IR 404

POLICY TASK FORCE

Spring 2012

The United Nations and the Future of the ‘Responsibility to Protect’ Norm

Professor Geoffrey Wiseman

W 2.00 – 4.50 p.m.

Room: SOS B40

E-mail:

Office Hours:3.30–5.00 p.m. T, Th (VKC 319), during class breaks, after class Wed. 4.50–5.30 p.m., and by appointment.

Student Mentor: Dr. Christina Gray

Course Objectives and Learning Goals:

This course is designed for advanced undergraduates. Substantively, the course will teach students how to study, analyze and conduct research on the contribution of the United Nations system to world order from 1945 to the present. Students will trace the history of the world body from its origins before the Second World War; consider a range of international relations theories about its role as an order-shaping institution; study its principal organs including the Security Council, the General Assembly, and the Secretariat; appraise the UN’s relationships with other global actors, such as the main international financial institutions, civil society, the private sector, the media, and the “global public”; and evaluate the overalleffectiveness of the UN regarding key policy issue-areas such as international peace and security, human rights, and economic and social development. Finally, and most importantly, the course will enable students to contribute individually and jointly to a class policy paper on “The United Nations and the Future of the Responsibility to Protect (R2P) norm, post-Libya 2011.”

The main learning goals of the course are: (1) to sharpen analytical, presentation, and writing skills with a focus on policy analysis and problem-solving at the United Nations; and (2) to work individually and collaboratively to develop, research, and write a major policy paper on a critical, controversial and unsettled policy question at the UN.

Grading:

The final grade will be determined as follows:

  • Class participation (10%). Students are expected to attend all class sessions, and to participate in class discussions. Participation will be graded on several criteria: evidence of careful reading of weekly course materials; willingness to volunteer for presentations and to answer questions; appropriateness, enthusiasm, and civility of comments; eagerness to contribute to the process of discussion; listening skills; a capacity for building on and encouraging the ideas of others, and posing constructive and thoughtful questions. Full attendance, punctuality, and at least two course-focused office visits are expected during the semester. Points will be deducted for late submission of assignments, for injudicious use of email, and for non-excused class absences and poor punctuality.
  • Presentations and written summaries (20%). There is a written and an oral component. Each week in the first part of the course, several students will make a brief, 3-5 minute presentation answering a specific question or questions. Presenters will distribute electronically to the class a one-page (maximum) summary or their “answer” to the question. The presenter will speak to the question, summarizing the main argument and suggesting areas for wider class discussion. Note that some additional readings may be added to the syllabus in response to international developments.
  • Mid-term short papers (30%). Students will write two take-home essay-type papers on questions drawing on course materials up that point of the class. (Maximum 1,000 words for each essay).
Individual position paper (30%). Maximum 1,000 words
Contribution to final policy paper (10%). This grade will be determined on your overall contribution to the final class policy paper

Note on electronic devices: Since this a highly interactive discussion course designed inter alia to strengthen verbal and personal communication skills, laptop computers and similar electronic devices are not required, nor permitted.

Course Texts (purchase required):

Thomas Weiss and Sam Daws (eds), The Oxford Handbook of the United Nations, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

Thomas Weiss, What’s Wrong with the United Nations and How to Fix it, Cambridge, UK: Polity, 2009.

Students will use the UN website extensively throughout the course:

COURSE CONTENT

1. Course scope, content and themes: Introduction to the United Nations, Diplomatic Underpinnings of Multilateralism, Historical and Theoretical Frameworks (Jan 11)

Geoffrey Wiseman, “Norms and Diplomacy: The Diplomatic Underpinnings of Multilateralism,” in James P. Muldoon Jr., et al., The New Dynamics of Multilateralism: Diplomacy, International Organizations, and Global Governance, Boulder CO: Westview Press, 2011, 5–22 (Blackboard).

Michael Barnett and Martha Finnemore, “Political Approaches,” in Weiss and Daws (eds), The Oxford Handbook on the United Nations(hereafter TOHUN), pp. 41-57.

Thomas Weiss, “Westphalia, Alive But not Well, ch. 1 in What’s Wrong with the United Nationsand How to Fix it (hereafter WWUN), pp. 19-48.

Hedley Bull, “The Concept of Order in World Politics,” ch. 1 in The Anarchical Society, 3d.ed., New York: Columbia University Press, 2002, pp. 3-21 (Blackboard).

2. Principal Organs: Security Council (Jan 18)

Geoffrey Wiseman and Soumita Basu, “The United Nations,” in Pauline Kerr and Geoffrey Wiseman, eds, Diplomacy in a globalizing world: theories and practices, Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2012, pp. 32. A general review article that provides a framework for subsequent classes (Blackboard).

