U.S. Foreign Economic Policy
Course Time: Monday and Wednesday from 5-6:20 P
Professor Jonathan Markowitz
Office: VKC 357C
Office Hours:Thursday 1-3
Description of the Course and Goals:The goal of this course is to teach studentsto think about the relationship between economics and security across a number of different policy dimensions and issue areas. This course will focus in particular on the political economy of free trade, energy security and resource competition,and the governance of the global commons.We will focus on unearthing the theoretical assumptions up which contemporary policy positions rest and examine their logical and empirical validity.
Grading Policy: Grades will be based on participation, in-class quizzes,an in-class policy debate and a final paper and presentation. (A breakdown of the assignments follows in the next section.) Details of the policy debate and final paper will be distributed and discussed in class. The final paper is due before the end of the final exam period scheduled for this class. No late papers will be accepted without proper medical documentation.Participation will be based on in-class quizzes on the readings and general participation in class discussions. Note that the quizzes will cover not only the reading, but also international news. To stay up to date on global developments, students are encouraged to read the following news sites:
New York Times Online (
Economist Online (
Financial Times (
BBC News (
Assignment Overview:
Class Participation 10%
Quizzes10%
Presentations and Debate 40%
Final Paper 40%
Quizzes
Students are expected to complete allreadingsbefore the class sessions in which they are discussed. Quizzes may occur at any time, and unprepared students will bedowngraded.
Debate
We will be staging 8 debates over the course of the semester. These debates are intended to help you work through course materials while also honing your critical thinking, analytic writing, and presentation skills. Each student will participate in two of these debates, one before the mid-term and one after. Preparation for these debates will be individual, but students will work together in teams of ~5 during the actual debate.
Final Paper and Presentation
Each student will prepare a ten-page final paper on the relationship between the United States and one of its allies. Papers will be collected during the assigned final exam period. Groups of ~5 students writing about the same ally will be asked to prepare a presentation given to the class during the final two days of the semester. Note, while the presentation will be done in groups, the paper is an individual effort. I will discuss more details about these assignments as the semester progresses.
Students with Disabilities
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. Please be sure the letter is delivered to me (or to your TA) as early in the semester as possible. The phone number for DSP is 213-740-0776. If you need assistance with the process, please contact me at the phone number or e-mail address above.
Academic Dishonesty
I take academic dishonesty EXTREMELY seriously. Any student violating USC’s Academic Dishonesty or Student Conduct policies will earn an ‘F’ in the course and will be reported to the appropriate administrators for investigation. You are responsible for reviewing the Trojan Integrity Guide: and the guide for avoiding plagiarism: affairs/SJACS/forms/tig.pdf
Class Schedule
Week 1
January 11: Basic Expectations
Course Syllabus
January 13:US Economic and Military Power in Relation to the World—
Wohlforth, William C. "The Stability of a Unipolar World." International Security 24, no. 1 (1999): 5-41.
Fordham, Benjamin. “Who wants to be a major power? Explaining the expansion of foreign policy ambition” Journal of Peace Research 2011 (48): 587-603
Week 2
January 18: No Class MLK Day
January 20:Basic Concepts—Rents and Wealth—
Yergin, Daniel.The Prize: the Epic Quest for Oil, Money & Power. Simon and Schuster, 2011. Chapter 22, Pg. 413—415
Olson, Mancur. "Dictatorship, Democracy, and Development."American Political Science Review87, no. 03 (1993): 567-576.Lake, David A. "Powerful pacifists: democratic states and war."American Political Science Review86, no. 01 (1992): 24-37.
“Predatory Islamic State Wrings Money From Those It Rules”
By MATTHEW ROSENBERG, NICHOLAS KULISH and STEVEN LEE MYERSNOV. 29, 2015
Why a Harvard Professor Has Mixed Feelings When Students Take Jobs in Finance. APRIL 10, 2015Continue reading the main story
Economic ViewBy SENDHIL MULLAINATHAN
Week 3:
January 25: Mercantilism, Predatory States and Empire vs. The New Model –THIS LECURE IS OVER 45 Minutes long---had to be sped through at the end
Rosecrance, Richard. "The rise of the virtual state: territory becomes passe." Foreign Affairs 75, no. 4 (1996): 45-61.
