Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (VU) • Peace and Conflict Studies

These are my full lecture notes for Political Violence and the Human Condition at the VU, and they helped me a lot throughout the course. I ended up with an 8.5 for the final assignment.They cover everything, from Arendt’s banality of evil and Milgram’s obedience studies, to the role of ideology, group dynamics, and intergenerational trauma. You’ll also find detailed notes on major case studies like Rwanda, Srebrenica, the Khmer Rouge, and the My Lai Massacre, along with frameworks like tr...

This is the full assignment set I submitted for Political Violence and the Human Condition at the VU, which got me an 8.5. It includes two polished essays: one on intergenerational trauma in a refugee family using Berckmoes’ framework, and another analysing the Islamic State’s ideology through Sykes and Matza’s neutralisation techniques. Each essay is grounded in real case studies and packed with theory, citations, and academic analysis. Super useful if you’re working on your own assignm...

This is the practice exam I created for the Philosophy and the Ethics of Political Violence course at the VU, which helped me prep and score an 8.0 on the actual exam. It includes realistic, in-depth essay questions and answers that cover the full range of key thinkers and theories, Hobbes vs. Rousseau on violence, Pinker, Fukuyama, Huntington, Butler, Tutu, Fanon, and more. The answers are structured and detailed, showing how to bring theory into real-world examples like Israel-Palestine, Rwand...

This is my full set of literature notes for Philosophy and the Ethics of Political Violence, part of the Peace and Conflict Studies minor at the VU. These helped me score an 8 on the exam and saved me a ton of time. They cover all the core readings and ideas — from Just War thinkers like Augustine, Aquinas, and Walzer to critiques from Butler, Pinker, and Galtung. There’s also lots of helpful context around religious views on violence, structural violence, and ethical perspectives on humanit...

These are my complete lecture notes for the course Philosophy and the Ethics of Political Violence from the Peace and Conflict Studies minor at the VU. I used them to score an 8 on the exam. The notes break down key philosophical debates around war, terrorism, and peace, covering everything from Just War Theory and pacifism to civil resistance, human nature, religious violence, and the ethics of nonviolence. The concepts are clearly explained and connected to real-world cases like Rwanda, Kosovo...

This is the practice essay exam I made for Peace and Conflict: From Theory to Practice at the VU. It’s full of realistic questions and in-depth sample answers that helped me prep for the actual exam (I got an 8.0). The answers go into key ideas like structural and cultural violence, liberal peace critiques, intersectionality in peacebuilding, and case studies like Srebrenica. Great if you’re unsure how to structure your responses or want to review key theories in action. It’s a super helpf...

These are my complete lecture notes from the course Peace and Conflict: From Theory to Practice at the VU. I used them to score an 8.0 on the exam, and they cover everything clearly and thoroughly, from old vs. new wars, Johan Galtung’s theories, and structural violence to realism, liberalism, feminist and Marxist peace perspectives. They're packed with definitions, breakdowns of theoretical approaches, key thinkers, and real-world examples. Super useful if you’re looking to stay on top o...

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This is the practice exam I made for Law & Politics of Peace and Conflict at the VU, and it really helped me prepare. I ended up scoring an 8.5 for the course. The questions are super similar to the real exam style, with full written answers that break down key topics like the League of Nations, the UN Charter, collective security, just war theory, and more. It's great for checking what you actually understand, seeing how to structure your answers, and getting familiar with the kinds of thing...

These are my full lecture notes from the Law & Politics of Peace and Conflict course at the VU, and they helped me score an 8.5 in the course. They cover all the key content from class, from the foundations of international law and just war theory to deep dives into colonial warfare, the Dum-Dum bullet, the League of Nations, the UN Charter, and the peace movement. Everything’s explained clearly, with loads of context, and organized in a way that makes the concepts easier to wrap your head aro...

This is my full set of literature notes for the Law & Politics of Peace and Conflict course at the VU, and they definitely helped me get my 8.5. These notes break down all the important readings, Wagner, Anghie, Hathaway & Shapiro, and more, in a way that’s straightforward and easy to follow. They cover everything from colonial violence and settler colonialism to the evolution of international law and the outlawing of war. Great for making sense of heavy theory, writing papers, or prepping for...

