POSC 33513: US Foreign Policymaking
Fall 2014
Professor
Dr. James M. Scott
Dept. of Political Science
Course
Information
TTh 2:00-3:20
Reed 319
Contact
Information
Scharbauer 2012H
257-7404
[email protected]
Office
Hours
M: 1:15p-2:45p
TTh: 11:00a-12:00p
Other times by appointment
COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course examines U.S. foreign policy and the processes by which it is made. We will study the institutions and individuals responsible for foreign policy decisions and consider U.S. foreign policymaking since World War II, with a special emphasis on the policy context and choices. We will use readings, discussions, case studies, writing, and examinations to illuminate processes, patterns, priorities, choices, and trade-offs.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
Specifically, this course will:
• acquaint students with the players in and sources of U.S. foreign policy decisions;
• identify the themes, purposes, and patterns of American foreign policy since World War II; • reflect on the processes, dynamics and trade-offs of choice in US foreign policymaking;
• use case studies to apply critical, analytical, conceptual, and theoretical tools to assess the processes and purposes of US foreign policy;
• think critically and write analytically about the role and activities of the U.S. in the world.
COURSE PROCEDURES
course material and current events. This requires all of us to digest reading assignments carefully and consider their implications, and to come to class ready and willing to offer comments, raise questions, and share insights, especially in the case-based analyses that are scheduled in the syllabus. In addition to preparation and participation, it is equally important that there be an accommodating environment for student participation. Hence, while incisive analysis and argument backed by logic and evidence are necessary, we should all be courteous to each other: please refrain from hostile remarks and personal attacks directed at any other member of the class.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Your grade in this course will be based on four requirements.
1) ATTENDANCE AND PARTICIPATION. Attendance and participation are important to
your success in this course, so I expect you to attend class every session. I will take attendance and absences will be counted against your grade. Official absences will not be counted against your grade. The only absences that TCU considers official are university related absences for official university sponsored events, and those notifications come to me directly from the university. Otherwise illnesses or other absences can warrant make-up work, but they are at my discretion and require documentation. Illnesses, deaths in the family, etc. may allow you to make-up missed work if appropriate documentation (as determined by me) is provided. That documentation must be submitted within one week of returning to class after the said incident. I may deny your request to complete make-up work for a non-official absence, depending on the circumstances and documentation. You should also note that your excuses for absences on exam days or assignment due dates will be scrutinized more carefully than regular class days and you should not assume you will get to make up any work as a result of your absence. An absence on an exam date without adequate documentation will result in a zero for that percentage of your grade.
Since this course meets twice per week, if you miss 5 or more sessions without being excused you will not be able to earn more than a “C” for the course. If you miss 10 or more, the best score you can earn is a “D.” If you miss 15 class sessions, you will receive a failing grade, regardless of your other assignment or examination scores.
In order to facilitate an effective learning environment, you will be expected to turn off your
cellphones and refrain from their use during our class. Computers/tablets may be used for taking notes, but not for other activities such as web browsing, email, Facebook, Twitter, etc. I
expect you to keep such applications closed during class. Should such inappropriate uses become an issue, I will ask that all computers/tablets be shut down.
Beyond presence, your participation will also be important and will contribute to your grade. I reserve the right to adjust your grade up or down on the basis of your participation. I will evaluate your participation on the basis of several considerations:
• preparation, including knowledge of facts and details of readings;
• logical consistency, appropriateness to the discussion, originality, and use of relevant evidence in the arguments/comments made;
• the extent to which comments contribute to the discussion, such as building on ideas of others, providing constructive criticism, asking constructive questions, etc.
I recognize that participating in class discussion is difficult for some students. Nevertheless, generating participation from all students is an important goal of this course, especially in the context of the foreign policy cases we will examine. I would prefer to rely on volunteers for comments, but I will call on individuals who refrain from speaking. If you are uncomfortable with speaking in class, please see me for suggestions on how best to proceed.
2) READING ASSIGNMENTS. Students are required to purchase the following text:
Jerel Rosati and James Scott, The Politics of U.S. Foreign Policy, 6th Edition (New York: Cengage, 2013). We will also use a series of other readings and cases I will provide electronically via our course website, as handouts or via internet links. The 8 cases are particularly important as they are the basis for many class discussions. Since we will use also current events as potential case study and discussion material, each student should try to read a daily or weekly news periodical. I suggest The
New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, or Christian Science Monitor.
You should complete the readings before the class session for which they are assigned and be prepared to summarize the content of the day’s assignments and consider that assignment’s relationship to other readings, discussions, etc. In particular, students must be prepared on the days that cases are to be discussed.
Greater historical background on U.S. foreign policy can be found in the following sources available at the library or through interlibrary loan: Stephen Ambrose and Douglas Brinkley, Rise to Globalism:
American Foreign Policy Since 1938); Steven Hook and John Spanier, American Foreign Policy Since World War II; Richard Melanson, American Foreign Policy Since the Vietnam War: The Search for Consensus.
