American Foreign Policy Since World War II
PSC 4113
Fall 2011
M-W 3:00-4:15
Gould 150
Jonathan Monten
207 Building 4
jmonten@ou.edu
Office Hours: TBA
Course Description
This course examines the history and conduct of U.S. foreign policy from World War II
to the present. The course is organized into three parts. The first section looks at different
theories of foreign policy and how these might apply to the United States. The second
part examines several key debates that have shaped the development of U.S. foreign
policy since the end of World War II. The third looks at a number of policy issues in
contemporary U.S. foreign policy.
As an upper-level undergraduate course, this class has several objectives. First, to give
students a grounding in the history of U.S. foreign policy and how this history continues
to shape U.S. foreign policy debates today. Second, to deepen students’ understanding of
major international relations theory and concepts and to learn how to apply these in the
context of the United States. Finally, to improve students’ ability to assess the arguments
made in foreign policy debates, including their underlying assumptions, logic, and
evidence.
Course Requirements
Grading for this course breaks down as follows. The participation mark includes both
active participation in class discussions, and a presentation in one in-class debate. The
assignment for the final paper will be given the last week of class and will be due during
finals week. Further information will be given as the semester proceeds.
Participation:
Midterm #1:
Midterm #2:
Final Paper:
20%
20%
20%
40%
University Policies
Please note the following University policies:
A. Students with Disabilities:
The University of Oklahoma is committed to providing reasonable
accommodation for all students with disabilities. Any student in this course who
has a disability that may prevent him or her from fully demonstrating his or her
abilities should contact the instructor personally as soon as possible to discuss
accommodations necessary to ensure full participation and facilitate your
educational opportunities. Students with disabilities must be registered with the
Office of Disability Services prior to receiving accommodations in this course.
The Office of Disability Services is located in Goddard Health Center, 620 Elm
Ave., Suite 166, Norman, OK 73019. Voice 405/325-3852, TDD 405/325-4173,
Fax 405/235-4491, Email drc@ou.edu.
B. Religious Holidays:
It is the policy of the University to excuse absences of students that result from
religious observances and to provide without penalty for the rescheduling of
examinations and additional required class work that may fall on religious
holidays. Please see the instructor immediately if you will need to miss class any
time during this semester.
C. Academic Misconduct
See http://www.ou.edu/integrity for information on student rights with regards to
academic misconduct.
Schedule of Readings
Part I: The United States and Theories of Foreign Policy
August 24: Overview and Introductions
August 29: Realism
Jack Snyder, “One World, Rival Theories,” Foreign Policy, November 1, 2004.
“Models of International Relations and Foreign Policy,” in John Ikenberry, ed.,
American Foreign Policy: Theoretical Essays.
Kenneth Waltz, Man, the State, and War (New York: Columbia University Press,
1959).
John J. Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (W.W. Norton, 2001),
chap. 1.
August 31: Liberalism
John Ikenberry, "Why Export Democracy?: The 'Hidden Grand Strategy' of
American Foreign Policy,'" The Wilson Quarterly, Vol. 23, no.2 (Spring 1999).
Louis Hartz, The Liberal Tradition in America (Harcourt, Brace, 1955), chap. 11.
Walter Russell Mead, Special Providence (Knopf, 2002).
Samuel Huntington, “American Ideals vs. American Institutions,” Political
Science Quarterly, vol. 97, no 1 (Spring 1982).
George F. Kennan, American Diplomacy, 1900-1950 (University of Chicago
Press, 1951)
September 7: Domestic Politics
“The United States Political System and International Leadership: A ‘Decidedly
Inferior’ Form of Government?” in John Ikenberry, ed., American Foreign
Policy: Theoretical Essays.
“Public Opinion and Foreign Policy: Challenges to the Almond-Lippmann
Consensus,” in John Ikenberry, ed., American Foreign Policy: Theoretical Essays.
“Political Conflict and Foreign Policy in the United States: A Geographical
Interpretation,” in John Ikenberry, ed., American Foreign Policy: Theoretical
Essays.
September 12: Foreign Policy Decision-Making
Robert Jervis, Perception and Misperception in International Politics (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 1976).
Andrew Bennett and Jonathan Monten, “Models of Crisis Decision Making and
the 1990-1991 Gulf War,” Security Studies 19:3 (2010), pp. 486-520.
September 14: Midterm #1
Part II: Key Debates in U.S. Foreign Policy Since World War II
September 19: U.S. Entry into World War II
George C. Herring, From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations since
1776 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), chap. 13.
Robert Dallek, Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Foreign Policy, 1932-1945
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), pp. 269-313.
September 21: The United States and the Post-War World, I
George C. Herring, From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations since
1776 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), chap. 14.
John Lewis Gaddis, Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of American
National Security Policy during the Cold War (New York: Oxford University
Press, 2005).
Melvyn Leffler, “The American Conception of National Security and the
Beginnings of the Cold War, 1945-1948,” American Historical Review 89 (1984).
Colin Dueck, Reluctant Crusaders: Power, Culture, and Change in American
Grand Strategy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2006), chap. 4.
September 26: The United States and the Post-War World, II
John Ikenberry, After Victory:
Institutions, Strategic Restraint, and the
Rebuilding of Order after Major Wars (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
2000), chap. 6
John Gerard Ruggie, Winning the Peace (Columbia University Press, 1996),
chaps. 1, 2.
September 28: The Cuban Missile Crisis
Graham Allison, “Conceptual Models and the Cuban Missile Crisis,” American
Political Science Review, vol. 63, no. 3 (September 1969), pp. 689-718.
