POLS 470 Topics in International Politics Fall 2011 Monday 11H30-14H20 Seminar Room: Mackintosh-Corry D122 INSTRUCTOR: E-MAIL ADDRESS: OFFICE: David G. Haglund david.haglund@queensu.ca Mackintosh-Corry C329 TELEPHONE: 613-533-6231 OFFICE HOURS: Monday 14H30-15H30 Tuesday 15H00-16H00 Academic integrity is constituted by the five core fundamental values of honesty, trust, fairness, respect, and responsibility (see http://www.academicintegrity.org/fundamental_values_project/index.php). These values are central to the building, nurturing, and sustaining of an academic community in which all members of the community will thrive. Adherence to the values expressed through academic integrity forms a foundation for the freedom of inquiry and exchange of ideas essential to the intellectual life of the University (see the Senate Report on Principles and Priorities). Students are responsible for familiarizing themselves with the regulations concerning academic integrity and for ensuring that their assignments conform to the principles of academic integrity. Information on academic integrity is available in the Arts and Science Calendar (see Academic Regulation 1), on the Arts and Science website (see http://www.queensu.ca/artsci/academics/academic-integrity), and from the instructor of this course. Departures from academic integrity include plagiarism, use of unauthorized materials, facilitation, forgery, and falsification, and are antithetical to the development of an academic community at Queen s. Given the seriousness of these matters, actions that contravene the regulation on academic integrity carry sanctions that can range from a warning or the loss of grades on an assignment to the failure of a course to a requirement to withdraw from the university. 1
Students are advised that incomplete standing will be granted only with the permission of the chair of undergraduate or graduate studies (as appropriate) and only where there is a clear demonstration of need. Applications for "Incomplete" standing must be made in the first instance to the instructor on the form available in the General Office. The simple fact of nonsubmission of work does not constitute an application and will result in a grade of zero for that assignment. Students who feel that there are reasons to have their grades reviewed should follow the steps set out in the Faculty of Arts and Science s Regulation 13, Review of Grades and Examinations. This material is copyrighted and is for the sole use of students registered in POLS 470. This material shall not be distributed or disseminated to anyone other than students registered in POLS 470. Failure to abide by these conditions is a breach of copyright, and may also constitute a breach of academic integrity under the University Senate s Academic Integrity Policy Statement. Course Description This is a generic topics course in international politics, whose theme this year pertains to an issue of some significance in the US and other western industrialized countries, namely the influence said to be attained by ethnic diasporas in the making of foreign policy. In this seminar, we will be taking a close look at this question, focusing mainly on the US because that has been where the imputed impact of ethnic lobbying has been said to be the most pronounced.. Trying to demonstrate linkages between ethnic diasporas (and ethnic identity ) and foreign policy can sometimes be a controversial undertaking, as is amply demonstrated by the fireworks touched off by two of the materials you will be reading this term (to wit, an article by John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, and a book by Samuel Huntington). Yet whatever one s position on these respective authors theses, their topic of inquiry is hardly a novel one. Few analysts would reject the general proposition that American foreign policy can be subject to influence-attempts associated with ethnic diasporas and related identity groupings. There is a vast and rich body of literature in American policy and academic circles regarding just how much sway ethnic interests do or should exert over the shaping of strategy. Indeed, in no other Western country has there been such a well-established practice of linking ethnicity and diasporas to policy outputs as in America an old practice that remains very much alive, and hardly required the abovenamed professors to bring it to the fore. Whether one examines the relative weight today of the Cuban-American diaspora in the shaping of policy toward Cuba, or the German- American community a century ago in respect of America s strategic interests in Europe, the reality is that in a pluralistic polity such as America s, it is only to be expected that 2
ethnic interest groups might seek to influence policy in directions favourable to their kin groups, with some faring better than others, for a variety of reasons. You will notice that the reading for this seminar has been front-end loaded, meaning that it is not distributed in an even fashion throughout the term, but is instead concentrated in weeks two through eight. During these weeks, we will be reading intensively in our topic, covering a range of conceptual, empirical, and normative perspectives. For those readings, I will not task any particular student(s) to lead the discussion; instead, we will have a more-or-less free-ranging debate on the weekly topics. Beginning in week nine, however, your two specific, and related, tasks will come to dominate the seminar. First and foremost of those tasks is the writing of a major research essay, of some 20 to 25 pages. Secondly, will be an in-class presentation of around 20 minutes, based on your essay. For the vast majority of you, the presentation will have to be made before you have actually gotten around to writing the paper. Presentations will be made during weeks nine through twelve of the semester, and (depending upon eventual course