**SYLLABUS – Likely to Change!!!

v. 2/21/07

Great Powers, Grand Strategies, and International Order

PLIR 350, Spring Term 2007

McLeod 1022

TTh 11-12:15

Professor Jeffrey W. LegroOffice Hours:

205 New Cabell HallTh1-3 and

924-3958 by appointment.

Class Web Page:

TAs:

Susan Brewer M 10-11 Alderman Cafe

Lindsay Flynn W 10-11 Alderman Café

Kyle Haines T 1-2 Alderman Café

I. Course Overview and Objectives:

In this term we will examine the strategies that great powers have adopted as guides in the uncertain and complexglobal arena since 1815 -- and the world those strategies helped produce. The main aim will be to understand the sources and consequences (for states and international order) of different national approaches to foreign relations.

We will be concerned with two central concepts as points of departure. The first, “grand strategy” refers to plans developed to achieve a country’s interests in the world. While some tend to see it only in a military sense we will consider grand strategy as a scheme involving multiple tools that encompass military, diplomatic, economic and political elements – and the trade-offs among them.

The second, “international order”, pertains to the dominant rules, norms, and institutions that structure world politics. Different types of orders have existed since 1815 (Concerts, Hegemonies, Leagues, etc) and we will examine how strategies related to those orders and either reinforced, changed, or destroyed them.

Our substantive focus will mainly be on three regional powers: The European Union (and Germany before it), China, and the United States. There are good reasons to look at others as well and we may do so in a limited fashion, but those three will be our main fodder.

To understand contemporary challenges and preferred solutions requires attention to the causes and history of strategy. We will begin with three broad alternative arguments about the sources of strategy and likely impact of strategies. We will then turn history to examine what the record has been: what choices countries have made and what they produced. We will move promptly through a few key periods to provide context for the contemporary period. Roughly the second half of the course will be spent on a comparison of modern day strategy in Europe, China, and the United States.

Such questions as the following will be addressed:

How did leaders view themselves, their goals, their means, the threats they faced, and the world that they encountered in the different periods?

Why did they do what they did?

How did they succeed and fail?

What kind of world did they create?

As we discuss each country and period, we will consider the overall orientation of foreign policy. How do countries relate to “international society” -- i.e., the dominant rules and institutions that govern world politics including empire, multilateral cooperation, and withdrawal?

Another basic choice of grand strategy is where the country should focus its attention and resources. Currently there appears to be a trade-off between dealing with challenges in the periphery – terrorism, failed states, and global health challenges – vs. a traditional focus on major power relations. A similar geographical choice may arise in dealing with the most powerful countries in the world: e.g., how should Europe weigh its efforts and attention to two very different regions of the world: The United States and Asia? Such choices are critical as seen in the Cold War and even in the basic decision of how to fight the Second World War (i.e. Europe first). Asian and European countries at different times in history havefaced or do face similar choices.

A major focus will be on the trade-offs between different tools in major foreign policy toolkits. These countries have immense economic, military, and political leverage at their disposal, but such resources are not limitless. Thus they face hard decisions about which means to pursue to achieve interests and the relative weight to place on each course of action. We will examine a number of different strategies vis-à-vis international order, the use of force, economic policy, managing neighbors, spreading their ideology, etc.

Overall the aim is to better comprehend the approaches that great powers adopt in world politics and the types of international orders those policies create.

II. Course Requirements and Grading:

  1. Class attendance, preparation, and participation are essential and will be explicitly noted. If you are not in class you cannot participate and will be marked down. You will keep a strategy log to take notes on the assigned readings. This is not a traditional lecture class and its success depends on your preparation and contribution. While I will introduce, provide context to, and summarize ideas, we will also discuss and debate. You are required to do the readings beforethe class for which they are assigned and be fully prepared to talk about them. Quizzesmaybe handed out in class on an irregular basis, especially if there is some question about the quality of preparation. (20%)
  1. Midterm (10%)
  1. Strategy Analysis (No more than 2500 words) (30%). Drawing on the materials covered in the class, you will comparatively analyze the strategies of either 1) two different countries in the same or different periods or 2) one of the countries in two different time periods. You will1) describe what the strategies are and 2) explain why they were as they were. You will include outside research especially involving primary documents from the country you study. More details on this will follow.
  1. Final Exam (40%)

IV. Class Policies:

All work is due on the dates scheduled. Incompletes will not be granted except when very unusual circumstances dictate and only if arrangements have made with the instructor ahead of time. Assignments and the paper must be completed as scheduled. You should do all graded work independently. Any outside materials or sources should be explicitly noted according to proper citation format. Any work that is based on other sources without citation will be failed and could involve the Honor system. If you have any questions on this or any other course related matter please do contact me.

