Modern Diplomatic History
Graduate Seminar
Dr. David Lorenzo
Office: 271305
Phone: 2939-3091 ext. 51305
lorenzodav@gmail.com
lorenzo@nccu.edu.tw
Overview:
This seminar will provide an overview of modern diplomatic history, mainly during the 20th
century. It focuses on alliances, wars and their causes, treaties and agreements, the League of
Nations, the UN, and other events, organizations and documents of importance to understanding
world relations during the past 125 years. While a considerable amount of focus will be on
Europe, the place of Asia and other parts of the world will also be treated.
Assignments:
Students will be responsible for the following:
Reading the assignment materials and participating in general discussions
Actively participating in discussions
Engaging in in-class writing exercises
Two seven-page discussions of issues
Submission of a preliminary literature review for their paper
A final (18 page) paper
Classes:
Classes will be conducted as seminars. This means that I will lecture for only a portion of the
class time. The rest of the time will be spent either as a class or in small groups in discussing the
reading material that has been assigned.
Each class has a considerable number of readings assigned. I understand that most students have
English as a second language, and therefore do not expect that all students will be able to make it
through all the readings every week. However, students should do a minimum of three readings
every week, and for purposes of writing a paper on a topic should read all the assigned texts for
that particular topic.
Materials:
Materials will be taken from a variety of sources. Those located in books will be scanned and
available online at my website (http://www3.nccu.edu.tw/~lorenzo/). Articles will also be posted
on my website, but will also be available via JSTOR and other electronic means.
Grades:
1
Modern Diplomatic History
Short papers: 25% each
Final paper: 40%
Participation: 10%
Papers
Participants will submit the following:
During the classes on the 7th and 12th weeks:
A seven page paper analyzing and assessing an issue surrounding a weekly topic we have
covered (e.g., the strengths and weaknesses of the Locarno Treaty). These papers should clearly
set out the issue, generate interesting questions regarding the issue, cover ways of thinking about
that issue from a variety of perspectives grounded in scholarly sources, and discuss the
implications of issue area.
During the class of the 15th week:
A three page review of the literature on the subject of your final paper. This review shall identify
relevant articles and books, discuss their relationship with the question posed by the paper, and
assess the state of the scholarship at present bearing on the question posed.
Final:
On the day scheduled for the final exam submit the final paper. This paper will, building upon
the literature review, data, and theoretical position you build, explore a question implicated in the
study of diplomatic history. Your paper must clearly:
Identify the question you pose
Discuss that question in light of the literature review you create
Identify the methodology and evidence you will utilize
Answer the question
Discuss the importance and relevance of your answer
Discuss the importance and relevance of your answer both generally and in light of your
literature review.
Grading Scale:
A: 100-90: Excellent work—generates several interesting insights and displays a sure grasp of
the material
B: 89-80: Good, above average work—sometimes generates interesting insights and displays a
solid grasp of the material
C: 79-70: Average work—displays a competent grasp of the material
D: 69-60: Below average work—displays a grasp of the material that is sometimes deficient
F: 59- : Unacceptable work: displays a poor grasp of the material
Modern Diplomatic History
Class Schedule and Readings:
Week One: Prelude to WWI
The War plans of the great powers, 1880-1914 / edited by Paul M. Kennedy Main 940.311
W195
Paul Kennedy, The Rise of the Anglo-German Antagonism, chaps. 15, 16, 20.
Before the war: studies in diplomacy / by G. P. Gooch, Main 940.288 G59 v.1, 2
The Coming of the First World War / edited by Robert John Weston Evans and Hartmut Pogge
von Strandmann Main 940.311 C735
The diplomatic background of the war, 1870-1914 / by Charles Seymour Main 940.287 Se96
The fateful alliance : France, Russia, and the coming of the First World War / George F. Kennan
Main 940.3 K361
Week Two: Diplomacy of the War
The First World War and international politics / David Stevenson Main 940.32 S847
A history of the Great War : World War One and the international crisis of the early twentieth
century / Eric Dorn Brose Main 940.3 B874
WILLIAM R.THOMPSON, A Streetcar Named Sarajevo: Catalysts, Multiple Causation Chains,
and Rivalry Structures, International Studies Quarterly (2003) 47, 453–474
Keir A. Lieber The New History of World War I and What It Means for International Relations
Theory, International Security Fall 2007, Vol. 32, No. 2
Richard F. Hamilton and Holger H. Herwig, Decisions for War, 1914–1917 electronic resource
Part II: Post WWII International System
Week Three: Treaties, Alliances, and the League of Nations
To end all wars : Woodrow Wilson and the quest for a new world order / Thomas J. Knock
973.913 K72
National self-determination: Woodrow Wilson and his legacy / Derek Heater Main 973.913
H437
Christian J Tams League of Nations
Modern Diplomatic History
Woodrow Wilson and World War I, 1917-1921 / Robert H. Ferrell Main 940.373 F413
Week Four: Challenges and Diplomacy of the Twenties and Thirties
Alan Sharp, THE ENFORCEMENT OF THE TREATY OF VERSAILLES,
1919–1923, Diplomacy and Statecraft, 16: 423–438, 2005
Gerald D. Feldman, THE REPARATIONS DEBATE, Diplomacy and Statecraft, 16
Locarno diplomacy: Germany and the West, 1925-1929 / Jon Jacobson SS 327.43 J158, parts 1,
9.
