***FOR ILLUSTRATIVE PURPOSES ONLY. COURSE MAY BE REVISED FOR STUDY YEAR 2018/2019*** Faculty of European Studies Department of Political Science THE UNITED STATES IN INTERNATIONAL POLITICS Lecturer: Edijs Bošs, PhD (Cantab) AIMS OF THE COURSE Successful completion of the course gives students 5 credits (segment A) toward the degree. The course will provide students with an overview of the evolution of American foreign policy, diplomatic practices and strategic debates. The discussion will be grounded in the history of American foreign relations insofar as it provides a better understanding of how established policy traditions influence contemporary developments. In an attempt to discern durable elements of U.S. grand strategy, the course will review major developments in the American encounter with the world from the Founding Fathers until recent debates on the decline of America s post- Cold War unipolarity. Sessions 1 & 2 lectures COURSE OUTLINE: The creation of United States and the geopolitical context of the emerging superpower. Challenges in early American foreign policy. Traditions of isolationism, internationalism, idealism and realism. The Monroe Doctrine and territorial expansion until the Civil War. The path towards empire : the Spanish-American War and America s place in the changing global geopolitical setting at the turn of the 20 th century. Excerpts from Felix Gilbert, To the Farewell Address: Ideas of Early American Foreign Policy (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1970). Thomas G. Paterson, J. Gerry Clifford, Kenneth J. Hagan, American Foreign Relations: A History Since 1985, 5 th ed. (Boston: Wadsworth, 2000), pp. 1-29.
Sessions 3&4 seminars Students are expected to have read documents provided as source material for the essay (see below). The title of the seminar discussion will be: The Founding Fathers debate American foreign policy. Session 5 lecture Towards the Pax Americana: World War I, Woodrow Wilson and the traditions of liberal internationalism. World War II and Franklin Delano Roosevelt s ideas about the international order. Excerpts from Adam Tooze, The Deluge: The Great War, America and the Remaking of the Global Order, 1916-1931 (NY: Viking, 2014). Excerpts from John L. Harper, American Visions of Europe (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996). Walter A. McDougall, Promised Land, Crusader State: the American Encounter with the World Since 1776 (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1997), pp. 122-146. Session 6 & 7 lectures The Cold War and the American grand strategy in the age of bipolarity: the various conceptions of containment and simultaneous attempts to continue the pursuit of a liberal world order. Walter A. McDougall, Promised Land, Crusader State: the American Encounter with the World Since 1776 (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1997), pp. 147-171. Excerpts from G. John Ikenberry, Liberal Leviathan: The Origins, Crisis and Transformation of the American World Order (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011). Session 8 lecture Cold War case study: the Vietnam War. Outline of the history of the conflict and its significance for the study of American foreign policy. 2
Excerpts from George C. Herring, America s Longest War: the United States and Vietnam 1950-1975 (New York: McGraw Hill, 2001). Sessions 9 & 10 seminars Donald Trump s worldview. Excerpts from Charlie Laderman and Brendan Simms, Donald Trump: The Making of a World View, (London: I.B.Tauris, 2017). consult the list of questions about the text (see Appendix A). In addition to preparation for seminar Session 11 lecture Bill Clinton administration s ideas about the democratic enlargement with a specific focus on the development of relations with the Baltic States in the 1990s. Excerpts from Derek Chollet and James Goldgeier, America Between the Wars (NY: Perseus, 2008). John R. Beyrle, The Long Good-Bye: The Withdrawal of Russian Military Forces from the Baltic States (1996), Georgetown University Institute for the Study of Diplomacy. Session 12 - lecture George W. Bush administration and neoconservative ideas about American grand strategy. The reluctant realism and progressive pragmatism of the Obama administration. William Kristol and Robert Kagan, National Interest and Global Responsibility in The Neocon Reader ed. by Irwin Seltzer (New York: Grove Press, 2004), pp. 56-77. Stefan Halper and Jonathan Clarke, America Alone: the Neoconservatives and the Global Order (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), pp. 201-231. Excerpts from Martin S. Indyk, Kenneth G. Lieberthal, Michael E. O Hanlon, Bending History: Barack Obama s Foreign Policy (Washington: Brookings Institution, 2012). 3
Jeffrey Goldberg, The Obama Doctrine, The Atlantic, April 2016. Sessions 13&14 seminars The Unquiet Frontier: America and Regional Allies Excerpts from Jakub J. Grygiel, A. Wess Mitchell, The Unquiet Frontier (Princeton UP, 2017) consult the list of questions about the text (see Appendix B). In addition to preparation for seminar Session 15 lecture The U.S. as a European power Excerpts from Geir Lundestad, The United States and Western Europe Since 1945 (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2003). Session 16 lecture The U.S. as a regional power in Middle East. Challenges to and sources of U.S. primacy. American options for future grand strategy. Excerpts from Peter L. Hahn, Crisis and Crossfire: The United States and the Middle East Since 1945 (Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, 2005). Excerpts from Richard N. Haass, Foreign Policy Begins at Home: the Case for Putting America s House in Order (New York: Basic Books, 2013). Robert J. Art, Geopolitics Updated: the Strategy of Selective Engagement (1998) in R. J. Art, America s Grand Strategy and World Politics (New York: Routledge, 2009), pp. 234-266. Session 17 lecture An overview of the historical development of U.S.-Chinese relations. 4
Excerpts from Warren I. Cohen, America s Response to China: a History of Sino-American Relations (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010). Hillary Clinton, America s Pacific Century, Foreign Policy, November 2011. Sessions 18, 19, 20 seminars Destined for War? The U.S., China and the Thucydides Trap. Excerpts from Graham Allison, Destined for War (London: Scribe, 2017) consult the list of questions about the text (see Appendix C). In addition to preparation for seminar COURSE EVALUATION: Performance in seminar discussions: 4x10% = 40% Essays: 4x10% = 40% Exam: 20% 5