This is a full set of literature notes for the Conflict & Peacebuilding course in the Peace and Conflict Studies minor at the VU. I got an 8.5 for the course, and these notes definitely helped. They summarize core readings like Anthias on intersectionality, Eriksen on identity and ethnicity, Walton on Burman privilege, and Parlevliet on human rights and conflict transformation. Everything’s written clearly, with key terms explained and big ideas laid out in simple language. Super useful for es...

These are my full lecture notes for Conflict and Peacebuilding, taken during the VU Minor in Peace and Conflict Studies. I used these to score an 8.5, and they really helped bring clarity to some of the more dense material. They cover key topics like forgiveness politics in South Africa, nationalism and trauma, conflict in Myanmar, intersectionality, religious peacebuilding in Colombia, and more. Everything is broken down in an understandable, structured way, perfect if you want to follow along ...

Summary of the following literatures: 1. Rethinking Conflict Transformation from a Human Rights Perspective (Michelle Parlevliet) 2. Social Identity Complexity and a Politics of Forgiveness among Black and White South Africans (Dion A. Forster) 3. The Afterlife of Apartheid: A Triadic Temporality of Trauma (Pumla Gobodo-Madikizela) This document covers key insights on conflict transformation, human rights, and post-apartheid trauma: 1. Explores the link between human rights and confli...

Summary of the following literature: 1. Donor-Driven Justice and its Discontents: Rwanda (Barbara Oomen) - Examines how international donors shaped Rwanda’s post-genocide justice system, including the ICTR and Gacaca courts - Analyzes the risks of external influence, including inefficiencies, political manipulation, and "victor’s justice" - Explores how the Rwandan government used justice mechanisms to consolidate power and suppress dissent - Discusses the limits of legal ...

Summary of the following literature: 1. The ICC, Uganda and the LRA: Re-Framing the Debate (Janine Natalya Clark) - Analyzes the ICC’s role in Uganda’s conflict with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and its impact on peace efforts - Examines debates on justice vs. peace, ICC indictments, and Uganda’s Amnesty Act - Explores tensions between international criminal justice and Acholi traditional justice mechanisms like mato oput - Discusses whether the ICC should withdraw arres...

Summary of the following literatures: 1. Beyond the purview of of International Criminal Judgments (Barrie Sander, 2021) - Examines the limitations of international criminal courts in addressing systemic causes of mass atrocities - Analyzes overlooked factors like structural violence, slow violence, and the role of colonialism and financial institutions - Explores international interventions, peacekeeping failures, and the marginalization of bystanders and resistors - Discusses the...

Summary of the following literatures: 1. What's to come is more complicated: feminist visions of peace in Colombia (Paarlberg-Kvam, K., 2019) 2. Decolonial and Intercultural Peace(s) for Building Peace in Colombia (Vásquez-Arenas, 2018) - Examines feminist visions of peace in Colombia, challenging militarism, patriarchy, and neoliberalism - Analyzes women’s peace networks, including Movimiento Social de Mujeres, Ruta Pacífica, and Red de Mujeres del Caribe - Explores themes of...

Summary of the following literatures: 1. Doing Things Differently: Mediating in Mozambique (Turner, C. & J. Palmiano-Federer, 2024) 2. Mozambique: A Classic Case of Mediation in Modern Times (Sanghrajka, N., 2024) - Examines Mozambique’s peace process from 1992 to 2024, culminating in the Maputo Accord - Analyzes mediation strategies, including peace listening, trust-building, and progressive implementation - Highlights key actors, DDR efforts, and the role of local vs. internationa...

Summary of the following literatures: 1. The cross-generational transmission of trauma: ritual and emotion among survivors of the Holocaust, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography (Jacobs, J., 2011) 2. Closing a gap in conflict transformation: Understanding collective and transgenerational trauma (König, U. & Reimann, C., 2018) - Examines how trauma is passed across generations in conflict-affected societies - Explores religious nationalism, identity formation, and collective memory in su...