able to help teach you how best to use AI as a tool because I’m still figuring it out for myself. As of now, I see two major problems: a) AI tools are still very flawed, and you have not yet developed the expertise to decipher when they are producing fraudulent content; and b) I fear that relying on them at this stage of your studies will impede your development of key research and writing skills that you will need to be successful. So with this in mind, I am not banning it per se – there’s no penalty for using AI – but you are responsible for the substance of what you submit. If ChatGPT generates incorrect facts, false references, or even plagiarizes, and you use that content in your assignment, you will be penalized just as you would for such infractions without the assistance of AI.
Class Schedule
Students are expected to read the listed readings before the indicated class session.
| Topic: | Posted | Due | Assignments |
|---|---|---|---|
Week 1: What is Civil Resistance? Case Study: The American Revolution |
Aug. 25 | Sept. 3 |
|
Week 2: Nonviolence as a Moral Philosophy Case Study: Indian Independence |
Sept. 1 | Sept. 10 |
|
Week 3: Nonviolence as a Strategy Case Study: Philippine People Power |
Sept. 8 | Sept. 17 |
|
| Week 4: Paper Week | Sept. 15 | Sept. 24 | Paper #1 |
Week 5: The Primacy of Mass Participation Case Study: The Iranian Revolution |
Sept. 22 | Oct. 1 |
|
Week 6: The Problem of Repression Case Study: Tiananmen Square |
Sept. 29 | Oct. 8 |
|
Week 7: The Dynamics of Backfire Case Study: Chile |
Oct. 6 | Oct. 15 |
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| Week 8: Paper Week | Oct. 13 | Oct. 22 |
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Week 9: Choosing or Rejecting Nonviolence Case Study: Nepal’s Maoists |
Oct. 20 | Oct. 29 |
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Week 10: Nonviolent Discipline and Radical Flanks Case Study: The Struggle Against Apartheid in South Africa |
Oct. 27 | Nov. 5 |
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Week 11: Race, Ethnicity, and Civil Resistance Case Study: Palestinian Liberation Movement |
Nov. 3. | Nov. 12 |
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| Week 12: Paper Week | Nov. 10 | Nov. 19 |
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| Week 13: Thanksgiving Holiday | No work this week! | ||
Week 14: International Support for Movements Case Study: TBD |
Nov. 24 | Dec. 3 |
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| Week 15: Final Video Project | Dec. 1 | Dec. 10 |
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| Finals Week: | Dec. 10 | Dec. 17 |
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