Paradoxes of War

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 two office-hours sessions.

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.