enrolment) there will likely be no fewer than four and no more than five such presentations a week over this period, followed by general discussion. The paper topic is to be chosen by you, after consultation with me, and ideally you should have a fairly good idea of what you will focusing upon by mid October, at the very latest. The best seminars are those with active participation on everyone s part. It follows that I encourage and anticipate such participation, which will take two forms: the aforementioned individual presentations, and class discussions of the assigned readings. The grade will be determined on the following basis: Research Paper 50% Final Exam 30% Seminar Participation 20% A word on deadlines for submission of your research paper (and my apologies to those of you who have had to endure this nagging from me in the past): I do not assess penalties for late submissions, because I do not accept late submissions save on those rare occasions when a certified exemption has been arranged (i.e., you provide documentation of the condition, usually though not always medical in nature, that stood between you and your handing in the essay on time). The reasons for this policy are threefold: 1) it is never in your interests that you be encouraged to fall into the bad habit of putting off commitments a habit that you can count on coming back to haunt you later in life; 2) it is hardly fair to those (the overwhelming majority) who do complete on time to give you a break that I have denied them, so please do not ask me to punish them and reward you; and 3) it is an administrative nightmare to try to keep track of who is in on time and who is not. Ergo, plan to hand in the assignment when it is due, or not at all (again, on the assumption you have no legitimate grounds for an exemption). If you do not hand in 3
your essay, but manage to get a perfect score on the final exam, you may still be able to pass the course. (Mind you, no one has ever attained a perfect score on a final exam I have set.) We can decide the actual deadline for submission early in the term. I generally like to leave the choice of date to the students, as they have a better idea than I of their schedules. The point is, once we settle on a date, we keep to it. The required articles are easily obtainable through the electronic journal holdings of Stauffer Library; you all know how to get access to those holdings by this stage. There are also two required books to be read, all available for purchasing even renting, I am told! from the Queen s Bookstore. These will also be placed on reserve at the Stauffer Library. In the order in which we will read the three books, they are: Tony Smith, Foreign Attachments: The Power of Ethnic Groups in the Making of American Foreign Policy (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000). Samuel P. Huntington, Who Are We? The Challenges to America s National Identity (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004). NB: We will be having a visitor during Week 2 (19 September): Tyson McNeil-Hay, a former grad student of mine and currently a third-year student in the Queen s law school. Tyson and I co-authored an article that will be appearing soon in the journal Ethnopolitics, and he will be helping me lead our discussion of the brouhaha surrounding the publication, first in article form and then in book form, of the Mearsheimer and Walt thesis about the Israel Lobby and its apparent impact on US foreign policy. Readings by Week and Topic Week 1 Introduction to the Course Week 2 The Controversy Over the Israel Lobby Michael Massing, The Storm over the Israel Lobby, New York Review of Books 53, 10 (8 June 2006). John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen M. Walt, The Israel Lobby, London Review of Books 28 (23 March 2006). 4
John J. Mearsheimer, and Stephen M. Walt, The Blind Man and the Elephant in the Room: Robert Lieberman and the Israel Lobby, Perspectives on Politics 7 (June 2009): 259-73 Robert C. Lieberman, The Israel Lobby and American Politics, Perspectives on Politics 7 (June 2009): 235-57. Week 3 Diasporas and International Politics Brian J. Auten, Political Diasporas and Exiles as Instruments of Statecraft, Comparative Strategy 25, 4 (September 2006): 329-41. Rogers Brubaker, The Diaspora Diaspora, Ethnic and Racial Studies 28, 1 (January 2005): 1-19. Stephen M. Saideman, The Power of the Small: The Impact of Ethnic Minorities on Foreign Policy, SAIS Review 22, 2 (July 2002): 93-105. Week 4 Ethnicity and American Foreign Policy: I Tony Smith, Foreign Attachments: The Power of Ethnic Groups in the Making of American Foreign Policy (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000). Week 5 Thanksgiving: No Class Week 6 Ethnicity and American Foreign Policy: II Charles McCurdy Matthias, Jr., Ethnic Groups and Foreign Policy. Foreign Affairs 59, 5 (Summer 1981): 975-98 Trevor Rubenzer, Ethnic Minority Interest Group Attributes and U.S. Foreign Policy Influence: A Qualitative Comparative Analysis, Foreign Policy Analysis 4 (April 2008): 169-85. Yossi Shain, Ethnic Diasporas and U.S. Foreign Policy, Political Science Quarterly 109, 4 (Winter 1994-95): 811 42. 5
Week 7 Theorizing Influence and Lobbying Bas Arts and Piet Verschuren, Assessing Political Influence in Complex Decision-making: An Instrument Based on Triangulation. International Political Science Review 20, 4 (1999): 411-24. Richard Ned Lebow, What s So Different about a Counterfactual? World Politics 52, 4 (July 2000): 577-85. Kenneth A. Shepsle, Congress Is a They, not an It : Legislative Intent as Oxymoron, International Review of Law and Economics 12, 2 (June 1992): 239 56. Week 8 Identity and Diasporas Samuel P. Huntington, Who Are We? The Challenges to America s National Identity (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004). Weeks 9-12 Student Presentations To be arranged as the semester progresses. 6