Political Science 124C
Ethics and Justice in International Affairs
Spring 2010
A. Gurowitz
gurowitz@berkeley.edu
Office Hours: 11:15-12:50 T and TH 780 Barrows
GSIs: Christian Ford
Andrej Krickovic
Course Description:
Should nations intervene in other countries to prevent human rights abuses or famine? Is
there an international obligation to try perpetrators of massive human rights abuses? On
what principles should immigration be based? Should wealthy states aid poorer states,
and if so, how much?
Answers to these moral questions depend to a great degree on who we believe we have an
obligation to: Ourselves? Nationals of our country? Residents of our country? Everyone
in the world equally? We will examine different traditions of moral thought including
skeptics, communitarians, and cosmopolitans, and use these traditions as tools to make
reasoned judgements about difficult moral problems in world politics.
Course requirements and grading:
Bspace
There is a bSpace site for this course. To access assignments, outlines, extra syllabi, etc.
please go to http://www.bspace.berkeley.edu. I will also use this site to email the course
when necessary. Bspace sends only to your campus email address. If you don’t check it,
you will miss important course information.
Participation and attendance: 15 pts.
This course requires not only attendance but active participation. This entails doing the
readings before class and section, thinking critically about them and the topics we are
discussing, and coming to class and section prepared for discussion. Active participation
in section can significantly help your grade in the course, non-participation can
significantly lower your grade, and non-attendance WILL significantly lower your grade.
Take Home Mid-term/Paper: 25 pts
A 5 page analytic paper designed to have you think critically about the philosophical
approaches that we study.
Quizzes: 5 pts each, totally 25 pts
There will be 6 quizzes during the semester. They will cover any reading through
(including) the day of the quiz. The intent of the quizzes is twofold. First, to test that
you are doing and understanding the reading, especially since there is no final exam and
no midterm after the first paper. Second, to encourage you to be engaged with the
reading while you’re doing it. The quizzes will not have trick questions nor will they be
about trivia from the readings. Quizzes will begin immediately at 9:40 and end
immediately at 9:50. Normally there will be 2 questions per quiz. No makeup quizzes
will be given but at the end of the semester we will drop your lowest score. If you miss a
quiz with a documented excused absence (see late policy), we will average your last two
(or last and next if it is the second quiz, or last two if it is the last) and that will be your
score for this quiz.
Paper proposal: 10 pts.
See attached guidelines.
Research Paper: 25 pts.
A 13-15 page research paper using the guidelines attached to this syllabus. You should
be thinking about/working on this throughout the semester and you should meet with
your GSI and/or me to discuss your topic.
Grade Disputes:
All grade disputes must be made in writing, in not less than a paragraph, not more than a
page. The dispute should outline very specifically why you feel that you received a grade
in error and should not contain information about what kinds of grades you usually get, or
how long you studied. You must wait at least 24 hours after receiving your grade to raise
the issue of a dispute with either the instructor or GSI, but you must turn in your written
dispute within a week of getting the grade. Grade disputes go first to your GSI, and if
you are still not satisfied, can then go the instructor, again in writing, within a week of
getting your GSI’s response. There are no exceptions to this policy.
Late Policy:
Assignments are all due in class. Late assignments will be docked 3% per day.
Extensions or incompletes are given only to students with a documented emergency or
illness. We know that you have other exams/papers/lives. We were undergraduates once
too. Juggling and scheduling your assignments is part of your job as students. You know
your due dates in advance. Prepare and study ahead of time.
Communication by e-mail:
E-mail is an ideal form of communication for brief, usually administrative matters. For
example, to schedule an appointment outside of office hours. Unless otherwise arranged,
do not email me in lieu of meeting me in my office. Discussions about paper topics or
substantive issues should occur in person.
The following books are available for purchase and are on reserve in Moffitt:
Beitz, Charles, Political Theory and International Relations
Rawls, John, The Law of Peoples
In addition, a course reader is available at Copy Central on Bancroft. Readings
assignments found in the reader are marked by an asterisk
Course Schedule:
1/19 Introduction and overview
Theoretical Approaches
1/21 and 1/26 The Skeptical/Realist Tradition in International Relations
* Forde, "Classical Realism"
*Donnelly, “Twentieth Century Realism”
*Kennan, 'Morality and Foreign Policy"
Beitz, Political Theory and International Relations, 13-50
1/28 and 2/2 The Morality of States: Communitarians and Relativism
Beitz, Political Theory, 67-124
*Walzer, “The Rights of Political Communities”
*Walzer, The Moral Standing of States”
*Sen, “Human Rights and Asian Values”
2/4 The Roots of Cosmopolitanism QUIZ #1
*Donaldson, "Kant's Global Rationalism"
*Ellis, "Utilitarianism and International Ethics"
2/9 Modern Cosmopolitanism
Beitz, Political Theory, 125-129, and 143-185
*Luban, “Just War and Human Rights”
*Luban, The Romance of the Nation-State”
2/11 Rawls and The Law of Peoples
John Rawls, The Law of Peoples, 1-129
2/16 Rawls, cont. Handout take home paper assignment
2/18 No Class-work on your takehome paper
Just War Theory
2/23 Jus in Bello and Jus ad Bellum Paper assignment due in class
*Lackey, Ethics of War and Peace, ch. 3
*Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars, chs. 9 and 19
*Boot, “Sparing Civilians, Buildings, and Even the Enemy”
Review Luban and Walzer readings on intervention from theory section of course
Recommended: Roberts, “Laws of War in the 1990-91 Gulf Conflict” International
Security, vol. 18, no. 3, 1993/94
Intervention
2/25 Librarian Lecture
During class time there will be a librarian lecture to help you get started on your library
research
*Kirshner, “Alfred Hitchcock and the Art of Research”
*Cronin, “The Write Stuff”
3/2 Intervention after the Cold War
*Destexhe, “The Shortcomings of the 'New Humanitarianism”
*Luttwak, "Give War a Chance"
*Nye, "Redefining the National Interest"?
*Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars, preface to 3rd edition
3/4 The Breakup of Yugoslavia QUIZ #2
*Silber and Little, The Death of Yugoslavia, chs. 14-16
*Kuperman, “Humanitarian Hazard”
3/9Film: Triumph of Evil
*Powers, “Bystanders to Genocide”
*Wheeler, “Global Bystander to Genocide”
3/11 Rwanda and the failure to intervene Paper topics due in class
*Straus, “Darfur and the Genocide Debate”
3/16 Intervention in Kosovo
*Roberts, “NATO’s ‘Humanitarian War’ over Kosovo”
*Hirsh, “At War with Ourselves”
*Rieff, “Kosovo’s Humanitarian Circus”
*Walzer, “Politics and Morality in Kosovo”
3/18 Iraq QUIZ #3
*Buchanan and Keohane, “The Preventive Use of Force”
*Sanger, “The Conflict in Iraq”
3/22-26 Spring Break
Accountability After Disaster-The Role of the International Community
3/30 The Groundbreaking Trial: Nuremberg
*Wright, “The Law of the Nuremberg Trials”
*Jackson, “Opening Statement”
*Motion Adopted by all Defense Counsel”
*Friedrich, “Nuremberg and the Germans”
4/1 International Trials Today QUIZ #4
*Fletcher and Weinstein, “A World Unto Itself?”
*Des Forges and Longman, “Legal Responses to Genocide in Rwanda”
*Stover and Weinstein, “Conclusion: A Common Objective, a Universe of Alternatives”
4/6 The International Criminal Court Lecture by Christian Ford
*Krasner, “A World Court That Could Backfire”
*Tucker, “The International Criminal Court Controversy”
*Rubin, “If Not Peace, Than Justice”
4/8 Democratization Lecture by Andrej Krickovic
The following readings are all available on-line:
Michael McFaul, "Democracy Promotion as a World Value", THE WASHINGTON
QUARTERLY, WINTER 2004-05
http://www.twq.com/05winter/docs/05winter_mcfaul.pdf
Anatol Lieven and John Hulsman, “The Folly of Exporting Democracy,” TomPaine.com,
September 12, 2006,
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/2006/09/12/the_folly_of_exporting_democracy.php
William I. Robinson, 'Globalization, the world system, and "democracy
promotion" in U.S. foreign policy', Theory and Society 25:615-665, 1996.
http://www.springerlink.com/content/qt1u643x9446l665/fulltext.pdf
Economic Justice
4/13 Distributive justice: Aid, individuals and governments
*Jones, Global Justice, pgs. 1-8
*Shue, Basic Rights, 5-34
*Miller, “National Responsibilities and International Justice”
*Singer, “The Singer Solution to World Poverty”
4/15 Globalization and Liberal Economic Theory QUIZ #5
*Economist, “Globalisation and its critics”
*ECLAC, “Globalization: a Historical and Multidimensional Perspective”
*Economist, “Grinding the Poor”
4/20 International Institutions, Globalization, and Development
*Bardhan, “Social Justice in the Global Economy”
*Stiglitz, “What I Learned at the World Economic Crisis”
*Time Magazine, “Rage Against the Machine”
*Featherstone and Henwood, “Clothes Encounters”
4/22 International Institutions, Globalization and Development, cont
*Repetto, “Trade and Sustainable Development”
Immigration and Citizenship
4/27 Border Control
*Carens, "Aliens and Citizens: The Case for Open Borders"
*Walzer, "Membership”
*Andreas, “The Escalation of US Immigration Control in the post-NAFTA Era”
4/29 The Rights of Aliens QUIZ #6
*Carens, “Membership and Morality”
*Martin, “Proposition 187 in California”
Final papers are due Wed. 5/12 between 11:30-12:30 in 780 Barrows