Introduction to International Politics: Professor Amy Freedman

Introduction to International Politics (POL2020.20)

Professor Amy Freedman

Office: Social Science Building #1030
Office Hours: After class, Mondays 2:15-3:30, Thursdays 11-12.
Spring 2007

Course Description

One of the fundamental problems in international politics is that countries want to cooperate but they have difficulty doing so because of "anarchy" (i.e. there is no central government) in the international arena. This course will begin by looking at how nations cope with anarchy and we will attempt to understand why conflict (or cooperation) occurs. We will try to understand the behavior of both nation-states and non-state actors. We will study different theoretical approaches to these questions and will then look at the outbreak of World War I, World War II, the Cold War, and the "war on terror" to see how well these approaches explain history and today's events. There is a brief section on nuclear deterrence and nuclear proliferation. The last part of the course turns to questions of international political economy and examines how well nations cooperate on matters of trade and the international distribution of wealth. To conclude the semester we will address different perspectives on the current (and future) state of world affairs.

Class time will be divided between lecture and discussion. Students should keep informed about world events and bring comments, insights and questions to class. Participation is a key element of the course and those that regularly have interesting and useful things to contribute will be well rewarded!

Books to purchase

1. Joseph S. Nye, Jr. Understanding International Conflicts 6th Edition (Addison Wesley Longman).
2. Vasquez. Classics of International Relations (optional to purchase)
3. America and The World. 2004 (Foreign Affairs and W.W. Norton).
4. Global Issues, Robert Jackson (ed.) 2006/2007. (NY: McGraw-Hill Duskin).

** Readings marked with ** are on electronic reserve.

Course Requirements:

• 2 papers: Each worth 20% of your final grade.
• 1 midterm exam: worth 20% of final grade
• Participation: 10%
• In-Class Exercises/Quizzes 5%
• Final exam: 25%

All assignments must be turned in to pass the course!

Papers: Please note, I take due dates very seriously. Late papers will be penalized 1/3 of a letter grade for each day outstanding. All students must do paper #1, based on the Persian Gulf crisis. You may then choose to write either paper #2 on nuclear deterrence vs. ballistic missile defense, or paper #3 on the future of international relations.

Midterm and Final tests: Each test will have elements of choice, for example you may be asked to answer 5 out of 7 short identifications, and/or 1 out of 2 essay questions.

Participation: i.e. asking questions, responding to the professor's questions, and demonstrating knowledge of readings assigned for the day and of current world events. Class is more interesting for everyone if people participate.

Attendance: This is a key element of the course. Attendance will be taken every class. There will be no penalty for the first 2 absences (excused or unexcused). After the first two absences, each additional absence will cause you to loose 3 points from your final grade. The only exception to this will be in the event of a prolonged and grave illness and a doctor's verification will be necessary. I should be notified as soon as possible if this should be taken into account.

HOW TO SUCCEED IN THIS COURSE — 10 EASY STEPS

1. Come to Class and Participate.
2. Do the Reading.
3. Take notes on what you read. You should get into the habit of taking notes on everything you read, including required texts. This works better than highlighting text in your book. It will be impossible to study for exams if, at the end of the semester, all you have are multicolored, highlighted passages in the texts.
4. Read critically. Note down questions on the readings that you would like to address in class and think critically about the author's sources and arguments.
5. Take notes in class.
6. Follow up on areas of interest. Read other sources besides the required texts. Check the footnotes and bibliographies in the main texts for further, specialized sources in your particular area of interest.
7. Ask questions if you're confused.
8. Refer to maps of the regions studied.
9. Keep up with current events. Read a major, national newspaper every day. The Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal are all excellent sources of information on the issues we're studying.
10. Keep an open mind to new ideas, approaches and ways of viewing the world.

Semester Outline

January 23th: Syllabus handed out, and Introduction to the Course.

Please purchase books and come prepared for January 30th!

