790:319:01 American Foreign Policy
TF 10:55-12:15
Instructor: Ghaidaa Hetou
ARH-200 DC
E-mail: [email protected]
Office Hours: Tuesday & Friday from 9:50 am – 10:40 am. Office: 610 Hickman Hall
Attention: This class assumes you have a background in theories of International Relations. If you have NOT had the Introduction to International Relations course offered at Rutgers (790:102) or a similar course, you will find the material unusually difficult. I strongly advise you to take the introductory course first. American Foreign Policy
“This nation has placed its destiny in the hands and heads and hearts of its millions of free men
and women; and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God. Freedom means the supremacy
of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or keep
them. Our strength is our unity of purpose. To that high concept there can be no end save
victory.”
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s address to Congress, January 6th, 1941
After World War I and II, American foreign policy was able to transform and shape the
international system through wars, diplomacy, ideas and markets. American foreign policy
championed the ideals of democracy and liberalism, made friends with dictators and
authoritarian regimes, and displayed reluctance to subject itself to the rules of international
organizations. The second half of the 20th century saw the rise and decline of the ‘unipolar
moment”, in which the United States was able to exert its military, economic and political power
with minimum restrictions. Stepping on the global stage after WWII, American foreign policy
did not merely exert keen promotion of state-interests, but it also embodied a new world order
agenda in which grand settlements, client states and American bases were primary features. The
turn of the 21st century ushered new global challenges, new security threats, global economic
downturn, and the beginnings of non-polarity.
This course will examine the drivers of American foreign policy, the evolution of
American foreign policy from a non-interventionist to an interventionist policy, and how the new
challenges of the 21st century (this course will focus on China and the Middle East) are affecting
the orientation of American foreign policy, and hence American’s standing in the world.
1 The five central questions posed in this course are:
1) What is special about foreign policy making in a democracy?
2) Who are the key system, state and individual actors shaping American foreign policy?
What are the various constrains within which each actor operates?
3) What does the rising global influence of China mean for the United Sates?
4) What does the changing political landscape in the Middle East mean for the United
States?
5) What should America’s “grand strategy” be for the 21st century?
Course Objective: While developing analytical, critical and comparative skills, this class will
develop the ability to analyze policy through clarifying goals, stating possible alternatives,
determining the consequences of these alternatives, and then choosing. The emphasis in this
course is initially on understanding the various explanations of foreign policy input, process and
output, then understanding the critical decisions that have shaped American foreign policy over
half a century. Furthermore, students will practice analyzing American foreign policy by
engaging in current global developments, pertaining particularly to American foreign policy
towards China and the Middle East.
The final evaluation of the course will be determined as follows:
Participation, debates, group papers
25%
10 Quizzes (Pass/Fail)
25%
Paper (6 – 8)
20%
April 15th
Final- exam
30%
TBD
Please note that exceptional effort in one or more areas of the course may result in additional
points being added to the student’s final evaluation.
2 Attendance:
Attendance will be taken each class. There will be a grade deduction penalty for students who
missed more than two classes. Students must use the self-reporting absence system by going to
the following website: https://sims.rutgers.edu/ssra/ in addition to sending an email to the
instructor before the missed class.
Mailing List: You will be subscribed to the course email list under your Rutgers email address.
The list is meant for general announcements as well as to facilitate communication among
students.
Sakai: There will be a link for this course on Sakai, where students can communicate, discuss
and share current news updates. In addition, it is a place where students can find many of the
course readings and periodical announcements.
News and Current Events: It is essential that you regularly read a newspaper with good
international and economic coverage in general, and news outlets with a foreign policy focus. If
you can read foreign-language newspapers, even better. By sharing what you read, you can help
us compare different perspectives on the same event. Here are few possible foreign policy online
sources:
Council on Foreign Relations
http://www.cfr.org/
The Economist
http://www.economist.com/
Foreign Affairs
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/
Foreign Policy
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/
Foreign Policy Research Institute
www.fpri.org
Aljazeera
www.english.aljazeera.net
The Washington Post
www.washingtonpost.com
Academic Integrity Students of this class are governed by the rules of Rutgers University
regarding academic misconduct/dishonesty and plagiarism.
http://academicintegrity.rutgers.edu/integrity.shtml
3 Careers in International Relations and Foreign Policy: Please visit the department’s website
at www.polisci.rutgers.edu/undergrad/careers, for more information on careers, and graduate
education in international relations and foreign policy.
