Paradoxes of War
- Free
- No certificate
- 2 weeks
Paradoxes of War is Miguel Centeno's Princeton course arguing that war is not only a normal part of human existence but one of the most important factors in making us who we are: at once an expression of our basest nature and an exemplar of our most valued civilised virtues, and a constitutive part of how we cohere as groups. Its thirteen modules cover the nature of war, its causes, the experience of war, making warriors, the war of armies, the progress of battle, the war of societies, the social aspects of war in relation to the nation state and nationalism and to democracy, citizenship and social equality, the rise of the rest, new challenges and a final lecture, with recorded office-hours sessions inside the modules.
Coursera lists a flexible schedule and estimates two weeks at ten hours a week; no level is given. The page states that all the features of the course are available for free and that it does not offer a certificate, in line with Princeton policy.
What you’ll learn
- Explain competing accounts of the nature and causes of war
- Describe the experience of war and how societies make warriors
- Distinguish the war of armies from the war of societies
- Relate war to the nation state, nationalism, democracy and social equality
- Assess new challenges to the established powers
Who it’s for
Readers of history, sociology or international affairs who want a conceptual rather than battle-by-battle course on war.
Syllabus
13 sections as listed on coursera.org, 15 h 26 min in total.
- Introduction/Welcome 17 min
- The Nature of War 44 min
- The Causes of War 40 min
- The Experience of War 52 min
- Making Warriors 31 min
- The War of Armies 1 hour
- The Progress of Battle 2 h 45 min
- The War of Societies 1 h 38 min
- Social Aspects of War: Nation State and Nationalism 52 min
- Social Aspects of War: Democracy, Citizenship, and Social Equality 1 h 17 min
- The Rise of the Rest 1 h 28 min
- New Challenges 57 min
- Final Lecture 2 h 25 min
Instructor
- Miguel A. Centeno Musgrave Professor of Sociology and Professor of Sociology and International Affairs, Sociology, Princeton University
Course details
- Skills covered
- Social Impact
- Culture
- Sociology
- Psychology
- Political Sciences
- Includes
- 13 modules
- Subtitles
- 22 languages
On coursera.org
Rated 4.6 out of 5 by 727 learners; 86,870 enrolled, as shown on the course page on 20 Oct 2026. These are coursera.org’s own figures, not ours.
Source: Princeton Online (opens in a new tab) · Verified · Report a change
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