American Foreign Policy

Graduate Seminar

Dr. David Lorenzo

Office: 271305

Phone: 2939-3091 ext. 51305

Overview:

This seminar will prepare students to conduct advanced research in topics in American Foreign Policy (AFP). It will cover the theoretical basics of AFP scholarship and explore some recent topics in AFP through an examination of article-based, generally recent scholarship.

Assignments:

Students will be responsible for the following:

Reading the assignment materials and participating in general discussions
Leading discussions on particular articles when assigned
Two six page assessments and critiques of articles
Submission of a preliminary literature review for their paper
A final (15 page MA /20 page PhD) paper

Classes:

Classes will be conducted as seminars. This means that I will only lecture for a small portion of the class time. The rest of the time will be spent either as a class or in small groups in discussing the reading material that has been assigned.

Each class period I will assign students to lead the discussion on each of the articles that will be assigned for the next class period. Students so assigned should do the reading with special care such that they can present a short summary of the argument of the article and provide a list of discussion questions for the class.

Materials:

All materials will be available either online in pdf files, or through copies that I will provide. For those who want or need a history of American foreign policy, there are many histories available, including the documentary histories and textbook prepared by Thomas Paterson (e.g., American Foreign Relations). For a quick, dirty and generally reliable timeline the Wikipedia entry ( is a convenient place to start, but of course is not suitable as a scholarly source of evidence or data.

Grades:

Short papers: 25% each

Final paper: 40%

Participation: 10%

Papers

Participants will submit the following:

During the classes on the 7th and 12th weeks:

A five page paper analyzing and assessing the arguments of two related articles we have read. These papers should: clearly identify the articles; shortly summarize the argument of each; assess and critique the argument of each in terms of logical consistency, use of evidence and data, and theoretical power: then discuss the relevance and importance of each.

During the class of the 15th week:

A three page review of the literature on the subject of your final paper. This review shall identify relevant articles and books, discuss their relationship with the question posed by the paper, and assess the state of the scholarship at present bearing on the question posed.

Final:

On the day scheduled for the final exam submit the final paper. This paper will, building upon the literature review, data, and theoretical position you build, explore a question implicated in the study of American foreign policy. Your paper must clearly:

Identify the question you pose
Discuss that question in light of the literature review you create
Identify the methodology and evidence you will utilize
Answer the question
Discuss the importance and relevance of your answer
Discuss the importance and relevance of your answer both generally and in light of your literature review.

Grading Scale:

A: 100-90: Excellent work—generates several interesting insights and displays a sure grasp of the material

B: 89-80: Good, above average work—sometimes generates interesting insights and displays a solid grasp of the material

C: 79-70: Average work—displays a competent grasp of the material

D: 69-60: Below average work—displays a grasp of the material that is sometimes deficient

F: 59- : Unacceptable work: displays a poor grasp of the material

Other important sources:

The Heritage Foundation ( A conservative think tank

Council on Foreign Relations ( a liberal to centrist think tank

The Center for Strategic and International Studies ( a right of center

think tank

The Brookings Institute ( a liberal think tank

RAND Corporation ( the original think tank

Carnegie Council on Ethics and International Affairs ( a

centrist think tank

The American Enterprise Institute ( a conservative think tank

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace ( a centrist think tank

State Department (

The Defense Department (

House Committee on International Relations

(

House Armed Services Committee (

House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (

House Select Committee on Homeland Security (

Senate Foreign Relations Committee (

Senate Armed Services Committee (

Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (

Central Intelligence Agency (

National Security Agency (

Voice of America (

Republican Party (

Democratic Party (

Archive of Docs Related to the Cold War (

Course Schedule and Readings

Week of February 17: Introduction and Overview

W.Y. Smith, "Principles of US Grand Strategy: Past and Future", The Washington Quarterly, Spring 1991

Week of February 24: Realism as an American Strategy

Michael Mastanduno, “Preserving the Unipolar Moment: Realist Theories and U.S. Grand Strategy after the Cold War,” International Security, Vol. 21, No. 4 (Spring, 1997)

John C. Whitehead, “Principled realism: a foundation for U.S. foreign policy,” US Department of State Bulletin, June, 1988, at

J. Mearsheimer, “Hans Morgenthau and the Iraq war: realism versus neo-conservatism,”

Sebastian Rosato and John Schuessler, “A Realist Foreign Policy for the United States,”Perspectives on Politics, Volume 9, Issue 04, December 2011

Week of March 3: Liberal Internationalism as an American Strategy

Woodrow Wilson, League of Nations Speech, 25 September, 1919, at

Woodrow Wilson, “Fourteen Points Speech, 8 January, 1918, at

G. John Ikenberry, “America’s Liberal Grand Strategy: Democracy and National Security in the Post-War Era,”in G. Ikenberry, American Foreign Policy: Theoretical Essays.