Course Readings: All the readings listed in the syllabus are required readings. Additional
readings (articles, news reports, etc.), although not required, will be sent to students and/or
posted to Sakai throughout the semester.
Cases and Group Papers: On the days we have a “Foreign Policy Case (FPC)”, students are
required to come to class on that day having prepared for the case, which was posted on Sakai a
week earlier. On FPC days, students will work in groups to analyze the case and write a group
report in class. All members of the group are expected to interact and contribute to the in-group
debate. Attending FPC days is mandatory.
Quizzes: Ten five minute/one question pop quizzes. All quizzes are graded on a pass/fail, and
you need to pass seven.
Books we will be reading from throughout the semester:
* Hook, Stephen W. US Foreign Policy: The Paradox of World Power. 2nd ed: CQ Press
College, 2008.
* Ikenberry, G. John, ed., American Foreign Policy: Theoretical Essays, Fifth edition, New
York: Pearson Longman, 2005.
Class Schedule:
Friday, January 17th:
Course overview and syllabi distribution
Tuesday, January 21st
Introduction
Hook, chapter one
Barry Posen, “The Case for Restraint,” The American Interest (November/December 2007).
http://www.the-american-interest.com/article.cfm?piece=331
4 Friday, 1/24 – Tuesday, 2/4 :
Part I - Theories and Debates
Tuesday 1/24 Explaining Foreign Policy (1)
Ikenberry, pp 13 – 34.
Colin Dueck, “Realism, Culture, and American Grand Strategy: Explaining America’s Peculiar
Path to World Power,” Security Studies (April-June 2005), pp. 195-231. (Sakai).
Tuesday 1/28 Explaining Foreign Policy (2)
Hook, chapter two
Friday 1/31 Explaining Foreign Policy (3)
Melvyn Leffler, “The American Conception of National Security and the Beginnings of the Cold
War 1945-48, pp. 84-110. (Sakai)
Tuesday 2/4 Explaining Foreign Policy (4) The Three Main Visions
Realism: Ikenberry, pp.60 – 82. (Kenneth Waltz, “Anarchic Orders and Balances of Power”)
Liberalism: Ikenberry, pp. 204-234 (Samuel Huntington, “American Ideals versus American
Institutions”)
Neo-conservatism: Condoleezza Rice, “The Promise of Democratic Peace: Why Promoting
Freedom is the Only Realistic Path to Security” Washington Post, December 11, 2005.
(Sakai)
Friday 2/7 First FPC Day, Group Papers in Class
Case will be posted on Sakai.
5 Tuesday 2/11–Tuesday 2/25 Part
II-Foreign Policy Decision Making and
Actors
Tuesday 2/11 Decision-Making in Foreign Policy
Hook, chapter three
Friday 2/14 Foreign Policy in a Democracy, Shared Powers (1) The President
Hook, chapter four
Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy, Chapter 2 “The Hinge: Theodore Roosevelt or Woodrow Wilson,”
pp 29-55 (Sakai)
Kissinger, Diplomacy, Chapter 15, “America Reenters the Arena: Franklin Delano Roosevelt”
Tuesday 2/18 Foreign Policy in a Democracy, Shared Powers (2) Congress
Hook, chapter five
Friday 2/21 Foreign Policy in a Democracy, Shared Powers (3) Bureaucracy
Hook, chapter six
Peter Baker, “How Obama Came to Plan for “Surge” in Afghanistan,” The New York Times, 6
December 2009.
Ikenberry, pp 396 – 435 (Graham Allison “Conceptual Models and the Cuban Missile Crisis”)
Tuesday 2/25 Foreign Policy in a Democracy, Shared Powers (4)
Public Opinion/Legitimacy/Interest Groups
Alexander George, “Domestic Constraints on Regime Change in U.S. Foreign Policy: The Need
for Political Legitimacy,” pp. 333-356 (Sakai)
Hook, chapter seven
6 Friday 2/28–Tuesday 3/4
Part III National Interests and America’s Grand Strategy
Friday 2/28 Hegemony and The Interventionist Paradigm
Ikenberry, pp. 298 – 317 (Michael Roskin “From Pearl Harbor to Vietnam: Shifting
Generational Paradigms in Foreign Policy”)
Ikenberry, pp. 111 – 131 (John Ikenberry, “Rethinking the Origins of American Hegemony”)
Tuesday 3/4 National Security and America’s Grand Strategy
Ikenberry, 274 – 293 (John Ikenberry “America’s Liberal Grand Strategy: Democracy and
national Security in the Post – War Era”)
Hook, chapter ten and eleven
Friday 3/7 – Tuesday 3/11
Part IV- American Foreign Policy and China
Friday 3/7 China: The Origins of a Rising Power
Henry Kissinger, “On China”, chapter one. (Sakai)
Tom Christensen, “Shaping the Choices of a Rising China: Recent Lessons for the Obama
Administration,” Washington Quarterly (July 2009). (Sakai)
From Hostility to Engagement 1960 – 1998
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB19/
Tuesday 3/11 American Foreign Policy towards China
Kissinger “On China”, chapter eighteen (Sakai)
Aaron Friedberg, “The Future of US-China Relations: Is Conflict Inevitable?” International
Security 30:2 (Fall 2005), pp. 7-33, 39-45.
