New York University
Wagner Graduate School of Public Service
PADM-GP 2120
Control and Accountability
Executive Decisionmaking
in
Organizations:
Professor Timothy Naftali
Email: timothy.naftali@nyu.edu
Fall 2015
Office Hours: by appointment,
Puck 3009, please contact by email to
arrange.
Course Objectives:
a) To hone the skills necessary for policy analysis
b) To hone the skills required for executive decision-making in
public institutions.
c) To broaden knowledge of cultures of decisionmaking and
the role of individual executives.
d) To tighten writing skills.
e) To explore the utility of past cases for current problems.
f) To improve information management skills
Course Requirements:
1) Four short (2 page) papers: (10% each x 4) 40%
2) Class Participation/Class Presentation: 25%
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3) Final (6 page) Long Memo: 35%
Course Policies:
1. Short Paper guidelines:
Over the course of the semester, the students will be
required to write two options memos, an after-action
briefing and an Op-Ed. The topics of these papers will reflect
the cases discussed in class and the selection of the five the
student will make in consultation with the instructor. Papers
must be double-spaced, with one-inch margins and
numbered pages. They may be emailed to the instructor but,
in any case, are due before the start of the class where the
issue in question will be discussed.
2. Long Memo guidelines:
The long paper will be a policy paper designed for use by
one of the Presidential candidates. The student will
determine the policy focus of the memo in consultation with
the instructor. All of the students will present drafts of their
papers to the other students at the last class to permit
general discussion and a tightening of the final product. The
final memos will be due December 14.
3. Moses Center for Students with Disabilities:
If you are student with a disability who is requesting
accommodations, please contact New York University’s
Moses Center for Students with Disabilities. You must be
registered with CSD to receive
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accommodations. Information about the Moses Center can
be found at www.nyu.edu/csd. The Moses Center is located
at 726 Broadway on the second floor.
4. Religious holidays:
NYU’s policy is to accommodate students’ observances of
religious holidays. In order to receive accommodation, you
must notify the instructor during the first two weeks of the
semester of any planned absences related to religious
observance. Further details on NYU’s policies may be found
at:
http://www.nyu.edu/about/policies-guidelinescompliance/policies-and-guidelines/university-calendarpolicy-on-religious-holidays.html
5. Academic honesty:
Intellectual integrity is the university’s most fundamental
commitment. Plagiarism of any kind will be penalized to the
fullest possible extent, without warning or exception.
The most common causes of plagiarism are not deliberate
dishonesty, but stress and uncertainty. You are encouraged
to begin assignments well in advance of the deadline, and to
check with the instructor if you have any questions.
Whenever you draw upon somebody else’s words or ideas
to make a point, give them credit in a note. If you have
questions about documentation requirements, don’t guess –
just ask.
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For further details on university policy, strictly adhered to in
this class, see:
http://cas.nyu.edu/page/ug.academicintegrity
Course materials
All books with an asterisk have been ordered to the NYU
Bookstore on Broadway and their purchase is recommended.
Materials found on the course website are indicated by an +.
* = NYU Bookstore
+ = Course Website
Week One: September 2
The Power of What We Think We Know:
Required Reading:
Richard Neustadt and Ernest May, Thinking in Time: The Use of
History for Decision-Makers, New York: Free Press, 1988, Chapter
3.+
Week Two: September 9
Hot War Decisions
Required Reading:
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1) John Prados, Combine Fleet Decoded: The Secret History of
American Intelligence and the Japanese Navy in World War II, US
Naval Institute Press, 2001, 458-463 +
2) Gar Alperovitz, The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb and the
Architecture of an American Myth, New York: Vintage, 1996, pp.