3) WRITING ASSIGNMENTS. Each student will complete two writing assignments.
Assignment 1 requires a series of “case memos.” These memos should examine the lessons
provided by the cases we will be exploring during our semester. They are to be no less than 2 and
no more than 3 pages, typed, double-spaced , with one-inch margins, using a 10 or 12 point font.
As I will discuss further, these memos are not summaries of the cases themselves. Instead, they must present major lessons and/or implications of the case for our understanding of U.S. foreign policy choices (e.g., the goals, the factors influencing the choices, the tradeoffs, etc.). Imagine that you wrote the case you just read, and now must add a conclusion that highlights important lessons about foreign policy (i.e., what does this case highlight about U.S. foreign policy choices and U.S. foreign policy-making?). Those lessons are the basis of your memo. Each memo must consist of a
minimum of 3 and a maximum of 5 significant lessons. You may begin with a very short
introduction, but you should concentrate on introducing and explaining the lessons or insights you draw from the case.
There are 8 cases assigned for the course. You may write as many memos as you like (keep in mind that these memos constitute preparation for the case discussions in class as well as good examination preparation) during the semester. In fact, I recommend that you do this exercise for each case. Each
each memo as you submit them. At the end of the semester, I will count the three best memos for your grade. In effect, you may practice the memos during the semester and have only the best ones count for the writing assignment. The more you do, the more practice you will have, and the more opportunities you will have to improve your memos. Anyone completing satisfactory memos for all the cases will receive 5 extra credit points for the course. For the course, the three memos will count for 25% of your grade.
***For writing assignment 1, I will not accept late case memos so organize yourself to submit them on time.
Assignment 2 requires you to produce a memo to the next American president. To prepare your
memo, you will assume the position of the head of the foreign policy transition team charged with helping the president-elect prepare for his or her new role in the foreign policymaking arena. To fulfill your responsibilities, you will submit your analysis and recommendations for effective foreign policymaking in an 8-10 page memo to the president elect.
Note: this memo is NOT a “what to do about the problems in [insert a country, region, etc]” memo. Your memo must focus on advice to the president-elect on how to manage the policymaking
process and deal with the politics of U.S foreign policy effectively. Thus, considering key policymaking problems and challenges and key structures, processes, and actions to meet those challenges is central to this memo. As you craft your analysis, you will want to consider such things as: presidents and advisers; the nature and challenges of bureaucracy; characteristics of structure and process; working with Congress; and general issues about the foreign policy environment (societal and international. Your memo must draw from and explicitly reference readings, cases, and class discussion, and other research as you see fit.
Due Dates: A first draft is due 11/18 and the final draft is due 12/9.
All of your writing assignments must be your own work. Plagiarism in any form (i.e., incorporating data, words, or ideas of others by direct quotation, paraphrasing, or summarizing without explicit acknowledgment of the source) will not be tolerated. Cite all your sources properly. The consequences of plagiarism are serious: according to TCU policy, plagiarism is subject to course penalties and disciplinary action. I will follow the university’s policy on academic misconduct:
Academic Misconduct (Sec. 3.4 from the Student Handbook) – Any act that violates the academic integrity of the institution is considered academic misconduct. The procedures used to resolve suspected acts of academic misconduct are available in the offices of Academic Deans and the Office of Campus Life. Specific examples include, but are not limited to:
• Cheating: Copying from another student’s test paper, laboratory report, other report, or computer files and listings; Using, during any academic exercise, material and/or devices not authorized by the person in charge of the test; Collaborating with or seeking aid from another student during a test or laboratory without permission; Knowingly using, buying, selling, stealing, transporting, or soliciting in its entirety or in part, the contents of a test or other assignment unauthorized for release; Substituting for another student or permitting another student to substitute for oneself;
• Plagiarism: The appropriation, theft, purchase or obtaining by any means another’s work, and the unacknowledged submission or incorporation of that work as one’s own offered for
credit. Appropriation includes the quoting or paraphrasing of another’s work without giving credit therefore.
• Collusion: The unauthorized collaboration with another in preparing work offered for credit.
4) EXAMINATIONS. There will be two, in-class, written examinations in this course: The first is
worth 20% of the course grade and the cumulative final is worth 30% of the course grade.
My policy on exams is as follows: 1) students must take the exam on the day it is scheduled; 2) make-up exams will be allowed only if the student presents documentation excusing the absence on
or before the day of the exam (I will administer a comparable, but different exam than that given to the
rest of the class, per university policy); 3) except in most extreme circumstances, the make-up exam must be scheduled within one week of the original exam date; 4) I will entertain any questions or discussions regarding a student’s examination, and will happily adjust a grade if I am persuaded of the accuracy of the student’s argument—however, questions or disputes must be raised within one week of the return of the examination (I will not engage in end-of-semester grade bargaining); 5) cheating will result in disciplinary action according to university policy (see below). Should I encounter any cheating, I will follow TCU’s official policy on academic integrity.