V. Course Materials:

The following books are required and will be available for purchase at the bookstore:

Jack Snyder, Myths of Empire: Domestic Politics and International Ambition (Ithaca, NY: Cornell. University Press, 1991).

John J. Mearsheimer, Tragedy of Great Power Politics (New York: W. W. Norton, 2001)

Jeffrey W. Legro, Rethinking the World: Great Power Strategies and International Order (Ithaca: CornellUniversity Press, 2005). (paper edition Jan 2007).

There will also be additional readings that will be on the toolkit. If they are missing on the toolkit they may be located on PLIR490H toolkit.

Class Schedule: Topics and Assignments*

* Please note that this is a working syllabus. Some of the following readings will not be required.

1.Introduction

2.What is strategy? What ought strategy do?

Paul Kennedy, “Grand Strategy in War and Peace: Toward a Broader Definition,” in Kennedy, ed. Grand Strategies in War and Peace (Yale 1991), 1-6

Bernard Brodie, “Vital Interests: By Whom and How Determined?’ in Strategy and National Interests: Reflections for the Future National Strategy Information Center, Inc., 1971.

Clausewitz “War is an Instrument of Policy,” in On War

  1. What is Order? What causes it?

Hedley Bull, The Anarchical Society 2nd ed. (Columbia University Press 1995), 22-50.

Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy(Simon and Schuster 1994), 17-28.

John Hall and T.V. Paul, eds. International Order and the Future of World Politics (Cambridge 1999), 1-15.

General Sources of Strategy and Order

.

4.Power

What does Mearsheimer see as the cause of grand strategy? How does strategy relate to order?

John Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (Norton, 2001), 1-54

  1. Interests and Institutions

What does Snyder see as the cause of grand strategy? How does strategy relate to order? How does this view compare with Mearsheimer's?

Jack Snyder,Myths of Empire: Domestic Politics and International Ambition (Ithaca:

CornellUniversity Press, 1991), 1-20; 31-55.

  1. Ideas

What does Legro see as cause grand strategy? How does strategy relate to order? How does this view compare with Mearsheimer’s and Snyder’s?

Jeffrey W. Legro, Rethinking the World: Great Power Strategies and International Order (Ithaca: CornellUniversity Press, 2005) 1-48.

The European International Order

  1. The Concert and its End

What was the Concert of Europe? How did it work? Why did it end?

Kissinger, Diplomacy, 78-102.

Paul Schroeder, “Did the Vienna Settlement Rest on a Balance of Power?” American Historical Review (June 1992): 683-706.

Georges-Henri Soutou, “Was there a European Order in the Twentieth Century? From the Concert of Europeto the End of the Cold War”, Contemporary European History, Volume 9, Number 3 (November 2000), 329-333.

  1. British Hegemony and Imperialism

What was Britain’s strategy as the dominant power in the 19th century? Why? How did it affect world politics?

Patrick O’Brien, “The Pax Britannica and American Hegemony,” in O’Brien and Clesse, eds., Two Hegemonies: Britain 1846-1914 and the United States 1941-2001 (Ashgate 2002), 3-27, 48-54.

A. G. Hopkins, “British Imperialism,” ReFresh 7 (1988), 5-8.

Snyder, Myths of Empire, (174-64) 189-211.

Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, 234-238, 261-66.

  1. Germany Ascendant

What Strategy did Germany adopt in the 19th Century as a rising power? Why? Was Bismarck a brilliant or misguided helmsman?

Mearsheimer, Tragedy of Great Power Politics, pp. 267-9, 288-97.

Snyder, Myths of Empire,pp. 66-76, 82-91, 97-105.

Joseph Joffee, “Germany: The Continuities from Frederick the Great to the FederalRepublic,” in Robert Pastor, ed. A Century’s Journey: How the Great Powers Shape the World, 91-102

(Recommended: Kissinger, Diplomacy, chapters 4-6.)

  1. The Periphery Powers: China and the United States

What were China and the United States up to in the 19th century? Why? How did they fit in international order?

John Garver, “The Legacy of the Past,”ForeignRelations of the People's Republic of

China, (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993), pp. 9-17.