321-371+
3) Douglas J. MacEachin, The Final Months of the War with japan:
Signals Intelligence, U.S. Invasion Planning, and the A-Bomb
Decision, CIA, Center for the Study of Intelligence, December
1998;; 1-38; Document 8 [Minutes of Meeting held at White
House, June 18, 1945]; Documents 18 A and 18 C [Prof. Cate’s
request and Truman’s response].
https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-ofintelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/the-finalmonths-of-the-war-with-japan-signals-intelligence-u-s-invasionplanning-and-the-a-bomb-decision/csi9810001.html
Week Three: September 16
Using the Military in a Cold War: Cuba, October 1962
Required Reading:
1) Neustadt/May, Chapter 1*
2) Robert Kennedy, Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile
Crisis (1968), 23-56; 79-110+
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3) Ernest May and Philip D. Zelikow, The Kennedy Tapes: Inside the
White House During the Cuban Missile Crisis Norton: New York,
2001, 73-108; 124-137; 301-401.+
Week Four: September 23
Dealing with Terrorists; Dealing with Iran
Required Reading:
1) Selections from the Nixon and Reagan Presidential Libraries +
2) Timothy Naftali, Blind Spot: The Secret History of American
Counterterrorism, New York: Basic Books, 2005, pp. 116-226.+
3) Robert Gates, Duty: Memoirs of a Secretary at War, New York:
Knopf, 2014, pp. 177-193*
Week Five: September 30
Whistleblowing and Breaking the Law: Ellsberg and the Plumbers
Required Reading:
1) Egil “Bud” Krogh, Integrity: Good People, Bad Choices and Life
Lessons from the White House, New York: Public Affairs, 2007. 1138 *
2) Daniel Ellsberg, Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the
Pentagon papers, New York: Viking, 2002, 286-410+
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3) NBC News, “Inside the Mind of Edward Snowden,” May 28,
2014, Interview with Edward Snowden, Parts 1-6, NBCNEWS.Com.
Week Six: October 7
Politics and National Security
Required reading:
1) Neustadt/May, Vietnam Chapter.*
2) Michael Beschloss, Reaching for Glory: Lyndon Johnson’s Secret
White House Tapes, 1964-1965 New York: Simon & Schuster,
2001, 343-417
3) Nixon Library (2011), Memoirs v. Tapes: President Nixon and
the December Bombings,
http://www.nixonlibrary.gov/exhibits/decbomb/splash.html
or: US State Department, Foreign Relations of the United States,
1964-1968, Volume III, Vietnam June-Dec 1965, Docs. 7-8, 26, 3336, 38-45, 55, 61, 64, 66-67, 71-72, 78-79, 85, 93-94, 97
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus196468v03/d97
4) Henry A. Kissinger, The Necessity For Choice: Prospects of
American Foreign Policy, Harper & Row, 1960, pp. 340-358+
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Week Seven: October 14
Plagues and Public Health Decision-making
Required Reading:
1) Neustadt/May, Chapter 3.
2) Laurie Garrett, “The Next Pandemic?”; Michael T.
Osterholm “Preparing for the Next Pandemic;”; Laurie
Garrett, “The Lesson of HIV/AIDs,” all in Foreign Affairs,
July/August 2005.+
3) G.K. SteelFisher, R. J. Blendon and N. Lasala-Blanco, “Ebola in
the United States—Public Reactions and Implications, August
22, 2015; Bill Gates, “The Nest Epidemic—Lessons from
Ebola, April 9, 2015, Lisa Rosenbaum, M.D., “Communicating
Uncertainty—Ebola, Public Health and the Scientific
Process,” January 1, 2015, G. Gonsalves and P. Staley,“Panic,
paranoia and Public Health,” November 5, 2014. New
England Journal of Medicine,
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1413816?que
ry=featured_ebola
Week Eight: October 21
Advisors and Major Social Policy
Required Reading:
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1) Carl Bernstein, A Woman in Charge, pp. 244-428*
2) Bill Clinton, My Life, New York: Vintage Books, 2004, 481483; 495-501; 547-549+
3) Selections from Hillary Rodham Clinton, Living History+
4) Selected documents from the Clinton Library +
Special Guest: Carl Bernstein
Week Nine: October 28
Stopping Auschwitz and Rwanda?