***Disabilities Statement: Texas Christian University complies with the Americans with
Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 regarding students with disabilities. Eligible students seeking accommodations should contact the Coordinator of Student Disabilities Services in the Center for Academic Services located in Sadler Hall, 1010. Accommodations are not retroactive, therefore, students should contact the Coordinator as soon as possible in the term for which they are seeking accommodations. Further information can be obtained from the Center for Academic Services, TCU Box 297710, Fort Worth, TX 76129, or at (817) 257-6567.
Adequate time must be allowed to arrange accommodations and accommodations are not retroactive; therefore, students should contact the Coordinator as soon as possible in the academic term for which they are seeking accommodations. Each eligible student is responsible for presenting relevant, verifiable, professional documentation and/or assessment reports to the Coordinator. Guidelines for documentation may be found at http://www.acs.tcu.edu/disability_documentation.asp. Students with emergency medical information or needing special arrangements in case a building must be evacuated should discuss this information with their instructor/professor as soon as possible.
***Official TCU Finals Week Policy: “If the published final examination schedule would require a student to take more than two final examinations in a 24-hour period, the student can arrange to take one of the exams at another time. The student shall determine which final examination is to be rescheduled. The rescheduled exam shall be given at a time mutually agreeable to the student and the faculty member. A final exam may not be rescheduled so as to violate the 24-hour rule. Rescheduling arrangements must be made one week prior to the last day of classes. Unless the student is graduating, the exam must be taken during final exam week. Rescheduling of final examinations is permitted only for graduating seniors and to meet the 24-hour rule” (emphasis added).
GRADING
Your course grade will thus consist of 200 points
based on the following: I will assign grades according to the following scale: Midterm Examination 40pts 20% Final Examination 60pts 30% Case Memos 25% 1 (low score) 10pts 2 20pts 3 20pts Presidential Memo 25% 1st Draft 10pts Final Draft 40pts 92 or better = A 90-91 = A- 88-89 = B+ 82-87 = B 80-81 = B- 78-79 = C+ 72-77 = C 70-71 = C- 68-69 = D+ 62-67 = D 60-61 = D- below 60 = F
COURSE OUTLINE
I reserve the right to make adjustments to this outline as necessary
DATE TOPIC ASSIGNMENT
8/26 Introduction, Syllabus Rosati and Scott, Preface, ch. 1 8/28 Actors, Processes, Choices, and Tradeoffs Case 1: “Summit or Standoff?”
Part I. The Context of American Foreign Policy
9/2 Historical patterns and choices Rosati and Scott, ch. 2
9/4 Continued Case 2: “Coming of the Cold War”
9/9 President Rosati and Scott, ch. 3
Garrison, Rosati and Scott, “The Two Obamas.”
Part II. The Executive Branch
9/11 Continued Case 3: The Cuban Missile Crisis”
9/16 Bureaucracy: State Rosati and Scott, ch. 5
9/18 continued Fallows, “Blind into Baghdad”
9/23 Bureaucracy: Military Rosati and Scott, ch. 6
Bumiller, “We Have Met the Enemy and He is Powerpoint”
9/25 continued Dyson, “Stuff Happens: Donald Rumsfeld and the Iraq War”
Lubold, “The Pentagon’s Invisible Man.” 9/30 Bureaucracy: Intelligence Rosati and Scott, ch. 7
10/2 continued Pollack, “Spies, Lies, and Weapons”
Powers, “The Vanishing Case for War” Hersh, “The Stovepipe”
10/7 Bureaucracy, continued Case 4: The Reagan Admin & Lebanon
10/9 EXAMINATION 1
10/14 Fall Break
10/16 The National Security Council and the Process Rosati and Scott, ch. 4 “Obama’s NSC System”
10/23 Continued “Is Condi the Problem?”
“Good Man, Wrong Job “Tom Donilon”
10/28 Continued Rosati and Scott, ch. 9
10/30 Continued Mitchell and Massoud, “Anatomy of a Failure”
Marsh, “Obama’s Surge”
Part III. Congress and the Public
11/4 Congress Rosati and Scott, ch. 10
11/6 Continued “A Different Perspective” in Chapter 7
“Congress Wants to See Obama’s ‘License to Kill’ “
11/11 Continued Case 5: Sanctions and South Africa
11/13 Continued TBA
11/18 Continued Case 6: “The Politics of IMF Reform”
11/20 Societal Sources: Public Opinion Rosati and Scott, ch. 11
Mueller, “The War and the Public”
Foyle, “Vox Populi as a Foundation for Foreign Policy Renewal?”
Presidential Memo First Draft Due
11/25 Continued Case 7: “The Clinton Administration and
Multilateral Peace Operations”
11/27 Thanksgiving Break
12/2 Interest Groups and the Media Rosati and Scott, ch. 12; 13
12/4 Continued Case 8: “The Helms Burton Act”
12/9 Advice for presidents Presidential Memo Final Draft Due TBA
12/11 Study Day None