January 30th: The fundamental problem of IR and perspectives on how nations relate to each other & problems of today

• Read the syllabus carefully, note due dates and assignments.
• Joseph Nye, Jr. Understanding International Conflicts (hereafter referred to as Nye) pp. 1-32.
• **Thucydides. "The Melian Dialogue" from Vasquez (ed.) Classics of International Relations (hereafter referred to as Vasquez), pp. 9-14. {Note: all readings from Vasquez are on electronic reserve within the file labeled "Vasquez"!}
• Bill McKibben "A Special Moment in History" in Global Issues, pp. 2-6; and and Thomas Friedman "It's a Flat World, After All", pp. 7-12; and please read TWO additional essays of interest to you from Global Issues: Jeffery Sachs, "Can Extreme Poverty be Eliminated?", James Fallows "Success without Victory", David Snyder "Five Meta-Trends Changing the World.", or Jared Diamond, "The Ends of the World as We Know Them."

February 6th: Realism/ neorealism — it is all about power and structure! Liberalism: Domestic Politics Matters!

• Nye, pp. 33-58.
• **Essays by Machiavelli, Hobbes, Morgenthau, and Waltz from Vasquez. Pp. 15-20; 219-222; 25-28; 307-314.
• **Essays by Woodrow Wilson in Vasquez; "The World Must be Made Safe for Democracy" and "The Fourteen Points" pp. 35-41.

February 13th: What Causes International Politics? Classical balance of power and 19th Century Europe, Preview of WWI

• Nye, pp. 59-69.
• **Grahham Allison and Morton Halperin. "Bureaucratic Politics: A Paradigm and some Policy Implications" in Vasquez, pp. 172-179.
• **Craig and George. 1990, Force and Statecraft: Diplomatic Problems of Our Time. (NY: Oxford University Press) pp. 17-48

**Short essay assignment #1 due NO LATER THAN 2:00pm in my box Thursday, Feb. 15th!

February 27th: World War I & WWII

• Nye, all of chapters 3 & 4, pp. 59-114
• **Carolyn Rhodes Pivotal Decisions pp. 1-63.
• Recommended: **Craig and George pp. 49-72, 87-196

March 6th: Finish World War II and Cold War, The Second Long Peace?

• Nye, Ch. 5 & 6 pp. 115-184.

March 13th: The post-Cold War world and The "War on Terror"

• Nye Chapter 6, just read pp. 185-203
• James Fallows, "Success Without Victory" in Global Issues, pps. 18-24 and Henry Munson, "Lifting the Veil: Understanding The Roots of Islamic Militancy", Peter Bergen and Alec Reynolds, "Blowback Revisited" and Mark Juergensmeyer, "Holy Orders: Religious Opposition to Modern States", all in Global Issues, pp. 141-151.
• Ladan Boroumand and Roya Boroumand "Terror, Islam and Democracy" in America and the World, pp. 299-319.

March 20th: Midterm Exam in Class

Please watch the film Doctor Strangelove, Logistics to follow!!

March 27th: Nuclear Weapons

• Nye reread pp. 139-156.
• **Herman Kahn "The 3 Types of Deterrence" and Alexander George and Richard Smoke "The Gap Between Deterrence Theory and Deterrence Policy" in Vasquez, pp. 319-327.
• A secret Soviet war plan from the mid-1960s: National Security Archive, "Situation No. 1.05.00 hrs. 20/4 (outline 3)," http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB14/
  doc18a.htm.
• **Scott Sagan and Kenneth Waltz. The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: a Debate read Chapters 1 & 2., pp. 1-91.
• Douglas Roche, "Our Greatest Threat: The Coming Nuclear Crisis" in Global Issues, pp. 137-140.
• Richard Betts, "The New Threat of Mass Destruction" in America and the World, pp. 348-363.

** Writing Assignment # 2 Due on Thursday, March 29th by 2pm in my box!!

SPRING BREAK

International Political Economy and the Post Cold War World

April 10th: Perspectives on Political Economy and Hegemonic Stability Theory

• **Robert O. Keohane "After Hegemony". pp. 353-362; Richard Rosecrance "A New Concert of Powers". Pp. 340-350; Immanuel Wallerstein "The Rise and Future Demise of the World Capitalist System" pp. 362-368. all in Vasquez.
• David Dollar and Aart Kraay "Spreading the Wealth", and Charles Kupchan "Life after Pax Americana" pp. 184-210 in America and the World.

April 17th: Interdependence & After Hegemony

• Nye chapter 7, pp. 204-232.
• Essays in Unit 4, part A in Global Issues: Please read essays by Peter Marber, Richard Florida, Moises Naim, and Walter Russell Mead, pp. 54-71 and pp. 82-86.