Required Reading:
1) Robert Louis Benson, “Sigint and the Holocaust,” NSA.
https://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/cryptologic_quarterly/
sigint_and_the_holocaust.pdf
2) Dino Brugioni, “Auschwitz and Birkenau: Why the World War II
Photointerpreters failed to locate the Extermination Complex.
“http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/library/imint/holocaust2.ht
m
3) David Halberstam, War in a Time of Peace: Bush, Clinton and
the Generals, New York: Scribner’s, 2001, pp. 248-282
4) Bill Clinton, 592-593
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5) Selected articles on Rwanda
“Hate Radio in Rwanda,” pp. 93-107
“French Policy in Rwanda,” pp. 157-183+
6) Selected Documents from Clinton Library+
Week Ten: November 4
Assassination Decisions from Castro to Al-Awlaki
Required Reading
1) Excerpts from Church Committee Report, Alleged
Assassination Plots Involving Foreign Leaders (1975), pp. 7490; 116-176; 256-57; 260-277.+
2) Leon Panetta, Worthy Fights: A Memoir of Leadership in War
and Peace, New York: Penguin Press, 2014, pp. 289-331;
385-392
3) Robert Gates, pp. 128-133; 297-303; 538-546
4) Henry J. Crumpton , Jr., The Art of Intelligence: Lessons from
a Life in the CIA’s Clandestine Service, New York: Penguin
Press, 2012, 148-160+
Week Eleven: November 11
Torture
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Required Reading
1) Timothy Naftali: “Did the CIA Go Rogue After 9/11?” Slate
December 9, 2014,
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2
014/12/senate_intelligence_report_on_cia_torture_america
_s_spy_agency_lied_to_the.html
2) Selections from the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
Report on the Central Intelligence Agency’s Detention and
Interrogation Program
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/12/09/world/cia
-torture-report-document.html?_r=0
3) Selection from George W. Bush, Decision Points, New York:
Broadway Books, 2011, +
4) George Tenet, At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the
CIA, New York: Harper Collins, 2007, 229-257+
Week Twelve: November 18
Closing Guantanamo
Required Reading:
1) Donald Rumsfeld, Known and Unknown: A Memoir, New York:
Sentinel, 2011, pp. 566-609 +
2) Gates, 149-153; 250-286
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3) Matthew Waxman, “The Smart Way for Shutting Gitmo down,”
The Washington Post, October 28, 2007,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2007/10/26/AR2007102601761_pf.html
4) Waxman, “Closing Guantanamo is Way Harder than you think,”
Foreign Policy, January 21, 2009.
http://foreignpolicy.com/2009/01/21/closing-guantanamo-isway-harder-than-you-think/
5)Waxman, “Transfers of Guantanamo Detainees to Yemen: Policy
Continuity Between Administrations,” Brookings Institution,
http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2011/06/15-yemenwittes
6)Waxman, LawFare Blog, July 30, 2013,
https://www.lawfareblog.com/closing-guantanamo-would-stillleave-some-toughest-decisions-next-president
7) President Barack Obama, Executive Order, January 22, 2009,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/ClosureOfGuanta
namoDetentionFacilities
8) President Obama, Speech on National Security, May 21, 2009,
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/remarkspresident-national-security-5-21-09
9) The White House, Guantanamo, March 2011.
https://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/03/07/newactions-guantanamo-bay-and-detaineepolicy&title=New%20Actions%20on%20Guantanamo%20Bay%20
and%20Detainee%20Policy
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Special Guest: Professor Matthew Waxman, former deputy
assistant secretary of defense for detainee affairs, 2004-2005.
Week Thirteen: November 25
No Meeting: Happy Thanksgiving!
Week Fourteen: December 2
Don’t Tell: Three Presidents, LGBT politics, leaking and military
decisionmaking
Required Reading:
Bill Clinton, 467-468; 483-486
Gates, 297-303; 425-428; 432-445
Panetta, 247-248; 364-369
Shane Harris, The Watchers: The Rise of America’s Surveillance
State, 199-209. +
Selections from Clinton Presidential Library+
Week Fifteen: December 9
Class Memo Presentations
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