Magdoff, Harry. 1970. “Militarism and Imperialism”. The American Economic Review 60 (2). American Economic Association: 237–42.
January 27: How Shifts in the American Economy Influenced U.S. Foreign Policy
Frieden, Jeffry A. "The Economics of Intervention: American Overseas Investments andRelations with Underdeveloped Areas, 1890–1950." Comparative Studies in Society and History 31, no. 01 (1989): 55-80.
Frieden, Jeff. 1988. “Sectoral Conflict and Foreign Economic Policy, 1914-1940”. International Organization 42 (1). 59–90.
Week 4
February 1:Economic Actors Influence Security Policy---THIS LECTURE IS 30 Minutes LONG with HEAVY Q AND A—
Frieden, Jeffry A. "Actors and Preferences in International Relations." In Strategic Choice and International Relations, edited by David A. Lake and Bob Powell, 39-76, 1999
Brooks, Stephen G. "Economic Actors' Lobbying Influence on the Prospects for War and Peace." International Organization 67, no. 04 (2013): 863-88.
February 3:U.S. Foreign Economic Policy and Decolonization
JN: NO POWER POINT FOR THIS CLASS, FIRST PART OF CLASS IS QUIZ, THAN TALK ABOUT READING, THE SHOW VIDEO Pentagons NEW MAPS First Three sections on you tube.
“The Political Economy of Imperialism, Decolonization and Development
ERIK GARTZKE AND DOMINIC ROHNER*
Frieden, Jeffry A.. 1994. “International Investment and Colonial Control: A New Interpretation”. International Organization 48 (4): 559–93.
Video: Thomas PM Barnett: “The Pentagon’s New Map”
Week 5
February8: Why Did the U.S. Stop Expanding?
CLASS DEBATE 1: Does Conquest Still Pay?
Liberman, Peter. 1993. “The Spoils of Conquest”. International Security 18 (2): 125–53.
Brooks, Stephen G. "The globalization of production and the changing benefits of conquest." Journal of Conflict Resolution 43, no. 5 (1999): 646-670.
February 10: No class Professor At Conference
Week 6
February 15: No Class—President’s Day
February 17: Theories ofThe Capitalist Peace
McDonald, Patrick J. "The purse strings of peace." American Journal of Political Science 51, no. 3 (2007): 569-582.
Gartzke, Erik. "The capitalist peace." American journal of political science 51, no. 1 (2007): 166-191.
Mousseau, Michael. “The Social Market Roots of Democratic Peace”. International Security 33.4 (2009): 52–86. Web...
Week 7
February 22: The Cold War and the U.S. Liberal Economic Order
Kennan, George. "The long telegram." The State Department. Retrieved from gwu. edu/~ nsarchiv/coldwar/documents/episode-1/kennan. htm (1946).
G. John Ikenberry, “Institutions, Strategic Restraint, and the Persistence of American Postwar Order”International Security 1999, 23:3, 43-78
Krasner, Stephen D. "State power and the structure of international trade." World Politics 28, no. 03 (1976): 317-347.
February 24:Opening Markets, Alliance and Securing Sea-Lanes
Posen, Barry R. "Command of the commons: the military foundation of US hegemony." International Security 28, no. 1 (2003): 5-46.
Fordham, Benjamin O. "Power or Plenty? Economic Interests, Security Concerns, and American Intervention." International Studies Quarterly 52, no. 4 (2008): 737-58
Beckley, Michael. "The Myth of Entangling Alliances: Reassessing the Security Risks of US Defense Pacts." International Security 39, no. 4 (2015): 7-48.
Week 8
Feb 29: Post-Cold War Era: Grand Strategy Debate
CLASS DEBATE 2: Should the U.S. Pull back or Lean Forward?
Barry Posen, “Pull Back: The Case for a Less Activist Foreign Policy,” Foreign
Affairs, (January/February 2013).
Stephen Brooks, G. John Ikenberry, and William Wohlforth, “Lean Forward: In
Defense of American Engagement,” Foreign Affairs, (January/February 2013)
Slaughter, Anne-Marie. "A World of Liberty Under Law." (2008).