John Braeman Power and Diplomacy: The 1920's Reappraised The Review of Politics (1982), 44
: pp 342-369
Shigeki Mori, THE “WASHINGTON SYSTEM” AND ITS AFTERMATH: REEVALUATING
AFTER IMPERIALISM FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE JAPANESE
HISTORIOGRAPHY Studies,” International Journal of Asian Studies (2006), 3 : pp 255-268
Patrick O. Cohrs, The unfinished peace after World War I: America, Britain and the stabilisation
of Europe, 1919́ђ‫أ‬1932 / [electronic resource]
Part III: Prelude to WWII
Week Five: Prelude
The lights that failed : European international history, 1919-1933 / Zara Steiner Main 940.51
S822
Kevin Narizny,”The Political Economy of Alignment: Great Britain's Commitments to Europe,
1905-39,” International Security, Vol. 27, No. 4 (Spring, 2003),
Common destiny: dictatorship, foreign policy, and war in fascist Italy and Nazi Germany /
MacGregor Knox Main 943.08 K74
European diplomacy between two wars, 1919-1939 / edited with an introd. by Hans W. Gatzke
Main 940.5311 G229 1972
Week Six: Pre-war crisis
JAMES HARRIS Encircled By Enemies: Stalin’s Perceptions of the Capitalist World, 1918–
1941 The Journal of Strategic Studies Vol. 30, No. 3, 513 – 545, June 2007
John McVickar Haight, Jr., “France, the United States, and the Munich Crisis,” The Journal of
Modern History, Vol. 32, No. 4 (Dec., 1960),
Modern Diplomatic History
Hugh Ragsdale The soviets, the Munich crisis, and the coming of World War II [electronic
resource] /
Frederick W. Marks, “Six between Roosevelt and Hitler: America's Role in the Appeasement of
Nazi Germany,” The Historical Journal, Vol. 28, No. 4 (Dec., 1985),
G. Bruce Strang, THE SPIRIT OF ULYSSES? IDEOLOGY AND BRITISH
APPEASEMENT IN THE 1930s Diplomacy and Statecraft, 19: 481–526, 2008
Greg Kennedy, Anglo-American Strategic Relations and the Far East 1933-1939, chaps. 2. 3.
Week Seven: The causes of World War II,
The origins of the Second World War in Asia and the Pacific / Akira Iriye Main 940.53112 Ir4
Keith Neilson, Britain, Soviet Russia and the collapse of the Versailles order, 1919-1939
[electronic resource] /
Gerhard L. Weinberg, The foreign policy of Hitler's Germany: starting World War II, 1937-1939
/ temp 327.43 W43
Week Eight: Diplomacy of WWII:
Foreign relations of the United States, diplomatic papers: the Conference at Malta and Yalta,
1945 SS 327.73 Un3 1945
Foreign relations of the United States: diplomatic papers, the conference of Berlin (the Potsdam
Conference), 1945 SS 327.73 Un3 1945 v.1
From World War to Cold War: Churchill, Roosevelt, and the international history of the 1940s /
David Reynolds Main 909.824 R462
Stalin's wars : from World War to Cold War, 1939-1953 / Geoffrey Roberts (just ordered in
February)
Part IV: Establishment of the Postwar Order
Week Nine: Early Postwar Period
DAN PLESCH, How the United Nations Beat Hitler and Prepared the Peace,” Global Society,
Vol. 22, No. 1, January, 2008
M. J. Hogan, The Marshall Plan. America, Britain, and the Reconstruction of Western Europe,
1947–1952 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), Main 338.917304 H678
Modern Diplomatic History
Architects of globalism : building a new world order during World War II / Patrick J. Hearden
IIR 327.73009045 H435
Sumner Welles, postwar planning, and the quest for a new world order, 1937-1943 / Christopher
D. O'Sullivan IIR 327.2092 W449 O85
Week Ten: The US and Postwar Order
G. John Ikenberry, “America"s Liberal Grand Strategy: Democracy and National Security in the
Post-War Era,” in G. Ikenberry, American Foreign Policy: Theoretical Essays.
