Political Science 3442: The Politics of American Foreign Policy. Fall 2012.
Dr. Stephen Dyson
Class Time and Room: Tu / Th 11-12:15, OAK 117
Email: stephen.dysonATuconn.edu
Office Hours, Tu-Th 12-1:30.
Teaching Assistant: Matt Parent. Email: mattparentnedATgmail.com, Office OAK 307
Course Introduction:
Foreign policy is crucial to the security and prosperity of the United States and, given its power, the
foreign policy of the United States has unparalleled world importance. How and by whom is American
foreign policy made, what are its aims, and how successful can it be? These vital questions animate our
work in this course. In this three-part class, we consider 1) themes and actors in US foreign policy; 2)
American foreign policy during the cold war; 3) post 9/11 foreign policy.
Course Reading:
One book is required and available in the co-op:
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John Lewis Gaddis (2005) Strategies of Containment (2nd edition)
Other readings are available as indicated on the syllabus.
Course Policies and Requirements:
Assessment: There will be two take-home midterms, an in-class final, and participation component to the
assessment:
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Midterm One: 25%
Midterm Two: 25%
Final: 25%
Group work on Presidential Candidates Foreign Policies: 15%
Participation: 10%
Policies: To ensure that the class is both a) a good learning atmosphere and b) a level-playing field for all
participants, certain non-negotiable policies are in place:
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Due dates are absolute and non-negotiable. For exams that are simply missed, no credit can be
given. In the extremely rare case of a dire, sudden, and documented emergency that looks likely
to cause an exam to be missed, contact me directly before the examination.
Obviously, please be civil in the classroom – arrive on time, turn off cell-phones, please don’t
carry on private conversations, read newspapers, throw fruit at me etc. The professor is a person
too, and I’m not immune to being distracted or feeling slighted by incivility! Let’s work together
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to create a good classroom atmosphere, because in the end we will all get more out of the class
that way. If these policies seem unreasonable at this point, please select another class.
Reading is to be completed prior to the class session indicated on the syllabus. I will call on
people for their views on the reading, assess the completion and comprehension of the reading in
the participation grade, and the reading will be key to the exams and the paper.
For my part, and in return, I undertake to use each class session to advance our understanding, to make
class as interesting and relevant as possible, to return assignments in a timely fashion, and to be available
to you during regular scheduled office hours and by appointment if necessary.
Course Schedule:
Part One: Explaining American Foreign Policy:
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8/28: Introduction to the Class
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8/30, 9/4: Conflict, Cooperation, and American Foreign Policy
o Hans Morgenthau, “The Mainsprings of American Foreign Policy”
o Tony Smith, “The United States and the Global Struggle for Democracy”.
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9/6, 9/11: The institutions and actors who make foreign policy.
o Bruce Jentleson, ‘The Domestic Context’, p. 27-48.
Part Two: Explaining Post-World War Two American Foreign Policy: In this second section, we apply
the themes discussed in part one to the cold war. We consider commonalities and contrasts among the
various strategies adopted during this period.
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9/13: The beginning of the cold war and containment as a strategy;
o John Lewis Gaddis, “George F. Kennan and the Strategy of Containment”, in Strategies
of Containment, p. 24-52.
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9/18: Containment in practice: Truman and Korea;
o John Lewis Gaddis, “NSC-68 and the Korean War”, in Strategies of Containment, 87124.
FIRST MIDTERM DISTRIBUTED 9/18, DUE 9/25
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9/20: 1952-1960: Eisenhower
o John Lewis Gaddis, “Eisenhower, Dulles, and the New Look”, in Strategies of
Containment, 125-161.
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9/25: Nuclear Strategy in the Cold War and Beyond
o Kenneth Waltz, “Why Iran Should Get the Bomb” Foreign Affairs July / August 2012.
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9/27, 10/2: Movie: Dr. Strangelove
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10/4: Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis
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John Lewis Gaddis, “Kennedy, Johnson, and Flexible Response”, Strategies of
Containment, 197-234.
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10/9: Johnson and Vietnam
o John Lewis Gaddis, “Implementing Flexible Response: Vietnam as a Test Case” in
Strategies of Containment, 235-271.
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10/11, 10/16: Movie: The Fog of War
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10/18: Nixon and Détente
o John Lewis Gaddis, “Nixon, Kissinger, and Détente”, in Strategies of Containment, 272306.
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10/23: Reagan, Gorbachev and the end of the cold war
o “Reagan, Gorbachev and the completion of containment”, in Strategies of Containment,
342-379.
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10/25; 10/30: Presentations on Foreign Policies of Presidential Candidates
Part Three: Post-9/11 American Foreign Policy: In this final section, we consider the contemporary, post9/11 situation, engaging with the key debates surrounding the ‘war on terror’, the war in Iraq, and
America’s role as the lone superpower.
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11/1, 11/6: The End of the Cold War to the War on Terror: Bush and Clinton
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11/8: Life as the sole superpower.
o Robert A. Kagan, “Power and Weakness”, available at
http://www.policyreview.org/JUN02/kagan.html
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11/13: The Bush Doctrine
o George W. Bush, 2002 Westpoint commencement address, available at
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/06/01/international/02PTEX-WEB.html
o George W. Bush, Second Inaugural, available at
http://api.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4460172 1
SECOND MIDTERM DISTRIBUTED 11/8, DUE 11/15
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11/15: Iraq: The decision to go to war.
o George Packer, ‘Fevered Minds’
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11/27: The War in Iraq: Occupation, Insurgency, Surge
o Please watch ‘Bush’s War’: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/bushswar/
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11/29: Obama’s Foreign Policy
o Ryan Lizza, ‘The Consequentialist’ The New Yorker,
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/05/02/110502fa_fact_lizza
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12/4: Review
FINAL EXAMINATION