The main focus of this course is addressing the challenge to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. A growing level of insecurity and armed violence is preventing desperately needed economic, social and political development (good governance), especially in fragile states emerging from conflict. As governments, NGOs and IGOs collaborate to solve this problem, several specific challenges or obstacles to development have emerged that fall under the umbrella concept of "Security, Justice and Development." They include: 1) the presence of anti-personnel landmines that deny the use of land and exact a humanitarian toll; 2) the negative effects of excessive proliferation, accumulation availability and misuse of small arms and light weapons; 3) the presence of corrupt and poorly trained and equipped security forces which requires security sector reform and governance; 4) the lack of human security - freedom from fear, injustice and want; 5) the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration (DDR) of former combatants, 6) the need for conflict prevention and resolution, and most recently 7) the need for the state to operate under the rule of law. All of these problems are major components of post-conflict reconstruction. Students will select one or more of these as the focus of a major research paper, in either a single country or a comparative context.