David M. Malone, “Security Council,” in TOHUN, pp. 117-35.

Thomas G. Weiss, “Security Council Reform,” WWUN, pp. 55-60. On the “Oil-for-Food Program”, see pp. 113-15.

Hedley Bull, “Order vs. Justice in World Politics,” ch. 4 in The Anarchical Society, 3d.ed., New York: Columbia University Press, 2002, pp. 74-94 (Blackboard).

Paul Romita, Naureen Chowdhury Fink, and Till Papenfuss, “What Impact? The E10 and the 2011 Security Council,” Issue Brief, International Peace Institute, New York, April 6, 2011 (Blackboard).

3. Principal Organs: General Assembly (Jan 25)

M. J. Peterson, “General Assembly,” in TOHUN, pp. 97-116.

John F. Burns, “An Idealist and a Dream Killed in Iraq,” The New York Times, May 2, 2010, pp. 1-3. Please download from the NYT website.

HBO Documentary Video excerpts: “Sergio”, the story of the Brazilian UN diplomat, Sergio Vieira de Mello, killed in the 2003 bombing of the UN headquarters in Baghdad.

Recommended:

Samantha Power, Chasing the flame: Sergio de Mello and the fight to save the world, Penguin Press, 2008.

4. Principal Organs: Secretary-General and Secretariat (Feb 1)

Edward Newman, “Secretary-General,” in TOHUN, pp. 175-92.

James C. Jonah, “Secretariat: Independence and Reform,” in TOHUN, pp. 160-74.

Thomas G. Weiss, “Reinvigorating the International Civil Service,” in WWUN, pp. 191-214.

Three short articles from Foreign Policy Magazine on Secretary-General Ban-Ki Moon, pp. 1-6 (Blackboard)

Recommended:

Thomas Wright, “Bilateral and multilateral diplomacy in normal times and in crises,”

ch. 10 in Kerr and Wiseman, Diplomacy in a globalizing world, pp. 289-317.

5. The UN and Other Actors: Global Civil Society, Private Sector, Media and the Global Public (Feb 8)

Paul Wapner, “Civil Society,” in TOHUN, pp. 254-263.

Craig N. Murphy, “Private Sector,” in TOHUN, pp. 264-74.

Barbara Crosette, “Media,” in TOHUN, pp. 275-84.

Daniel W. Drezner, “Foreign Policy Goes Glam,” The National Interest, no. 92 (Nov./Dec. 2007), pp. 22-8 (on-line).

Recommended:

Peter Willetts, ‘From “consultative arrangements” to “partnership”: The changing

status of NGOs in diplomacy at the UN’, Global Governance vol. 6, no. 2, (2000) pp.191–212.

Peter Willetts, “The Cardosa Report on the UN and Civil Society: Functionalism, Global Corporatism, or Global Democracy,” Global Governance, vol. 12 (2006): 305-324.

6. Disarmament and Peacekeeping (Feb 15)

Keith Krause, “Disarmament,” TOHUN, pp. 287-299.

Randy Rydell, “Security Through Disarmament: The Story of the Weapons of Mass Destruction Commission,” The Hague Journal of Diplomacy, vol. 2, no. 1 (2007), pp. 81-91 (Blackboard).

Michael W. Doyle and Nicholas Sambanis, “Peacekeeping,” TOHUN, pp. 323-48.

Compare selected peacekeeping cases as R2P precursors: Kashmir, Somalia, Central America.

  • Midterm take-home questions distributed at end of class W Feb. 15.

7. Sanctions and Peace Enforcement from Korea to Iraq (Feb 22)

  • Midterm take-home due in class: 2 p.m. W Feb. 22

David Cortright et al., “Sanctions,” TOHUN, pp. 349-69.

George A. Lopez and David Cortright, “Containing Iraq: Sanctions Worked.” Foreign Affairs, July/August 2004, pp.90–103.

Michael Pugh, “Peace Enforcement,” TOHUN, pp. 370-86.

8. Humanitarian Intervention and the Responsibility to Protect, “R2P” (Feb 29)

Ramesh Thakur, “Humanitarian Intervention,” TOHUN, pp. 387-403.

Thomas G. Weiss, “A Rapid Reaction Capability,” in WWUN, pp. 179-81.

Gareth Evans and Mohamed Sahnoun, "The Responsibility to Protect," Foreign Affairs 81, no. 6 (November-December 2002):

Weiss, Thomas G. "Misrepresenting R2P and Advancing Norms: An Alternative Spiral?" International Studies Perspectives, vol. 11, no. 4 (November 2010), pp. 354-371.

David Rieff, “Saints Go Marching In,” The National Interest, July-Aug 2011, pp.10.