April 24th: Setting up the Future of World Politics

• Francis Fukyama, "The End of History" and Samuel Huntington "No Exit: The Errors of Endism" & "The Clash of Civilizations" and Fouad Ajami "The Summoning" in America and the World pp. 1-79. Marc Plattner "Liberalism and Democracy" and Dani Rodrik, "Sense and Nonsense in the Globalization Debate" in America and the World, pp. 154-183.
• Robert Baer, "The Fall of the House of Saud" in Global Issues, pp. 110-118.

May 1: Current areas in need of cooperation

• Jeffrey Kluger, "The Big Crunch", Honor Hsin, "Bittersweet Harvest: The Debate over Geneticaly Modified Crops", Anee Underwood and Jerry Adler, "Scary Strains" pp. 34-43; Lester Brown "Deflating the World's Bubble Economy", Tom Knudson "Shifting the Pain" pp. 44-51, and Muhammad Yunus "The Grameen Bank" pp. 179-182 all in Global Issues.

May 8th: And, back to the current conflict: what are the chances of cooperation and success?

• Nye, Chapter 9, pp. 269-285.
• Kofi Annan "Strategies for World Peace", The Economist, "Peace in Our Time", David Brown "Teamwork Urged on Bird Flu" pp. 152-159, and 163-164. And, Swanee Hunt and Cristina Posa "Women Waging Peace" pp. 191-193, all in Global Issues.
• **readings on ICC (International Criminal Court) and on problems in Darfur. (on electronic reserve under ICC Darfur)

Paper # 3 Due at the Beginning of class May 8th.

May 15th: Final Exam: 6:30-9:30pm

Writing Assignment #1

The Persian Gulf War

On electronic reserve you will find chapter 1 of Steven Yetiv's book The Persian Gulf Crisis (Westport, Ct: Greenwood Press) 1997, along with some of the front matter from the book. The goal of this assignment is to get you to think about the theoretical tools discussed in the first few classes (neo-realism and liberalism) and to apply them to an interesting historical event. Please also read Nye 185-200. You are also free to find a few articles from Lexis-Nexis or proquest about the Persian Gulf Crisis. I believe that you can do well on this essay without additional information, but you are welcome to find further material if you think it will help you.

General Instruction:
Essays are due NO LATER THAN 2:00pm Thursday, February 15th in my box. They should be between 3 and 5 pages long, double-spaced, with 1" margins. You should use material from the book and from other class readings to substantiate your answers. When using material from the readings you must properly document sources. Papers that do not cite sources correctly will be penalized 1/3 of a letter grade.

Citation Instructions:
You may use parenthetical citation, footnotes or endnotes, just be consistent throughout the paper. All papers must have an alphabetized bibliography at the end. Note, journal/newspaper articles and essays from edited volumes should appear in quotes, titles of newspapers, journals, and books should be italicized or underlined. You should always have a publication date for material.

Examples:

1. Parenthetical citation. Within the text of your paper you should have the author's last name, year of publication, and page number where the cited material can be found: (Doyle 1999:43). Then the full citation should appear in your bibliography: Doyle, Michael. "Liberalism and World Politics" in Council on Foreign Relations (ed.), 1999. The New Shape of World Politics, (NY:NY Foreign Affairs and W.W. Norton) pp. 39-66. Notice here that the author of the article is credited, not the editors of the book. Always give authors credit for their work!
2. Footnotes or endnotes. Within the text of your paper there should be a numerical note, then at the bottom of the page, or at the end of the paper, the full bibliographic information should appear. For example: Doyle, Michael. "Liberalism and World Politics" in Council on Foreign Relations (ed.), 1999. The New Shape of World Politics, (NY:NY Foreign Affairs and W.W. Norton) pp.43. If you refer to this article again in your paper it may appear in subsequent footnotes/endnotes in a slightly shortened form: Doyle, Michael. "Liberalis" p. 44.

You will be graded based on what you write and how well you write. Do not email, fax, put on the college server, or hand in a disk of your paper, only a hard copy will be accepted.

Question:

What does the Persian Gulf War tell you about why nations act they way they do in the international arena? In answering this question you should discuss 1 set of the following sub-questions:

1. The first set of subquestions is intended to get you to think about how domestic politics impacts how nations behave.

   1. Based on what you read in Yetiv's account, how do national security decisions seem to get made in the US?
   2. Do you think that the US' decision about intervening in the Persian Gulf was impacted by the fact that the US is a democracy? Why or why not?
   3. How might you imagine that Saddam's decision-making was similar to or different from the US'?

