Course Syllabus

Peace & Turmoil in the Modern World

Faculty

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General Education Requirements

Humanistic Perspectives

Note

Many degree programs have specific general education recommendations. In order to avoid taking unnecessary classes, please consult with additional resources like your program evaluation, your academic program catalog year page, and your academic advisor.

Courses may only be used to meet one General Education Requirement.

Course Description

This course examines the successes and failures of peace by identifying how and why wars have begun, considering the cultural environment of various wars, and through studying the roles individuals, organizations, and nations play in creating conditions for war and peace.

Essential Objectives

1. Identify various types of wars including coups, revolutions, ethnic wars, civil wars, economic and ideological wars, world wars, and "cold war."
2. Define the terms nationalism, militarism, imperialism, and ideology, and recognize how each has contributed to cycles of war.
3. Describe the relationship between technology and war.
4. Explain the human, social, economic, political, and environmental effects of war.
5. Discuss outbreaks of war in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, South America, Latin America, and Europe in terms of their root causes.
6. Describe how specific individuals, religious groups, organizations, and nations have objected to war.
7. Identify individual and collaborative attempts to promote, create, and maintain peace; and evaluate their effectiveness.
8. Examine Gandhi's non-violent resistance satyagraha movement.

Required Technology

More information on general computer and internet recommendations is available on the CCV computer recommendations Support page.

Please see CCV's Digital Equity Statement (pg. 45) to learn more about CCV's commitment to supporting all students access the technology they need to successfully finish their courses.

Required Textbooks and Resources

This course uses one or more textbooks/books/simulations.

Fall 2025 textbook details will be available on 2025-05-19. On that date a link will be available below that will take you to eCampus, CCV's bookstore. The information provided there will be specific to this class. Please see this page for more information regarding the purchase of textbooks/books.

Link to Textbooks for this course in eCampus.

The last day to use a Financial Aid Advance to purchase textbooks/books is the 3rd Tuesday of the semester. See your financial aid counselor at your academic center if you have any questions.

Methods

Methods:

• Weekly Discussion assignments

• Weekly Diary assignments

• Midterm and Final paper assignments

Evaluation Criteria

Evaluation Criteria:

I will be grading your work based on a point system. This will consider your responses to my weekly Discussion Group questions and the discussions with your classmates, your Diary entries, and your mid-term and final papers. The total point breakdown looks like this:

• Responses to Discussion assignment questions and responses to your classmates: 30

points

• Responses to Diary assignments: 30 points

• Midterm paper: 20 points

• Final paper: 20 points

Grading Criteria:

A+ through A-: For any work to receive an "A," it must clearly be exceptional or outstanding work. It must demonstrate keen insight and original thinking. It must not only demonstrate full understanding of the topic or issues addressed, but it must also provide a critical analysis of these. In addition, an "A" grade reflects a student's ability to articulate clearly and thoughtfully his or her learning.

B+ through B-: For any work to receive a "B," it must be good to excellent work. It must demonstrate strong originality, comprehension, critical thinking, and attention to detail. In addition, a "B" grade reflects a student's ability to clearly articulate his or her learning.

C+ through C-: For any work to receive a "C," it must meet the expectations of the assignment. It must demonstrate solid comprehension, critical thinking, and attention to detail. In addition, a "C" grade reflects a student's ability to adequately articulate his or her learning.

D+ through D-: For any work to receive a "D," it must marginally meet the expectations of the assignment. It demonstrates minimal comprehension, critical thinking, and attention to detail. In addition, a "D" grade may reflect a student's difficulty in articulating his or her learning.

F: Work that receives an "F" grade does not meet the expectations or objectives of the assignment. It demonstrates consistent problems with comprehension, organization, critical thinking, and supporting details. In addition, an "F" grade reflects a student's inability to articulate his or her learning. Students are strongly urged to discuss this grade with their instructor and advisor.

P: indicates satisfactory completion of course objectives (C- or better).

NP: indicates failure to meet course objectives and/or failure to meet grading criteria for successful completion as described in the instructor's course description.

Grading Criteria

CCV Letter Grades as outlined in the Evaluation System Policy are assigned according to the following chart:

	High	Low
A+	100	98
A	Less than 98	93
A-	Less than 93	90
B+	Less than 90	88
B	Less than 88	83
B-	Less than 83	80
C+	Less than 80	78
C	Less than 78	73
C-	Less than 73	70
D+	Less than 70	68
D	Less than 68	63
D-	Less than 63	60
F	Less than 60
P	100	60
NP	Less than 60	0

Weekly Schedule

Attendance Policy

Regular attendance and participation in classes are essential for success in and are completion requirements for courses at CCV. A student's failure to meet attendance requirements as specified in course descriptions will normally result in a non-satisfactory grade.

• In general, missing more than 20% of a course due to absences, lateness or early departures may jeopardize a student's ability to earn a satisfactory final grade.
• Attending an on-ground or synchronous course means a student appeared in the live classroom for at least a meaningful portion of a given class meeting. Attending an online course means a student posted a discussion forum response, completed a quiz or attempted some other academically required activity. Simply viewing a course item or module does not count as attendance.
• Meeting the minimum attendance requirement for a course does not mean a student has satisfied the academic requirements for participation, which require students to go above and beyond simply attending a portion of the class. Faculty members will individually determine what constitutes participation in each course they teach and explain in their course descriptions how participation factors into a student's final grade.

Participation Expectations

Structure

For this class, our academic week will start on Tuesday and run through the following Monday. Each week you will have reading in both your text book, Why Nations go to War, by John G. Stoessinger, and two discussion forum assignments. Typically, you will begin by posting a response to a question I pose. You will read the responses posted by your classmates in the next phase and respond to one or more of their posts. Your final post of the week is a "Diary" entry, which lets you present your learning in a more creative, less formal format.

Missing & Late Work Policy

Attendance Policy:

Consistent and informed participation in the weekly discussion & diary forums of this class and timely submission of your midterm and final papers are completion requirements for courses at CCV. Please be aware that missing more than three (3) discussion & diary assignments will result in a non-satisfactory grade. If you anticipate that life circumstances may cause you to miss an upcoming assignment, please communicate with me immediately so we may consider alternative means for you to complete the necessary assignments.

Faculty Contact Information:

Email Address: david.white@ccv.edu

Note: Never hesitate in contacting me if you have any questions. You can reach me at my e-mail address above or by telephone at (802) 839-9896.

Accessibility Services for Students with Disabilities:

1. Provide disability documentation to the Accessibility Coordinator at your academic center. https://ccv.edu/discover-resources/students-with-disabilities/
2. Request an appointment to meet with accessibility coordinator to discuss your request and create an accommodation plan.
3. Once created, students will share the accommodation plan with faculty. Please note, faculty cannot make disability accommodations outside of this process.

Academic Integrity

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