Rice, Condoleezza. "Rethinking the national interest." Foreign Affairs 87, no. 4 (2008): 2-26.
March 2nd:
CLASS DEBATE 3: Does Hegemony Pay?
Daniel Drezner, “Military Primacy Doesn’t Pay (Nearly As Much As You Think).”International Security 38 (Summer 2013): 52-79.
Carla Norrlof (2014) Dollar hegemony: A power analysis, Review of International Political Economy, 21:5, 1042-1070, DOI: 10.1080/09692290.2014.895773
Assessing the Economic and InstitutionalLogic of Deep Engagement Chapter 9 Brooks and Wohlforth (THIS IS A CHAPTER OF WORKING MS PLEASE DON’T CITE )
Assessing the Economic Benefits of Deep Engagement Brooks and WohlforthChapter 10
(THIS IS A CHAPTER OF WORKING MS PLEASE DON’T CITE )
Week 9
March 7: Important Issues of the Future U.S. China RelationsChina’s Rise
U.S. and China Economic relations
CLASS DEBATE 4: Will China overtake the United States or will the U.S. Remain the Dominant Power?
Arvind Subramanian, “The Inevitable Superpower: Why China’s Rise Is a Sure
Thing,” Foreign Affairs, Vol. 90, No. 5 (September/October 2011)
Beckley, Michael. "China's century? Why America's edge will endure." (2011).
Lake, David A. "The Challenge: The Domestic Determinants of International Rivalry Between the United States and China." International Studies Review 16, no. 3 (2014): 442-447.
Evan Braden Montgomery, “Contested Primacy in the Western Pacific: China’s
Rise and the Future of U.S. Power Projection,” International Security, Vol. 38,
No. 4 (Spring 2014), pp. 115-149
March 9: How Should the U.S. Manage China’s Rise?
CLASS DEBATE 5: Should the U.S. Contain or Engage China Economically?
Andrew Nathan and Andrew Scobell, “The Sum of Beijing's Fears: How China Sees
America,” Foreign Affairs (September/October 2012).
Glaser, Charles L. "A US-China Grand Bargain? The Hard Choice between Military Competition and Accommodation." International Security (2015).
Avery Goldstein, “China’s Real and Present Danger: Now Is the Time for
Washington to Worry,” Foreign Affairs, Vol. 92, No. 5 (September/October 2013),
pp. 136-145.
Moving Beyond Unipolarity? China’s Rise and the Fate of America’s Global Position. Stephen G. Brooks and William C. WohlforthInternational Security Winter 2016
Week 10: NO CLASS SPRING BREAK
Week 11
March 21: Energy Security---
Yergin, Daniel. "Ensuring Energy Security." Foreign Affairs (2006): 69-82.
Duane Chapman. "Gulf Oil and International Security." In Energy Security and Global Politics: The Militarization of Resource Management, edited by D. Moran and J.A. Russell: Taylor & Francis, 2008.
Daniel, Yergin. "The Prize: The epic quest for oil, money and power." Minnesota: Simon&Schuster (1991)—Chapter 16, 17 and 18March 23:U.S. in the Middle East
Rovner, Joshua, and Caitlin Talmadge. "Hegemony, force posture, and the provision of public goods: The once and future role of outside powers in securing persian gulf oil." Security Studies 23, no. 3 (2014): 548-581.
Talmadge, Caitlin. "Closing Time: Assessing the Iranian Threat to the Strait of Hormuz." International Security 33.1 (2008): 82-117.
Daniel, Yergin. "The prize: The epic quest for oil, money and power." Minnesota: Simon&Schuster (1991)Chapter 29 “The Oil Weapon” and 36 ‘Crises in the Gulf”
Klare, Michael T. "Oil, Iraq, and American foreign policy: the continuing salience of the Carter doctrine." Int'l J. 62 (2006): 31.
Week 12
March 28:NO CLASS Professor at Conference
March 30: Markets and Mercantilism
CLASS DEBATE 6: Should states worry about Energy Seurity or just rely on markets?