A changing of the guard : Anglo-American relations, 1941-1946 / Randall Bennett Woods IIR
337.7304109044 W896
The parliament of man : the past, present, and future of the United Nations / Paul Kennedy IIR
341.23 K36
G. John Ikenberry, “A World Economy Restored: Expert Consensus and the Anglo-American
Postwar International Organization, Vol. 46, No. 1, Knowledge, Power, and International
PolicyCoordination (Winter, 1992),
Part V: The Cold War and World Order
Week Eleven (24/11): US-Soviet confrontation in Europe
George Kennan, The Sources of Soviet Conduct (The "X" Article),
www.historyguide.org/europe/kennan.html
J. Gaddis, Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of American National Security Policy
During the Cold War, chapters 1-4, 7.
Douglas J. Macdonald, “Communist Bloc Expansion in the Early Cold War: Challenging
Realism, Refuting Revisionism,” International Security, Vol. 20, No. 3 (Winter, 1995-1996),
Melvyn P. Leffler: The American Conception of National Security and the Beginnings of the
Cold War, 1945-48, The American Historical Review > Vol. 89, No. 2, Apr., 1984
NATO's anxious birth: the prophetic vision of the 1940s / André de Staercke and others ; edited
by Nicholas Sherwen IIR 355.031091821 St13
Week Twelve: US-Soviet confrontation in Asia
Modern Diplomatic History
The Origins of the Cold War in Asia / edited by Yōnosuke Nagai [and] Akira Iriye, temporary
327.095 Or16
The Cold War begins in Asia : American East Asian policy and the fall of the Japanese empire
Marc S. Gallicchio, temp 327.7305 G136
The origins of the Korean War / Bruce Cumings, IIR 951.9042 C911 v.1 , 2
Week Thirteen: US-Soviet confrontation in the Third World
The USSR in Third World Conflicts: Soviet Arms and Diplomacy in Local Wars 1945-1980
temp stack 355.033547 P833
Robert H. Johnson, “Exaggerating America's Stakes in Third World Conflicts,” International
Security, Vol. 10, No. 3 (Winter, 1985-1986)
The struggle for the Third World : Soviet debates and American options / Jerry F. Hough IIR
327.470172 H814
Part VI: Strategic Encounters and the End of the Cold War
Week Fourteen: (15/12): US, China and Soviet relations
Friends and enemies : the United States, China, and the Soviet Union, 1948-1972 / Gordon H.
Chang Temp 327.73047 C362
China, the United States, and the Soviet Union: tripolarity and policy making in the Cold War /
Robert S. Ross, editor SS 327.73051 C539
Week Fifteen: The End of the Cold War
Rey Koslowski and Friedrich V. Kratochwil, “Understanding Change in International Politics:
The Soviet Empire's Demise and the International System,” International Organization, Vol. 48,
No. 2 (Spring, 1994),
Daniel Deudney and G. John Ikenberry, “The International Sources of Soviet Change,”
International Security, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Winter, 1991-1992),
Thomas Risse-Kappen, “Ideas do not Float Freely: Transnational Coalitions, Domestic
Structures, and the End of theCold War,” International Organization, Vol. 48, No. 2 (Spring,
1994),
Week Sixteen: After the Cold War
Modern Diplomatic History
Michael Mastanduno, “Preserving the Unipolar Moment: Realist Theories and U.S. Grand
Strategy after the Cold War,” International Security, Vol. 21, No. 4 (Spring, 1997),
Richard K. Betts, “Wealth, Power, and Instability: East Asia and the United States after the Cold
War,” International Security, Vol. 18, No. 3 (Winter, 1993-1994),
Daniel Deudney and G. John Ikenberry, “The Unravelling of the Cold War Settlement,”
Survival, 2010
Week Seventeen: China and the World Order
G. John Ikenberry, The Rise of China and the Future of the West: Can the Liberal System
Survive? Foreign Affairs , January/February 2008
Peter J. Katzenstein, “China’s Rise: East Asia and Beyond,” EAI Working Paper Series 12
YAN XUETONG The Rise of China in Chinese Eyes Journal of Contemporary China (2001),
10(26), 33–39