2. This set of subquestions is intended to make you focus on systemic factors for national behavior.

   1. How would neo-realists explain Iraq's take-over of Kuwait?
   2. How would neo-realists explain why the United States decides to intervene?
   3. Why does the US decide to take action only with the backing of the United Nations? How does neo-realism view this aspect of the US' behavior?

Writing Assignment #2:

Memo to President Bush
Deterrence vs. Defense

General Instructions:
Memos are due in my box by 2:00pm March 29th. They should be between 3 and 5 pages long, double-spaced with 1 inch margins. Use material from the assigned readings to substantiate your answers. When using material from the readings you must properly document sources. You may use any format, parenthetical citation with a bibliography, footnotes or endnotes, just be consistent throughout the paper. Papers that do not cite sources correctly will be penalized 1/2 of a letter grade. You will be graded based on what you write, as well as how your memo is crafted. Do not email, fax, put on the college server, or hand in a disk of your paper, only a hard copy will be accepted.

You have been hired to provide President Bush with additional arguments about how to best protect US national security. Should the US go ahead with missile defense or should we maintain our long-standing (and some would argue successful) strategy of nuclear deterrence and perhaps strengthen it by building a doomsday machine? In a brief 3-5 page memo explain what course of action President Bush should take. Do not assume that the President's mind is already made up! In the course of your memo make sure to address the following:

Question: Should the US go ahead with missile defense, or, should the US continue to rely on nuclear deterrence to keep the peace? Is there any reason that you would pursue a national security strategy based on both of these elements? Or, are both approaches are outdated?

If you are arguing for missile defense please answer the following additional questions:

1. One of the implications of deploying missile defense is that it seems that the US is saying that deterrence no long works. Why might this be true?
2. If the US deploys missile defense systems how is deterrence impacted?
3. Why have both our allies (Great Britain, Germany, France, etc.) and others (China, Russia) expressed their displeasure at creating this sort of defense system, yet acquiesced to the US decision to withdraw from the ABM treaty? How might you address their concerns?

If you are arguing that nuclear deterrence is the way to go, please answer the following additional questions:

1. What are the strengths of nuclear deterrence over ballistic missile defense?
2. If you believe that nuclear weapons helped keep the peace during the cold war, would you support the idea of creating a doomsday devise? Why or why not?
3. Would our allies support the creation of a doomsday devise?

If you are arguing that both nuclear deterrence and missile defense are misguided, then please answer the following additional questions:

1. What are the weaknesses of both nuclear deterrence and missile defense?
2. What would you propose to spend money on instead?
3. How would your proposal address US national security concerns?
4. What might be the domestic political implications of your recommendations?

Writing Assignment # 3

Due May 8, 2007, at the beginning of class.

General Instructions: Essays should be NO LONGER THAN 6 pages long, double-spaced with 1" margins. Substance and style both count. Do not email, fax, put on the college server, or hand in a disk of your paper. Only a hard copy of your essay will be accepted.

Remember to site sources correctly (see syllabus and assignment #1 for examples), if you do not site material properly you will be penalized 1/2 of a letter grade (5 points).

Using material from class, from current events, and from readings throughout the semester, please answer the following questions:

While the U.S. has been focused on Iraq and the "war on terror", the rest of the world has tried to forge ahead and deal with a diverse array of problems: from global warming to genocide in Darfur. Are the prospects for cooperation on international problems greater today than they were before September 11, 2001 or worse? Does your answer depend on what kind of international problem is at stake? To answer this question please address the following subquestions:

1. How would you characterize the distribution of power in the international system?
2. What kinds of international problems do you think are most likely to be solved in today's world?
3. What is your explanation for why these types of problems are "solvable"?
4. Does your answer draw more on neorealism, liberalism, or neoliberal institutionalism?
5. What "evidence" can you use to justify your answers?

Discussion Questions for the first class:

1. In your view what are some of the most pressing problems in international politics? Who are the actors involved in these problems?
2. In reading the essays in Global Issues and in thinking about the problems that you think are important in international politics, why are these issues confronting us in the year 2007? In other words, why, with the knowledge, technology, and historical lessons that we posses, have these problems not been solved?