Hillary Clinton, “America’s Pacific Century” November , 2011
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/10/11/americas_pacific_century
7 Friday 3/14
The Future of US Chinese Relations
Henry Kissinger, “The Future of U.S. – Chinese Relations: Conflict is a Choice not a Necessity”
Foreign Affairs, 2012.
Tuesday 3/18–Friday 4/13
Part V-American Foreign Policy and the Middle East
Tuesday 3/18 The Middle East 1948 - 2003
Roy Licklider, “Political Power and the Arab Oil Weapon” chapter seven. (Sakai)
Michael N. Barnett, Confronting the Costs of War: Military Power, State, and
Society in Egypt and Israel (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1992. (Sakai)
Friday 3/21 The Middle Eastern System
Raymond Hinnebusch, ”The International Politics of The Middle East” chapter 2. (Sakai)
Jack S. Levy and Michael N. Barnett, "Alliance Formation, Domestic Political
Economy, and Third World Security," Jerusalem Journal of International
Relations 14 (December 1992). (Sakai)
Zeev Maoz, “Waging War Waging Peace: Decision making and Bargaining in the Arab Israeli
Conflict 1970 – 1973” International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 36, No. 4 (Dec., 1992), pp. 373-399
(Sakai)
Tuesday 3/25 Iraq: 2003 Invasion and Aftermath
Ivo Daalder & James Lindsay, “Bush’s Revolution,” Current History (November
2003), 367-376. (Sakai)
Stephen Biddle, Michael O’Hanlon, & Kenneth Pollack, “How to Leave a Stable Iraq: Building
on Progress” Foreign Affairs, September/October 2008. (Sakai)
8 Eric Davis, “US Foreign Policy in a Post – SOFA Iraq” September 2011.
http://www.fpri.org/enotes/2011/201109.davis.iraq.html
Friday 3/28 Iran: Defiance, Resistance and Engagement
Anoushiravan Ehteshami “Middle Powers in a Penetrated Region” chapter three. (Sakai)
Richard Haas, “Enough is Enough: Regime Change is the Only Way to Stop Iran” Newsweek,
January 22, 2010. http://www.newsweek.com/2010/01/21/enough-is-enough.html
Sanam Vakil, “Tehran Gambles to Survive,” Current History, 106, 704 (December
2007), pp. 414-421. OC (Sakai)
Hassan Rouhani, “Why Iran Seeks Constructive Engagement”, Washington Post, September
19th, 20013.
Tuesday 4/1 Second FPC Day, Group Papers in Class
Friday 4/4 Egypt: Past and Post-2011 Revolution (Mid-Term Papers are due)
Tuesday 4/8 Turkey: An Emerging Power in the Middle Eastern Region
9 Friday 4/11–Friday 4/27
Part VI America’s Grand Strategy for the 21st Century
Friday 4/11 Domestic and International Constrains
Ikenberry, pp.238 – 255, (Michael Mastanduno “ The United States Political System and
International Leadership: A Decidedly Inferior Form of Government?”)
Ikenberry, pp 575 – 586 (Arthur Schlesinger “America and the World: Isolationism Resurgent?”)
Tuesday 4/15 The Future of Democratic Peace
Charles Lipson, Reliable Partners: How Democracies Have Made a Separate
Peace. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2003. (Sakai)
Friday 4/18 Transnational Policy Problems (1)
Hook, chapter twelve
Tuesday 4/22 Transnational Policy Problems (2)
Friday 4/25 Managing non-Polarity
Richard Haass, “The Age of Non-Polarity: What will Follow US Dominance?” Foreign Policy
May/June 2008. (Sakai)
Fareed Zakaria “The Post American World”
Final Exam: TBD
10