Samuel P. Huntington, “American Ideals vs. American Institutions,” Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 97, No. 1 (Spring 1982).

Week of March 10: Economic and BureaucraticExplanations

Jeff Frieden, “Sectoral Conflict and U.S. Foreign Economic Policy,” International Organization 42, No. 1 (Winter 1988), pp. 59-90

Robert Hunter Wade, “The Invisible Hand of the American Empire,” Ethics and International Affairs 17, No. 2 (Nov. 2003), pp. 77-88 (xerox)

Immanuel Wallerstein, “The Eagle Has Crash Landed,”Foreign Policy, No. 131 (Jul. - Aug., 2002), pp. 60-68

Daniel W. Drezner, “Ideas, Bureaucratic Politics, and the Crafting of Foreign Policy,” American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 44, No. 4 (Oct., 2000), pp. 733-749

Stephen D. Crasner, “Are Bureaucracies Important? (Or Allison Wonderland),” Foreign Policy 7 (Summer 1972), pp. 159-179 (Xerox)

Bert Rockman, “America’s Departments of State: Irregular and Regular Syndromes of Policy Making,” American Political Science Review,Vol. 75, No. 4 (1981), pp. 911-927

Week of March 17: Foreign Policy Traditions

Walter Russell Meade, Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How it Changed the World

Bear F. Braumoeller, “The Myth of American Isolationism,” Foreign Policy Analysis Vol. 6 (2010)

Paul McCartney, “Nationalism and U.S. Foreign Policy from September 11 to the Iraq War,” Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 119, No. 3 (Fall, 2004), pp. 399-423

Michael Mastanduno, “The United States Political System and International Leadership: A ‘Decidedly Inferior’ Form of Government?” in G. Ikenberry, ed., America Foreign Policy: Theoretical Essays.

Week of March 24:Cold War

Melvyn P. Leffler, “The American Conception of National Security and the Beginnings of the Cold War, 1945-48,” The American Historical Review, Vol. 89, No. 2 (Apr., 1984), pp. 346-381

Graham T. Allison, “Conceptual Models and the Cuban Missile Crisis,” American Political Science Review, 63, No. 3 (September 1969), pp. 689-718.

J. Gaddis, Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of American National Security Policy During the Cold War, chapters 2, 9

George Kennan, The Sources of Soviet Conduct (The “X” Article).

Week of March 31: Vietnam

Yuen FoongKhong, “Seduction by Analogy in Vietnam: The Malaya and Korea Analogies” (Xerox)

Edward Cuddie, “Vietnam: Mr. Johnson's War. Or Mr. Eisenhower's?”The Review of Politics, Vol. 65, No. 4 (Autumn, 2003), pp. 351-37

L. Gelb, "The Essential Domino: American Politics and Vietnam", Foreign Affairs, April 1972.

Randall Bennett Woods, “Dixie's Dove: J. William Fulbright, The Vietnam War and the American South,” The Journal of Southern History, Vol. 60, No. 3 (Aug., 1994), pp. 533-552

J. Gaddis, Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of American National Security Policy During the Cold War, chap 8.

Week of April 7: Iraq Wars

Louis Fisher, “Deciding on War against Iraq: Institutional Failures,”Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 118, No. 3 (Fall, 2003), pp. 389-410

Paul T. McCartney, “American Nationalism and U.S. Foreign Policy from September 11 to the Iraq War,”Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 119, No. 3 (Fall, 2004), pp. 399-423

Chaim Kaufmann, “Threat Inflation and the Failure of the Marketplace of Ideas: The Selling of the Iraq War,”International Security, Vol. 29, No. 1 (Summer, 2004), pp. 5-48.

Brian C. Schmidt & Michael C. Williams, “The Bush Doctrine and the Iraq War:Neoconservatives Versus Realists,” Security Studies, 17:2, 191-220

Week of April 14: Foreign Policy and Terrorism

Stephen M. Walt, “Beyond bin Laden: Reshaping U.S. Foreign Policy,”International Security, Vol. 26, No. 3 (Winter, 2001-2002), pp. 56-78

Melvyn P. Leffler, “9/11 and the Past and Future of American Foreign Policy,”International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944-), Vol. 79, No. 5(Oct., 2003), pp. 1045-1063

Robert G. Patman, “Globalisation, the New US Exceptionalism and the War on Terror,”Third World Quarterly, Vol. 27, No. 6 (2006), pp. 963-986

Michael C. Desch,“America’s Liberal Illiberalism: The Ideological Origins of Overreactionin U.S. Foreign Policy,” International Security, Vol. 32, No. 3 (Winter 2007/08), pp. 7–43

