George Mason University
Fall 2016
GOVT 344-001
American Foreign Policy
MW 10:30-11:45am
Professor: Colin Dueck
Classroom: David King Jr. Hall 1006
Office: Robinson A 219
TA:
Office hours: M 1-4 and by appointment
TA e-mail:
Professor e-mail: [email protected]
Course requirements
This class is an upper-level undergraduate introduction to the history, bureaucratic processes,
and current challenges behind American foreign policy.
Assignments include a mid-term, a final exam, and written memos for each week of class.
Questions on both the mid-term and the final will be based upon material in the lectures and in the
required readings. Timely and intelligent participation in class discussion will be rewarded. Finally, you
will be expected to keep up with current events relevant to American foreign policy. Overall grades are
determined as follows:
30%
Mid-term exam
15%
Participation in class discussion, including group discussions and on-time appearance
15 %
Written memos
40%
Final exam
Each week of class, you will be expected to write up a brief memo based upon a given chapter
reading for one day. Students who do not will receive an “F” on the policy memo assignment for that
week. The assignment is pass/fail. Your task in these memos will be to summarize and/or analyze, in no
more than a page, one required chapter for that week.
Late appearance to class is unprofessional and unwelcome. Students who are late multiple
times will be penalized significantly on their class participation grade.
The only make-up exams, for the mid-term or the final, will be in documented cases of medical
or family emergencies, or religious holidays recognized by George Mason University.
Laptops and other electronic devices may not be switched on during class.
Course textbooks
All of the books below will be available for purchase at the GMU bookstore:
Center for Strategic and International Studies, Global Flashpoints 2016 (CSIS, 2016)
Colin Dueck, The Obama Doctrine (Oxford University Press, 2015)
Helen Milner, Sailing the Water’s Edge (Princeton University Press, 2015)
Joseph Nye, The Future of Power (Public Affairs, 2011)
Peter Rodman, Presidential Command (Vintage, 2010)
Course schedule
August 29
Introduction
August 31
America’s rise to world power
Terry Deibel, “Strategies Before Containment,” International Security 16:4 (Spring 1992)
September 7
Containment and détente
Melvyn Leffler, “The American Conception of National Security and the Beginnings of the Cold War,”
American Historical Review 89:2 (April 1984)
Peter Rodman, Presidential Command, chapter 3
September 12 The end of the Cold War
Rodman, chapters 6 and 7
September 14 Bill Clinton’s foreign policy
Rodman, chapter 8
September 19 George W. Bush’s foreign policy
Rodman, chapter 9
September 21 Barack Obama’s foreign policy
Colin Dueck, The Obama Doctrine, 25-39, 42-47, 75-91, 100-107
Gideon Rose, “What Obama Gets Right,” Foreign Affairs 94:5 (September/October 2015)
September 26 Foreign policy instruments and strategies
Dueck, 14-25
Joseph Nye, The Future of Power, chapters 1-4
Recommended: Helen Milner, Sailing the Water’s Edge, chapters 1 and 8, and Global Flashpoints 2016,
chapters 30 and 32
September 28 Public opinion and party politics
Dueck, 110-129, 155-185
Milner, chapter 6
October 3
Electoral politics and foreign policy
Dueck, 129-138, 186-196
Philip Rucker and Robert Costa, “Trump questions need for NATO, outlines noninterventionist foreign
policy,” The Washington Post, March 21, 2016
Jeffrey Goldberg, “Is There a Hillary Doctrine?” The Atlantic, May 13, 2016
October 5
Congress and interest groups
Dueck, 138-144
Milner, chapters 3 and 4
October 11
Foreign policy bureaucracies
Rodman, chapters 1 and 2
Milner, chapter 5
David Samuels, “The Aspiring Novelist Who Became Obama’s Foreign Policy Guru,” New York Times
Magazine, May 5, 2016
October 12, 17 Case studies in presidential leadership
Recommended: Rodman, chapters 4 and 5
October 19
Presidential foreign policy leadership
Dueck, 144-152, 241-245
Rodman, chapter 10
Milner, chapter 2
October 24
Midterm exam
October 26
Terrorism
Dueck, 48-57, 233-237
Global Flashpoints, chapters 5, 6, and 20
October 31
Nuclear proliferation: Iran
Dueck, 57-64, 226-229
Global Flashpoints, chapters 7, 24-25
November 2
Nuclear proliferation: North Korea
Dueck, 64-65, 229-233
Global Flashpoints, chapters 18, 26
November 7
Russia
Dueck, 65-72, 221-223
Global Flashpoints, chapters 10 and 12
November 9
Europe
Global Flashpoints, chapters 9 and 11
November 14
China
Dueck, 72-75, 224-226
Global Flashpoints, chapters 13-15
November 16
India and Japan
Global Flashpoints, chapter 17
Michael Auslin, “Japan’s New Realism,” Foreign Affairs (March/April 2016)
November 21
Latin America
Global Flashpoints, chapter 35
November 28
U.S. defense posture and alliances
Dueck, 91-100, 237-239
Global Flashpoints, chapter 21
November 30
Trade policy
Dueck, 239-241
Global Flashpoints, chapter 16
December 5
Conclusion: America’s role in the world
Dueck, 202-220
Nye, chapter 6
Recommended: Global Flashpoints, chapters 2-4, 31, and 36
December 7
Final exam review
December 14
Final exam