Recommended:

United Nations, “A more secure world: Our shared responsibility,” Report of the High-Level Panel on Threats, Challenges and Change,” New York, 2004.

Richard H. Cooper, Responsibility to protect: the global moral compact for the 21st century, Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.

9. Human Rights and the Protection of Civilians: Norms, International Criminal Court and Ad Hoc Tribunals (March 7)

Bertrand G. Ramcharan, “Norms and Machinery,” TOHUN, pp. 439-62.

Richard Goldstone, “International Criminal Court and Ad Hoc Tribunals,” TOHUN, pp. 463-478.

Thomas G. Weiss, “Rome Statute,” in WWUN, pp. 161-4.

Jack Snyder and Leslie Vinjamuri, “Trials and Error: Principle and Pragmatism in Strategies of International Justice,” International Security, vol. 28, no. 3 (Winter 2003/04), pp. 5-44 (Blackboard).

Spring break Mon March 12–Friday March 16

10. Human security and the Protection of Civilians: Women, Children, Minorities, Development, Democracy (March 21)

Fen O. Hampson, and Christopher K. Penny, “Human Security,” TOHUN, pp. 539-57.

Charlotte Bunch, “Women and Gender,” TOHUN, pp. 496-510.

Thomas G. Weiss, “Gender Imbalance,” in WWUN, pp. 115-19.

Yves Beigbeder, “Children,” TOHUN, pp. 511-24.

Maivan Clech Lam, “Minorities and Indigenous Peoples,” TOHUN, pp. 525-38.

Ngaire Woods, “Bretton Woods Institutions,” TOHUN, pp. 233-253.

W. Andy Knight, “Democracy and Good Governance,” TOHUN, pp. 620-33.

11. Reforming and Democratizing the UN as a Form of Protection(March 28)

Edward C. Luck, “Principal Organs,” TOHUN, pp. 653-74.

Chadwick F. Alger, “Widening Participation,” TOHUN, pp. 701-15.

Thomas G. Weiss, “Conclusion: What’s Next?”, in WWUN, pp. 215-33.

Vincent Pouliot, “ Multilateralism as an End in Itself,” International Studies Perspectives, vol. 12 (2011), pp. 18-26 (Blackboard).

12. R2P policy working session: Libya and the Middle East/The UN system, including the Secretary-General (April 4)

Note: For the final sessions, rather than reading summaries, you will do a brief memorandum for discussion (precise topics tbd). Also, these sessions will consist of individual, small group, and full plenary PTF class sessions.

Jon Western and Joshua S. Goldstein, “Humanitarian Intervention Comes of Age: Lessons from Somalia to Libya,” Foreign Affairs, vol. 90, no. 6 (Nov./Dec 2011), pp. 48-59.

13. R2P policy working session: Europe and Asia/Like-minded states/Hold-out states/the U.S. (April 11)

Benjamin A. Valentino. “The True Costs of Humanitarian Intervention: The Hard Truth About a Noble Notion,” Foreign Affairs, vol. 90, no. 6 (Nov./Dec 2011), pp. 60-73.

Barry Desker and Joel Ng, “Responsibility to Protect: Tensions between Sovereignty and Security,” RSIS Commentary 142/2011, 6 October 2011.

David Bosco, “Course Corrections: The Obama Administration at the United Nations,” in Paul Sharp and Geoffrey Wiseman (eds), American Diplomacy, Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 2012, pp. 101-115.

14. R2P working session: Africa/Like-minded non-governmental organizations, coalitions, and networks (April 18)

15. Presentation of Draft PTF Report (April 25)

Summary of key examination dates:

Midterm due: in class2 p.m. W Feb. 22

Final Presentation of Policy Paper (in lieu of exam): M May 7 at 2-4.50 p.m.

Statement on Academic Integrity

USC seeks to maintain an optimal learning environment. General principles of academic honesty include the concept of respect for the intellectual property of others, the expectation that individual work will be submitted unless otherwise allowed by an instructor, and the obligations both to protect one's own academic work from misuse by others as well as to avoid using another's work as one's own. All students are expected to understand and abide by these principles. Scampus, the Student Guidebook, contains the Student Conduct Code in Section 11.00, while the recommended sanctions are located in Appendix A: http// Students will be referred to the Office of Student Judicial Affairs and Community Standards for further review, should there be any suspicion of academic dishonesty.

DISABILITY NOTE: Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to register with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. This letter must be delivered to me (or the TA) by the end of the third week. The student is also responsible for consulting the professor or TA before relevant in-class tests/exams to make sure that all arrangements have been made. DSP is located in STU 301 and is open 8:30 a.m. – 5:00 p.m., Monday – Friday. The DSP phone # is (213) 740-0776.

(Jan 11, 2012)

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