Week of April 21: Presidency and Cabinet

Jeffrey S. Peake, “Presidential Agenda Setting in Foreign Policy,” Political Research Quarterly, Vol. 54, No. 1 (Mar., 2001), pp. 69-86

Margaret G. Hermann and Thomas Preston, “Presidents, Advisers, and Foreign Policy: The Effect of Leadership Style on ExecutiveArrangements,”Political Psychology, Vol. 15, No. 1, Special Issue: Political Psychology and the Workof Alexander L. George (Mar., 1994), pp. 75-96

Paul E. Peterson, “The President's Dominance in Foreign Policy Making,” Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 109, No. 2 (Summer, 1994), pp. 215-234

James M. McCormick and Eugene R. Wittkopf,“Bipartisanship, Partisanship, and Ideology in Congressional-Executive Foreign Policy Relations,1947-1988,” The Journal of Politics, Vol. 52, No. 4 (Nov., 1990), pp. 1077-1100.

Week of April 28: Congress

James Meernik, “Presidential Support in Congress: Conflict and Consensus on Foreign and Defense Policy,” The Journal of Politics, Vol. 55, No. 3 (Aug., 1993), pp. 569-587

James Meernik and Elizabeth Oldmixon, “Internationalism in Congress,” Political Research Quarterly, Vol. 57, No. 3 (Sep., 2004), pp. 451-465

James M. Lindsay, “Congress and Foreign Policy: Why the Hill Matters,” Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 107, No. 4, (Winter 1992-1993), pp. 607-628

James M. Lindsay, “Congress, Foreign Policy, and the New Institutionalism,” International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Jun., 1994), pp. 281-304

Week of May 5: Public Opinion and Foreign Policy

R.Jacobs, and B. Page, “Who Influences U.S. Foreign Policy?” The American Political Science Review, Vol. 99, No. 1, Feb.2005.

A.Berinsky, “Assuming the costs of war: Events, elites, and American public support for military conflict”. The Journal of Politics, Vol. 69, No. 4, Nov.2007

W. Mead, “The Tea Party and American Foreign Policy,” Foreign Affairs, March/April 2011.

Week of May 12: Foreign Policy Tools

J.L. Gaddis. "The Rise,Fall and Future of Detente", Foreign Affairs, Winter 1983-84.

Ernest J. Wilson III, “Hard Power, Soft Power, Smart Power,”The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 2008 616: 110

Larry Diamond "Promoting Democracy," Foreign Policy, No87, Summer 1992

L.Freedman, "Escalators and Quagmires: expectations and the use of Force" International Affairs, 1991.

S. Knack, “Does Foreign Aid Promote Democracy?” International Studies Quarterly (2004) 48, 251–266

Topic 4: Regions

Week of May 19: Middle East

Jody C. Baumgartner, Peter L. Francia, Jonathan S. Morris, “A Clash of Civilizations? The Influence of Religion on Public Opinion of U.S Foreign Policy inthe Middle East,”Political Research Quarterly, Vol. 61, No. 2 (Jun., 2008), pp. 171-179

Noam Chomsky, “After the Cold War: U. S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East,”Cultural Critique, No. 19, The Economies of War (Autumn, 1991), pp. 14-31

Douglas Little, “The Making of a Special Relationship: The United States and Israel, 1957-68,”International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol. 25, No. 4 (Nov., 1993), pp. 563-585

Aylın Güney, and FulyaGökcan,“The 'Greater Middle East' as a 'Modern' Geopolitical Imagination in American Foreign Policy,” Geopolitics., Vol. 15 Issue 1,2010

Week of May 26: Asia

Aaron L. Friedberg “The Future of U.S.-China Relations: Is Conflict Inevitable?”International Security, Vol. 30, No. 2 (Autumn, 2005), pp. 7-45

Steven M. Goldstein and Randall Schriver, “An Uncertain Relationship: The United States, Taiwan and the Taiwan Relations Act,”The China Quarterly, No. 165, Taiwan in the 20th Century (Mar., 2001), pp. 147-172

Peter Howard, “Why Not Invade North Korea? Threats, Language Games, and U.S. Foreign Policy,”International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 48, No. 4 (Dec., 2004), pp. 805-828

Week of June 2: Russia

Aspen Institute, US-Russia Relations: Policy Challenges for Congress

Daniel Deudney and G. John Ikenberry, “The Unraveling of the Cold War Settlement,”Survival, vol. 51 no. 6, December 2009–January 2010

Mike Bowker, “The war in Georgia and the Western response,”Central

Asian Survey, 30:2,2011

R. Craig Nation, “Results of the ‘Reset’ in American-Russian Relations,” RussieNie Visions, No. 52, July 2010.

Week of June 9: Concluding Discussions

Francis Fukuyama, America at the Crossroads, chapter 5

Anonymous, Imperial Hubris, chapter 8