Eugene Gholz and Daryl Press. "Protecting the Prize: Oil and the Us National Interest." Security Studies 19, no. 3 (2010): 453-85.
Levi, Michael. "The Enduring Vulnerabilities of Oil Markets." Security Studies 22, no. 1 (2013): 132-138.
"The Cult of Energy Security and Great Power Rivalry Across the Pacific," in Goldstein and Mansfield (eds.) The Nexus of Economics, Security, and International Relations in East Asia (Stanford U. Press, 2012) (with Danielle Cohen), 144-76. -
Week 13
April 4:Other Ways Oil Affects U.S. Security
Charles Glaser, “How Oil Influences U.S. National Security,” International
Security, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Fall 2013), pp. 112-146.
Colgan, Jeff D. "Fueling the fire: Pathways from oil to war." International Security 38, no. 2 (2013): 147-180.
Robert A. Heffner, “The United States of Gas,” Foreign Affairs (May/June 2014).
Edward Morse, “Welcome to the Revolution,” Foreign Affairs (May/June 2014).
Fred Krupp, “Don’t Just Drill, Baby – Drill Carefully,” Foreign Affairs(May/June 2014)
April 6:The Resource Cure
CLASS DEBATE 7: Is there a resource curse?
Haber, Stephen, and Victor Menaldo. "Do natural resources fuel authoritarianism? A reappraisal of the resource curse." American political science Review 105, no. 01 (2011): 1-26.
Andersen, Jørgen J., and Michael L. Ross. "The Big Oil Change A Closer Look at the Haber–Menaldo Analysis." Comparative Political Studies (2013): 0010414013488557.
Ross, Michael L. "What have we learned about the resource curse?." Available at SSRN 2342668 (2014).
Week 14
April 11: The Resource Curse and Conflict
Humphreys, “Natural Resources, Conflict, and Conflict Resolution”, Journal of Conflict Resolution 49:4 (August 2005), pp. 508-37
Jeff D. Colgan, "Oil and Revolutionary Governments: Fuel for International Conflict."
International Organization 64, no. 04 (2010): 661-94
April 13:Resource Competition in the South China Sea
CLASS DEBATE 8: What Should U.S. policy be in the South China Sea?
Jeff Himmelman, “A Game of Shark and Minnow,” New York Times, October 27,
2013. Access online at:
sea/
Piling Sand in a Disputed Sea, China Literally Gains Ground
By DAVID E. SANGER andRICK GLADSTONEAPRIL 8, 2015
Dan Blumenthal, “The Implications of China’s South China Sea Activities,” Staff
Briefing for the Congressional China Caucus, (July 29, 2011).
Bonnie Glaser, “Armed Clash in the South China Sea,” Contingency Planning
Memorandum, No. 14 (April 2012).
Gregory B. Poling, “The South China Sea in Focus: Clarifying the Limits of
Maritime Dispute,” Center for Strategic and International Studies, July 2013
Ian Storey, “Slipping Away? A South China Sea Code of Conduct Eludes Diplomatic
Efforts,” Center for a New American Security, East and South China Seas Bulletin,
No. 11 (March 20, 2013).
Week 15
April 18: Resource Competition in the Arctic
Kraska, James, and Betsy Baker. "Emerging Arctic Security Challenges." Center for a New American Security, Briefing Paper (2014).
Russia Rearms for a New EraBy CATRIN EINHORN, HANNAH FAIRFIELD and TIM WALLACE DEC. 24, 2015.
Borgerson, Scott G. "Arctic meltdown." FOREIGN AFFAIRS-NEW YORK- 87, no. 2 (2008): 63.
Bamford, James. "Frozen Assets." Foreign Policy 212 (2015): 44.
April 20: The Arctic As a Laboratory for Testing Theories of Resource Competition
Russia's Arctic illusions, Pavel K. Baev
The High North: The Arctic contest heats up | The Economist. Oct 4th, 2015
U.S. Is Seen as Laggard as Russia Asserts Itself in Warming Arctic
By STEVEN LEE MYERSAUG. 29, 2015
Week 16
April 25: Class Presentations
April 27: Class Presentations