Professor Richard Nolan
219 Anderson Hall
Office Hours: Monday-Wednesday-Friday  9:30 - 10:30, Monday and Wednesday 11:45 - 12:30, Tuesday-Thursday 10:30 - 12:00  (or by appointment)
Telephone: 273-2368(e-mail: rnolan@ufl.edu)
Web Page: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/rnolan/3102.htm
                                                   

"The facts at the dawn of the new millennium are simple and irrefutable: compared with all other states, the United States is in a class by itself." This course is designed to enable students to understand the policies and objectives of the United States in its relations with others in an international system undergoing tremendous change. It is constructed to help students appreciate the elements of both continuity and change in U.S. foreign policy and to provide students with the basic tools for answering questions about the sources of U.S. foreign policy. Students then will better understand the complexity of international issues, including their interrelationships with domestic events. To achieve these ends students will 1) evaluate the major approaches to analyzing and explaining U.S. foreign policy; 2) review the history of U.S. foreign policy; 3) investigate contemporary U.S. foreign policy and its relationship to world politics; 4) apply these elements in a critical fashion to particular foreign policy issues currently facing the American government.
 

REQUIRED TEXTS

Steven W. Hook and John Spanier, American Foreign Policy Since World War II,19th ed., (Washington: CQ Press, 2013)

Glenn P. Hastedt, ed., Annual Editions: American Foreign Policy 11/12 (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2011)
 

COURSE STRUCTURE AND EVALUATION

This is both a lecture and a discussion course. Attendance is expected. The readings and written assignments are ways of expanding and analyzing the lecture material and they are the bases of class discussions. Much of the lecture material, and thus exam questions, transcends the literature covered in the texts. Each student must complete a newspaper project and must choose a contemporary subject (relevant to current U.S. foreign policy) to pursue through the newspaper projects. Topics must be cleared with the instructor and chosen by the designated date. Each student must complete several short reaction papers on articles specified in the syllabus. Timely discussions are expected on the topics. Students will also complete two exams. Beyond the normal course readings, students are encouraged to access other prominent periodicals on a daily basis.

Attendance: To further motivate students and increase their participation in class discussion, attendance will be taken frequently. Absence on attendance sheets and missed classes will costs the students. It is imperative that students make daily classes and commit to daily studies of the materials and lectures. There are no excused absences.

Exams: Students must take two exams, consisting of multiple choice, short answer, and essay questions. There are no makeup exams.
 

Newspaper Project:  Students will follow their selected contemporary foreign policy issue throughout the semester. Each student will collect articles concerning their chosen topic from the New York Times over the course of the semester. Toward the end of the semester the student will submit a notebook containing the articles and a five-page (typed & double-spaced) synopsis of the newspaper's coverage of that issue. Students must use the daily paper version of the New York Times and not its online version.

    Do not turn this project in late. With the end of the term and all the papers this class and others will be turning in, I will be hard on late projects.

    The limit is five (5) typewritten double-spaced pages. There is no limit to the length of the portfolio of newspaper articles. The number of articles will be the determining factor there.

        Paste or otherwise secure each article in chronological order within a notebook and attach the five-page synthesis with it.

        The substance of your paper should not include personal opinions about the topic covered in the newspaper articles. Do not merely recite the substance of each article in chronological fashion. (For example: don't go through the articles one at a time and list each's content.) Tell me about the newspaper's coverage of the topic. What is emphasized? What changes in the topic are related? Is U.S. policy on this topic in the process of changing or being defined? REMEMBER, your focus is on U.S. policy and U.S. official interests. Do not get bogged down in newspaper coverage of issues that does not discuss U.S. positions and interests.

        It should be obvious from the attached articles what is to be included in the 5-page statement. Remember the purpose of the assignment is to get you reading the newspaper and following U.S. foreign policy and global affairs. The project is one way of insuring that you do so and in the process (having chosen a topic to follow daily) get a greater background on the question of interest to you.

             Enjoy the task. Assembling this paper requires attention to details and observation skills more than it requires analytical skills. Think about the information the newspaper reports.

Reaction Papers: As indicated in the course outline, there are 5 reaction papers which students must complete. Each is a one-page (typed and double-spaced) synthesis of the articles indicated for each assignment. The papers will be evaluated as to how well they relate the major points in the articles and how clear a statement they provide to demonstrate the relevance of the topics in the study of the course material. Both criteria depend not only on a careful reading of the different articles in each assignment, but also on the ability to write directly and synthetically about them.

Guidelines for the projects and reaction papers:

No late papers. The due dates for these papers are clearly indicated in the syllabus.

Pay attention to your writing style. I do not want to mark up the pages of the assignments correcting spelling or grammar. for example: know the difference between the contraction of it is (it’s) and the possessive pronoun its. Do not use contractions in an academic paper. Good organization and direct and clear presentation are necessary for successful papers.
 
