Spring 2014
The Harvard Kennedy School
International and Global Affairs
IGA-100
Class Time: Tuesday & Thursday, 2:40pm – 4:00pm (Littauer 280)
Review Session: Friday, 11:40pm-1 pm (Littauer 230)
The first day of class is Tuesday, January 28.
Course Leader: Steven E. Miller
Littauer 378
Office Hours:
Monday, 1:00-3:00
Faculty Assistant: Tamara Tiska
tamara_tiska@hks.harvard.edu
Objectives: This course is a wide-ranging introduction to some of the core principles of international
affairs and foreign policy analysis. Introductory sessions will cover key concepts and theories of
international relations and basic principles of policy analysis. Subsequent weeks will apply these ideas to
a diverse set of contemporary policy problems, with individual IGA faculty covering topics drawn from
their own research and policy interests. The course emphasizes skill development, through an array of
written and oral exercises and team assignments.
Course Organization and Requirements: The course will be conducted through a combination of
lectures, in-class discussions, and written and/or oral assignments (some individual and some done in
teams).
Students are expected to complete all of the required reading prior to each class and to come to class
prepared to participate fully in the discussion.
Grades will be based on class participation (10%) written/oral assignments (40%) and a final take-home
examination (50%).
Course Materials: Readings for the course will be available on the course webpage.
Textbooks: 1) Baylis, Smith & Owens, Globalization of World Politics. We will be reading several
chapters of this book and have made it available for purchase at the Coop. Copies will also be available
on reserve in the HKS library and the specific chapters will be on the course page.
2) Weston, Anthony, A Rulebook for Arguments, 4th edition. This book is available for purchase at the
Coop and on reserve in the library.
Who should take this course?
IGA-100 is a required first year course for all MPP1 students considering a concentration in IGA. Entry
to the course is restricted to those students. The goal of the course is to provide a common, and unique,
introduction for IGA concentrators to the core principles of international affairs and foreign policy
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analysis and how those principles can be applied to the design of practical solutions to problems that
arise in today’s globally interconnected world. There are no exemptions from this course. Students who
enter the MPP Program in the Fall semester of the 2012/13 academic year must enroll in IGA-100 during
the Spring 2013 semester in order to become IGA concentrators. Second-year MPP candidates are not
permitted to enroll in IGA-100 or to switch to the IGA concentration. It is not open to MPA, MPA/ID,
or MC-MPA students.
Class Schedule and Assignments
PART I: ANALYZING INTERNATIONAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS
Tuesday, January 28: Introduction: Why Does it Matter? [Miller]
“War or Peace?” and “What Were They Thinking? Hopes, Fears, Ideas, and Unspoken
Assumptions,” in MacMillan, Margaret, The War that Ended Peace: The Road to 1914,
pp. xxi-xxxv & pp. 245-284.
Thursday, January 30: What World? Understanding a Complex International System [Miller]
Walt, Stephen M., “The Relationship between Theory and Policy in International Relations,”
Annual Review of Political Science (2005), 23-48
Weston, Anthony, A Rulebook for Arguments, 4th edition. [Available for purchase at the Coop
and in the library course reserves].
Note: students with little or no prior background in the field should also read Baylis, Smith &
Owens, Globalization of World Politics, pp. 1-89.
Tuesday, February 4: Theoretical Traditions: Realism, Liberalism, and Social Constructivism
[Miller]
Walt, Stephen M. “International Relations: One World, Many Theories,” Foreign Policy, No.
110 (Spring 1998).
Mearsheimer, John J., The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (W.W. Norton, 2001), chap. 2.
Dunne, Timothy. “Liberalism,” in Baylis, Smith and Owens, Globalization of World Politics,
108-123.
Barnett, Michael “Social Constructivism,” in Baylis, Smith and Owens, Globalization of World
Politics, pp. 162-73.
Thursday, February 6: Why is There Conflict in World Politics? [Miller]
Levy, J.S. “The Causes of War and Conditions of Peace,” Annual Review of Political Science 1
(1998), pp. 139-165.
Kahneman, D. and J. Renshon. “Why Hawks Win,” Foreign Policy 154 (Jan. 2007), 34-38
Van Evera, Stephen, “Why States Believe Foolish Ideas,” (draft ms. MIT, 2002).
Tuesday, February 11: Meeting the Challenge of Global Governance [Ruggie].
Ruggie, John. “Reconstituting the Global Domain: Issues, Actors, and Practices,” European
Journal of International Relations 10, no. 4 (2004).
