Books:
Hook, Stephen W. U.S. Foreign Policy: the Paradox of World Power, current edition.
Bennett, Andrew, and George Shambaugh, ed. Taking Sides: Clashing Views on
Controversial
Issues in American Foreign Policy,
current edition.
Grade Breakdown:
Course Content:
Test 1 10% Test 2 15% Test 3 (final exam) 20% Memos to the President (5 out of 21) 25% Issue Analysis Paper 25% Participation 5% TOTAL 100%
FOUNDATIONS OF U.S. FOREIGN POLICY
Making Our Way in an Uncertain World
-World politics with one
superpower
-American national interests
today
The Rise of a Superpower
-How independence bred isolationism
-America awakes: the world
wars
-Classic Cold War containment, 1945-1964
The Superpower Matures
-The
lessons of Vietnam
-Nixon & Reagan: the last Cold
Warriors
-The 1990s: foreign policy
paradigms in the New World Order
September 11, 2001: Disaster Brings New Resolve
-What happened and why
-Launching and conducting
a War on Terror
-What policymakers (should
have) learned
FOREIGN POLICY ACTORS AND THEIR ARTS
How to Make Foreign Policy in a Free Society
-Adopting a worldview: realism, idealism, etc.
-Government efficiency v.
democracy
President v. Congress: Who's in Charge of Foreign Policy?
-The White House team and
its grip on policy initiation
-Congress: the power of
purse--and investigation
-Listening to the public,
stonewalling the media
Actually, Bureaucrats are in Charge!
-The growth of foreign policy
administration
-Diplomacy v. military
assertiveness
-Implementing the USA PATRIOT Act
of 2001 and the Homeland Security Act
of 2002
Organizations: Working from the Inside and the Outside
-NGOs: lobbying and leading by
example
-IGOs and alliances: shaping the
policy context
-The future of the U.S. in the U.N.
FOREIGN POLICY DOMAINS
Security and Defense: Fighting for What's Right
-Grand strategy or self-interested
reaction?
-Burying diplomacy in a military age
-Threats all around: terrorism, WMD,
etc.
-What we are trying to accomplish in
Iraq
Economic Relations: Giving to Get
-Trade policy and its backlash
-Aid and development: why (not) help?
-The strings we tie to aid
Other
Opportunities, Other Challenges
-Environmental policy in an age of
profound energy consumption
-Weapons trade: WMD and small arms
-Can the U.S. truly promote democracy
in the world?