Robert F. Kennedy, Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis (New
York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999).
October 3: Vietnam
George C. Herring, From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations since
1776 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), chap. 16.
I.M. Destler, Leslie H. Gelb, and Anthony Lake, Our Own Worst Enemy: The
Unmaking of American Foreign Policy (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1985).
David Halberstam, The Best and the Brightest (Ballantine Books, 1993).
October 5: Detente
George C. Herring, From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations since
1776 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), chap. 17.
Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1994).
October 10: The End of the Cold War
George C. Herring, From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations since
1776 (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011), chap. 19.
Daniel Deudney and G. John Ikenberry, “The International Sources of Soviet
Change,” International Security, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Winter, 1991-1992), pp. 74-118.
October 12: Midterm #2
Part III: Contemporary Issues in U.S. Foreign Policy
October 17: Terrorism and Counterterrorism
John Lewis Gaddis, Surprise, Security, and the American Experience (Cambridge:
Harvard University Press, 2004).
The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on
Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (New York: W. W. Norton & Company,
2004).
October 19: Debate Topic 1: Intelligence Reform
Robert Jervis, Why Intelligence Fails: Lessons from the Iranian Revolution and
the Iraq War (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2010).
Amy Zegart, Spying Blind: The CIA, the FBI, and the Origins of 9/11 (Princeton:
Princeton University Press, 2009).
October 24: Congress, the President, and Executive Power
James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay, The Federalist Papers (New
York: Penguin Classics, 1987; orig. 1788), nos. 3-8 (pp. 94-118), nos. 23-24 (pp.
184-92), nos. 74-75 (pp. 422-28).
William G. Howell and Jon C. Pevehouse, While Dangers Gather: Congressional
Checks on Presidential War Powers
(Princeton: Princeton University Press,
2007).
Mathew Kroenig and Jay Stowsky, “War Makes the State, but Not As It Pleases:
Homeland Security and American Anti-Statism,” Security Studies, Vol. 15, No. 2
(April-June 2006).
October 26: Debate Topic 2: Civil-Military Relations
Samuel Huntington, The Soldier and the State: The Theory and Politics of CivilMilitary Relations (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 1959).
Peter D. Feaver and Richard Kohn, “The Gap: Soldiers, Civilians and their
Mutual Misunderstanding,” National Interest No.61 (Fall 2000).
Peter D. Feaver, “Anatomy of the Surge,” Commentary (April 2008)
Michael C. Desch, “Bush and the Generals,” Foreign Affairs (May/June 2007).
Richard B. Myers and Richard H. Kohn, Mackubin Thomas Owens, Lawrence J.
Korb, and Michael C. Desch, “Salute and Disobey,” Foreign Affairs
(September/October 2007)
October 31: The Role of Nuclear Weapons in U.S. Foreign Policy
Readings TBA
November 2: Debate Topic 3: Nuclear Proliferation
Scott Sagan and Kenneth Waltz, The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: A Debate
Renewed (New York: Norton, 2003).
Graham Allison, “Nuclear Disorder: Surveying Atomic Threats,” Foreign Affairs
(January/February 2010).
John Mueller, Atomic Obsession: Nuclear Alarmism from Hiroshima to Al-Qaeda
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2009).
November 7: The U.S. and Multilateral Organizations
Andrew Moravcsik, "Why Is U.S. Human Rights Policy So Unilateralist?" in
Shepard Forman and Patrick Stewart, eds., The Cost of Acting Alone:
Multilateralism and US Foreign Policy (Boulder: Lynne Riener Publishers, 2001).
November 9: Debate Topic 4: U.S. Sovereignty and Unilateralism
Willliam Wohlforth and Stephen G. Brooks "International Relations Theory and
the Case Against Unilateralism," Perspectives on Politics, Vol. 3, No. 3
(September 2005).
John R. Bolton, “Should We Take Global Governance Seriously,” Chicago
Journal of International Law (Autumn 2000).
Andrew Moravcsik, "Conservative Idealism and International Institutions,"
Chicago Journal of International Law (Autumn 2000).
November 14: Military Intervention and Democracy Promotion
James Dobbins, America’s Role in Nation-Building (Santa Monica: Rand, 2003).
Minxin Pei and Sarah Kasper, “Lessons from the Past: The American Record on
Nation-Building,” Carnegie Policy Brief No. 24 (April 2003)
Larry Diamond, “What Went Wrong in Iraq,” Foreign Affairs
(September/October 2004).
November 16: Debate Topic 5: Humanitarian Intervention
Samantha Power, “Bystanders to Genocide,” Atlantic Monthly (September 2001).
Richard K. Betts, “The Delusion of Impartial Intervention,” Foreign Affairs
(September/October 1994).
November 21: Unipolarity and the Balance of Power
John Ikenberry, ed. America Unrivaled: The Future of the Balance of Power
(Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2002).
November 23: Debate Topic 6: Balancing Against the United States?
William Wohlforth and Stephen G. Brooks "Hard Times for Soft Balancing,"
International Security, Vol. 30, No. 1 (Summer 2005).
Robert Pape, “Soft Balancing Against the United States,” International Security
30:1 (Summer 2005), pp. 7-45.
November 28: Grand Strategy
Readings TBA.
November 30: Debate Topic 7: The End of American Primacy? Managing the Rise
of New Powers
Robert A. Pape, “Empire Falls,” The National Interest (January/February 2009).
John Mearsheimer, “China’s Unpeaceful Rise,” Current History (April 2006).
John Ikenberry, “The Rise of China and the Future of the West,” Foreign Affairs
(January/February 2008)
December 5: Final Exam Assignment