Norman Rich “The Great Power Competition Over China” in Great Power Diplomacy, 1814-1914 (McGraw Hill, 1992): 300-328.

Frank Ninkovich, “The Emergence of Normal Internationalism, 1900-1913,” from The Wilsonian Century: U.S. Foreign Policy since 1900 (Chicago 2001), 17-47.

The Decline of Order—The Interwar Period

  1. The League of Nations

Was there an interwar order?

MIDTERM

Leagueof Nations Covenant, the confederation of peace

Georges-Henri Soutou, “Was there a European Order in the Twentieth Century? From the Concert of Europe to the End of the Cold War”, Contemporary European History, Volume 9, Number 3 (November 2000), 333-338.

  1. American Isolationism

Why did the United States return to its aloofness after WWI? What were the consequences?

Legro, Rethinking the World, 49-83

Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics 252-54

Jeff Frieden, "Sectoral Conflict and U.S. Foreign Economic Policy, 1914-1940," International Organization 42:1 (winter 1988): 59-90 (first few pages closely and skim)

Robert Gilpin, The Political Economy of International Relations (Princeton 1986), 72-80.

  1. German Expansionism

What were the Germans thinking? Were they nuts?

Legro, Rethinking the World,84-108

Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, 305-22

Snyder, Myths of Empire, 72-73, 92-95, 105-111.

The Atlantic International Order

  1. Bipolarity and American ‘Hegemony’

What was the Cold War order and where did it come from?

Georges-Henri Soutou , “Was there a European Order in the Twentieth Century? From the Concert of Europeto the End of the Cold War”, Contemporary European History, Volume 9,

Number 3 (November 2000): 338-347.

Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, 260-61, 322-329.

Snyder,Myths of Empire 255-77, 279-89, 296-99.

D. Deudney and J. G. Ikenberry, “The Nature and Sources of Liberal International Order,”Review of International Studies 25(2) (1999): 179–196.

  1. European Unity

Why did Europe do during the Cold War? Why did countries begin to integrate?

Joffee, “Germany,” 110-124.

Legro, Rethinking the World, 108-115.

Desmond Dinan, “How Did We Get Here?” in The European Union:How Does It Work?, edited by Elizabeth Bomberg and Alexander Stubb, 19-38.

TBA

  1. China Returns -- Twice

What did China do in the new order? Why?

John Garver, “The Legacy of the Past,”ForeignRelations of the People's Republic of

China, (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1993), pp. 2-8, 17-30.

Chen Jian, China and the Cold War, 1-15.

Thomas W. Robinson, “Chinese Foreign Policy from the 1940s to the 1990s,” in Chinese Foreign Policy: Theory and Practice, pp. 555-602.

Michael Hunt, The Genesis of Chinese Communist Party Foreign Policy (Columbia 1996): 1-27.

Andrew J. Nathan, and Robert S. Ross. Great Wall and Empty Fortress. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1997, pp. 1-18.

John W. Garver, “The Opportunity Costs of Mao's Foreign Policy Choices,”
The China Journal, No. 49 (Jan., 2003), 127-136
Chen Jian, “A Response: How to Pursue a Critical History of Mao's Foreign Policy,”
The China Journal, No. 49 (Jan., 2003), pp. 137-142

The Pacific International Order?

  1. The EU I

What is the European Union and its foreign policy? Why?

Helen Wallace, William Wallace, and Pollack, Mark A.: Policy-Making in the European Union, The NewEuropean Union Series, Oxford University Press, Oxford 2005, chapter 1, “An Overview” pp. 3-10.

Joffee, “Germany,” 124-138.

John Peterson and Michael E. Smith, “The EU as a Global Actor, “ in The European Union:

How Does It Work?, edited by Elizabeth Bomberg and Alexander Stubb, pp. 195-215

Robert Kagan, “The U.S. Europe Divide,” Washington Post, May 26, 2002.

  1. The EU II

What is the EU’s security strategy? Why? Can Europe act strategically? Will it overtake theUnited States?

"A Secure Europe in a Better World - A European Security Strategy,” European Council, December 12, 2003 **

White Paper 2006 on German Security Policy and the Future of the Bundeswehr, 4-10

Barry Posen, “ESDP and the Structure of World Power,” International Spectator 34:1 (2004), 5-17 **

Mark Leonard, “Ascent of Europe,”Prospect magazine, March 2005, 22-25.

Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, 360-86, 392-6.

