War and peace are two intermittent outcomes of the continuous and dynamic nature of social interactions in world politics. In turn, these social events are connected by social conflicts that may, or may not degenerate into a crisis situation and war. Thus, this course will explore the genesis of social conflicts, their possible resolution, or their ultimate degeneration into crisis and war. Since the conflict-crisis-war cycle is born out and nurtured during times of “peace,” we will focus on that tract of time in order to understand the nature of social conflicts, the evolution into crisis, and the conditions for their potential resolution and/or degeneration into mass violence. Accordingly, this course will survey different definitions of conflict, security, stability, peace, war and their significance in both historical and contemporary perspectives. It will explore the causes of mass violence (war) and interstate peace and their gradations in the international state system. It will review the basic literature on military strategy and its relation to the onset and evolution of international crises, war, and peace. It will discuss major philosophical works on the notions of conflict, security, violence, war, and peace among state actors. This course’s main unit of analysis is the state and the state system.