 
 

Evaluation:     Newpaper Project      20%                            Grading Scale A     90-100
                       Reaction Papers          15%                                                   B+   87-89.9
                       Attendance                    5%                                                   B     80-86.9
                       Midterm Exam             30%                                                  C+   77-79.9
                       Final Exam                   30%                                                  C     70-76.9
                                                                                                                    D+  67-69.9
                                                                                                                    D     60-66.9
                                                                                                                    E      less than 60
 
 

Relevant Dates:  January 16  Martin Luther King Day  holiday (Monday)        Reaction Paper Due Dates:
                                                                                                                            #1 - Jan. 22
                 February 28      FIRST EXAM                                                        #2 - Feb. 5
                 April 23       SECOND EXAM                                                         #3 - Feb.12
                                                                                                                            #4 - March 19
                          April 16  -      Newspaper Project Due                                    #5 - April 2
 
 

COURSE OUTLINE

I.  Introduction: Thinking Theoretically About American Foreign Policy

 (Weeks 1-2: January 8 - January 17)

 National Interest and International Systems

  - Models of Foreign Policy Making
  - Policy Choice and Priority: Power, Peace, Prosperity, Principles

 American Traditions in Foreign Policy

  - The Importance of Values
  - Democracy and the American Experience
  - Isolationism and Moralism

 Idealism, Realism, and the Nexus of International Politics and Foreign Policy

  - Rosenau’s Pre-theory
  - Idealism and Realism: Competing Influences in U.S. Decision Making

  Reading Assignment:
                 Hook and Spanier, Preface and Chapter 1
             Annual Editions - Article #1 “From Hope to Audacity: Appraising Obama's Foreign Policy”
                                        Article #4 “The Eagle Has Crash Landed”
 
 

II. Setting the Postwar Pattern: The Cold War

 (Weeks 3-5: January 22 - February 7)

 The Cold War: Ideology, Tradition and Misperception

  - World War II and Its Aftermath
  - The Marshall Plan, Point Four, and NSC-68

   Reading Assignment:
              Hook and Spanier, Chapters 2 - 3

**Reaction Paper #1 - Due Tuesday January 22**
                    Annual Editions     Article #3 “Hegemony on the Cheap”
                                                   Article #5 “Pillars of the Next American Century”
                                                   Article #6 “Grand Strategy for a Divided America”
 
 

 Global Commitments and the Cold War Consensus

  - Eisenhower and the Problem of Means and Ends
  - Kennedy and the Benefits of Brinkmanship

 Defending the Perimeter: The Third World in the Cold War

  - Globalism and Containment

   Reading Assignment:
                Hook and Spanier, Chapter 4
 
 

 Vietnam and the End of Consensus

  - Goal Continuity and the Vietnam Commitment
  - Epoch of Decline? Domestic Elements of Power and Influence

   Reading Assignment:
                Hook and Spanier, Chapter 4
 

**Reaction Paper #2 - Due Tuesday February 5**
                   Annual Editions     Article #34 "Can Sanctions Stop Proliferation?”
                                                  Article #41 “Low-cost Nuclear Arms Races”
 
 

III. Changing the Cold War Pattern

 (Weeks 6-8: February 12 - February 28)

 Nixon, Kissinger and Detente: Realism in a Changing System

   Reading Assignment:
                   Hook and Spanier, Chapter 5

 Carter’s Idealist Dilemmas

   Reading Assignment:
                  Hook and Spanier, Chapter 5

 Reagan and the Rise and Fall of the Cold War

   Reading Assignment:
                  Hook and Spanier, Chapter 6
 

**Reaction Paper #3 - Due Tuesday February 13**
                 Annual Editions     Article #22 "National War Powers Commission Report"
                                                Article #27 “When Congress Stops Wars”
 
 

**FIRST EXAM - February 28**
 

IV. Analyzing U.S. Post-Cold War Policy

 (Weeks 10 - 11: March 12 - March 21)

 Bush: Ending of the Cold War (A New World Order?)

 Video: “Frontline: Jan. 1996 - The Persian Gulf War”

Reading Assignment:
              Hook and Spanier, Chapter 7, Chapter 9 
              Annual Editions Article #21 “The Carter Syndrome”
 

 Clinton: Rethinking U.S. Strategic Interests (Or Why We May Miss the Cold War?)

   Reading Assignment:
                Hook and Spanier, Chapter 8
                Annual Editions       Article # 18  "The War We Deserve"

 National Interests and National Policies: Power or Prosperity as THE Priority?

   Reading Assignment:
                 Hook and Spanier, Chapter 10
                 Annual Editions   Article #13 “Requiem for the Monroe Doctrine”
                                            Article #31 “America’s Sticky Power”

**Reaction Paper #4 - Due Tuesday March 19**
                 Annual Editions     Article #44 “Is It Worth It?”
                                                Article #45 “Afghanistan: Graveyard of Good Intent”
 

V. U.S. Defense and Welfare in an Interdependent World

 (Weeks 12-16: March 26 - April 23)

 Bush II: Primacy and Preemption (Out of the Darkness and Into the Fog?)

   Reading Assignment:
                  Hook and Spanier, Chapters 11 and 12
              Annual Editions       Article #37 “Preemption Paradox”
                                            Article #38 “New Challenges and Old Concepts”
 

**Reaction Paper #5 - Due Tuesday April 2**
               Annual Editions     Article #39 “Nuclear Disorder: Surveying Atomic Threats”
                                              Article #40 “Nuclear Abolition: A Reverie”

Video: “Frontline: Feb. 2003 - The War Behind Closed Doors”
 

  Obama's Regional Relationships and Leadership Challenges

    - Profile: U.S. - Regional Issues after the Cold War
    - Profile: U.S. - Russian Interests
    - Profile: U.S. - China Relations

   Reading Assignment: 

                Hook and Spanier, Chapters 13 and 14

                Annual Editions Article #8 “Will Moscow Help with Trouble Spots?”
                                         Article #9 “Russia and the West: Mutually Assured Distrust”
                                         Article #11 “China's Challenge to U.S. Hegemony”
 
 

  Power and Principle in a World of Change and Continuity

   
          -  George Kennan’s “On American Principles” 
 
 

**SECOND EXAM - April 23**