  1. The EU III

How does the EU use economic and political power in world affairs? How does that compare with traditional strategies? Why?

Sophie Meunier and Kalypso Nicolaidis, “The European Union as a Conflicted TradePower,”. Journal of European Public Policy, 13:6 (September 2006), 908-27.

James Mayall, “The Shadow of Empire: The EU and the Former Colonial World,” in Hill and Smith, IR and the EU.

Geoffrey Edwards, “The Pattern of the EU’s Global Activity,” in Hill and Smith,eds, International Relations and the European Union(OxfordUniversity Press 2005): 40-63.

  1. China I

What has China’s post Deng strategy been? What is new? Why?

Evan S. Medeiros and M. Taylor Fravel, “China's New Diplomacy,” Foreign Affairs 82:6 (2003)

Chong-pin Lin, “Beijing's New Grand Strategy,” China Brief (Jamestown Foundation) December 2006.

Bijian, Zheng. "China’s Peaceful Rise to Great Power Status,” Foreign Affairs (Sept/Oct 2005):18-24.

David Lampton, “The Faces of Chinese Power,” Foreign Affairs, January/February 2007.

  1. China II

What are the military and non-military aspects of China’s strategy? Are they coherent? How do they compare to Europe’s?

Thomas Moore and Yong Deng, “ChinaViews Globalization: Towards a New Great Power Politics?” The Washington Quarterly 27:3 (Summer 2004), 117-136

David Shambaugh, “China Engages Asia: Reshaping the Regional Order,” International Security

29(3) 2005

Information Office of the State Council of the People's Republic of China. China's National Defense in 2006. December 2006, Preface Chapters I-II, IX-X.

Office of the Secretary of Defense. The Military Power of the People's Republic of China (July 2005). (PDF - 1.3 MB) Executive Summary

  1. China III

How do China’s leaders describe their strategies? Why? Are their accounts believable or are they likely to change?

Jiang Zemin's Report at 16th Party Congress. "VII. National Defense and Army Building."

Jiang Zemin's Report at 16th Party Congress. "IX. The International Situation and Our External Work.".

Hu Jin Tao’s report.

Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, 396-402

Legro, Rethinking the World, 173-178.

  1. The United States I

What is the U.S. Strategy? Should the United States be more engaged in the world? Why? How does U.S. strategy compare to that of other great powers in history?

The White House, The National Security Strategy of the United States of America (Fall 2002) “Executive Summary” plus skim.

Thomas P.M. Barnett, “The Pentagon’s New Map,” Esquire March 2003.

The First Failed Empire Of The 21st Century

Michael Mann, Review of International Studies (2004), 30, 631–653

lumeId=&issueId=04&aid=251277

Michael Mandelbaum, “David's Friend Goliath,” Foreign Policy, 20 January 2006

Eugene Gholz, et. al. “Come HomeAmerica,” The American Conservative June 7, 2004, 15-19.

Jack Snyder, “Imperial Temptations,” The National Interest, Vol. 71, Spring 2003, 29-40.

Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics, 386-392.

Legro, Rethinking the World, 166-72.

  1. The United States II
How much attention should the United States pay to new threats versus traditional ones?

9/11 Commission Report, “Executive Summary,”

John Mueller, “Is There Still a Terrorist Threat?” Foreign Affairs September/October 2006.

If interested, also see the exchange on this article on the CFR website

  1. The United States III

Which of the following grand strategies is most promising? why?

The White House, The National Security Strategy of the United States of America (Winter 2006)

Executive Summary Plus Skim.

Princeton Project on National Security , 1-32, skim.

  1. The Emerging Order

What kind of World will contemporary great power strategies create?

Peter Katzenstein, A World of Regions: Asia and Europe in the American Imperium (Ithaca: CornellUniversity Press, 2005). 208-225; 242-8

James C. Hsiung, "Pacific Asia in the Twenty-first Century World Order", in Asian Affairs, an American Review, Summer 2002, Volume 29, Issue 2, pages 99 - 115.

Georges-Henri Soutou , “Was there a European Order in the Twentieth Century? From the Concert of Europe to the End of the Cold War”, Contemporary European History, Volume 9, Number 3 (November 2000), 347-53.

Mark Leonard, Why Europe Will Run the 21st Century. Chapters 10-11 (121-143).

  1. Strategy and Order: Past and Future
  1. Paper Session** (this will be inserted somewhere in the semester).

FINAL EXAM: Tuesday May 8th, 9:00am-12:00.

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