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Abbott K. & Snidal, D. “Values and Interests: International Legalization in the Fight Against
Corruption,” Journal of Legal Studies, 31 (S1, January 2002);
Xue, H. “Chinese Observations on International Law,” Chinese Journal of International Law
6, no. 1 (2007).
Falkner et al, “International Climate Policy after Copenhagen: Towards a ‘Building Blocks’
Approach,” Global Policy, 1 (October 2010).
Thursday, February 13: Why and When Do States Cooperate? [Miller]
Stein, A. Why Nations Cooperate: Circumstance and Choice in International Relations
(Ithaca: Cornell University Press 1990, pp. 3-20.
Oye, K. “Explaining Cooperation under Anarchy: Hypotheses and Strategies,” World Politics
38, no. 1 (October 1985).
Tuesday, February 18: Policy Analysis in International Affairs [Miller]
Bardach, E. A Practical Guide for Policy Analysis, pp. 1-64.
Kugler, R. Policy Analysis in National Security Affairs: New Methods for a New Era (NDU
Press, 2006), chaps 1 and 2.
Hajer, M. “Policy without Polity?: Policy Analysis and the Institutional Void,” Policy Sciences
36 2003), pp. 175-95.
“A One-Page Memo on Writing Policy Memos” (class handout)
Thursday, February 20: Assessing Foreign Policies [Walt]
Walt, Stephen M., “Making the Grade: Is There a Way to Judge if a Foreign Policy is
Successful?,” Foreign Policy, January 6, 2014.
Tuesday, February 25: The Future of Diplomacy [Burns]
J.F. Kennedy, “Commencement Address at American University, June 10, 1963”
D. Ross, “Cases of Statecraft,” from Statecraft (Farrar, Straus & Giroux), chap. 3
R. Holbrooke, To End A War (Random House, 1998), pps. xv-xvii, 21-33, 112-121, 200-214,
231-240, 288-327, 358-69
Thursday, February 27: International Ethics and Human Rights [Hehir] (TBC)
Brown, Chris. “Human Rights” in Baylis and Smith, eds., The Globalization of World Politics,
pp. 508-519.
Ignatieff, Michael. “The Attack on Human Rights”; Foreign Affairs 80 (Dec. 2001) pp. 102116.
Donnelly, Jack. “Human Rights, Humanitarian Crisis and Humanitarian Intervention”,
International Journal 48 (Autumn 1993) pp. 607-640.
Tuesday, March 4: Realities of Making Foreign Policy [Samore]
Readings to be provided.
PART II: ISSUE AREAS:
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Thursday, March 6: Managing a Living Planet [Clark]
Clark, William C. 2000. Environmental Globalization,” in Nye, J.S. and Donahue, J.D., eds.,
Visions of Governance for the 21st Century; (Washington: Brookings Institution Press,
Washington, D.C., pp. 86-108.
Andonova, L.B., and Mitchell, R. “The rescaling of global environmental politics,” Annual
Review of Environment and Resources. 35, no. 1 (2010), read pp. 256-274)
Victor, D. et al “The Geoengineering Option" Foreign Affairs. 88, no. 2 (2011), pp. 64-76.
Tuesday, March 11: The Challenge of Nuclear Weapons [Bunn]
International Panel on Fissile Materials, “Appendix: Fissile Materials and Nuclear Weapons,” in
Global Fissile Materials Report 2011: Nuclear Weapon and Fissile Material Stockpiles
and Production (Princeton, N.J.: IPFM, 2011), pp. 24-31.
G. Bunn, “The Nuclear Nonproliferation Regime and Its History,” in Bunn and C. Chyba, eds.,
U.S. Nuclear Weapons Policy: Confronting Today’s Threats (Washington, D.C.:
Brookings, 2006).
Mohammed ElBaradei, “Nuclear Energy: The Need for a New Framework,”
Matthew Bunn, "Options for Limiting the Security Risks from a Negotiated Settlement with Iran"
Thursday, March 13: Energy and World Politics [O’Sullivan] (TBC)
International Energy Agency, World Energy Outlook 2011, OECD, 2012, Executive Summary.
Luft, Gal and Anne Korin (eds), Energy Security Challenges for the 21st Century (Santa Barbara,
CA:Praeger Security International), 2009, pp. 1-17, 44-65, 66-77. (49 pages).
Yergin, Daniel. “America’s New Energy Security,” The Wall Street Journal, 12 December 2011.
March 18 & 20: SPRING BREAK
Topics after the Break:
Nuclear Power and Global Order
Iran, Interests, & Empathy
The Rise of China
The Arab Spring
Intervention
One week devoted to class exercise.
No class during Spring exercise
Lecturers being confirmed.
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