INR 4303
THE MAKING OF AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY
Spring 2013
Professor Richard Nolan
219 Anderson Hall
Office Hours: Monday-Wednesday- Friday 9:00 - 10:30;
Tuesday-Thursday 10:30 - 12:00 (or by appointment)
Telephone: 273-2368 email: rnolan@ufl.edu
Web Page:
http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/rnolan/inr4303Spring13.htm
COURSE OBJECTIVES
This course is designed to
allow students to become familiar with, explore, and analyze the actors,
issues, processes and political conditions involved in the making of American
foreign policy. At a time when global circumstances are seemingly in a state of
flux, when the relative status of American political and economic power is
changing, and when new national priorities are replacing old ones,
understanding the complexities of national policy making is a necessary
challenge. Therefore, in this course students will identify and evaluate the
strategic and political importance of various actors and groups (governmental
and societal) in the making of U.S. foreign policy. To this end students will
polish their analytical and communication (written and oral) skills.
REQUIRED TEXTS
Donald M. Snow and Patrick J.
Haney, American Foreign Policy in a New Era, Pearson, 2013.
James M. McCormick, ed., The
Domestic Sources of American Foreign Policy: Insights and Evidence, 6th
Edition, Rowman and Littlefield, 2012.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
In order to facilitate your
understanding of the complex interrelationships among actors and groups
involved in the foreign policy making processes, each student will participate
in a group research project and briefing presentation. Each group will
investigate the role of the actors and groups that we will discuss in class.
The actors and groups to be researched include the presidency, Congress, the
Department of Defense (military), the CIA, public opinion, the media, interest
groups, and the State Department. Each research team will present its
briefing at the conclusion of each topic section. These briefings will be held
on Friday of the week the group/actors are covered. All students must attend
every briefing. Some guidelines are included on the next page of this syllabus.
Individuals will also submit 2 essays (3-5 pages) on topics assigned
during the term.
There will be two exams. The
exams will be of mixed format with multiple choice, short answer and essay
questions. The Second exam will not be cumulative. There are no makeup
exams. There are no excused absences.
Grades will be determined as
follows:
Group presentation
20%
Essay assignments
20%
First exam
30%
Second exam 30%
RELEVANT DATES
Group Presentations:
Essay assignment #1
January
28
Presidency February 8
First exam
March
1
Congress February 15
Essay assignment #2
April
15
State
Dept. February 22
Second exam
April
24
CIA
February 27
Defense Dept. March 15
Media March 22
Interest Groups March 29
Public Opinion April 5
Team Briefing Presentation Guidelines
Each briefing team will address the
involvement/influence, etc. of their actor or group in the two policy issue
areas - Operations Desert Shield and
U.S. involvement in the NATO commitment to Bosnia (Operation Joint Endeavor).
The presentations will give necessary background information, but they will
stress the active involvement or influence of their actor or group in the
decision making and policy implementation processes.
The two policy issues should be contrasted as to their
contextual similarities and differences and as to the actor’s or group’s
similar or different relevance in the decision making and policy implementation
processes. Each group will provide the instructor with a 5 page synopsis
of their findings so the instructor can give the class members copies for their
study folders.
The briefings should NOT exceed 30 minutes in order to
give class members (and the instructor) a chance to ask questions.
Things to consider in addressing the role and
influence of the actors or groups in the policy issue areas:
- What is the formal role of
the actor or group in the foreign policy decision making process?
- What about the particular
policy problem was most important to the actor or group?
- How was the actor or group
active in the decision making process concerning the issue/problem?
- Was the actor or group
prominent in the decision making outcome over the issue/problem area?
- Did the actor’s or group’s
policy positions change over the course of policy deliberation and
implementation?
- Did the actor’s or group’s
involvement or influence increase or decrease over the course of deliberation
and implementation?
- What is the overall
evaluation of the actor’s or group’s record on the issue/problem area?
- Did the actor’s or group’s position or influence vary
from one issue area to the other?
- What about the issues made
the actor or group behave differently/similarly?
Essay Assignment Guidelines
In addition to team briefings, each student will
complete short analytical papers (3-5 typed pages) that address a more
specific question possibly related to
their designated briefing group (i.e. Congress; media, etc.). More details will
be provided when the assigned topics are given. Below are some additional
factors to consider when writing these essays.
Properties of a Good Essay or Research Paper
A well-written, well documented essay or research
paper has three basic parts: an introduction, a body, and a conclusion.
The introduction must include a thesis sentence which
structures and focuses the paper on an assertion or a hypothesis about the
relationship between concrete and/or abstract political objects.
The body of the paper must include arguments,
assertions, or points which provide reasons why the thesis is true, and counter
arguments against the thesis. The body also includes evidence to back up each
reason or assertion. There is no absolute number of reasons required for
supporting a thesis. The diagram below shows the thesis supported by three
arguments with evidence for illustrative purposes only.
The conclusion generally summarizes the main
supporting points and clarifies the functional or logical relationships between
the evidence and the inferences made by the author.
COURSE OUTLINE
(Jan. 7 - Jan.
18) Introduction: Understanding U.S. Foreign
Policy
American Exceptions in
World Affairs
The Nexus of Theories: International
Politics and Foreign Policy
Models of Foreign Policy
Making
Reading Assignment:
Snow Chapter 1
McCormick Introduction, “The
Domestic Sources of American Foreign Policy”
Chapter 19, "Policy
Preferences and Bureaucratic Position: The Case of the American Hostage Rescue
Mission”
Handout Graham Allison’s “Conceptual Models and the Cuban MissileCrisis”
Stephen Krasner’s “Are Bureaucracies Important? (Or Allison
Wonderland)
(Jan. 21 –
Feb.1 ) History as Context: U.S.
Internationalism Since World War II
Defining National Purpose:
Foreign Policy as Politics
Reading Assignment:
Snow Chapter 2, Chapter 3, and Chapter 9
McCormick Chapter 1, “The Future of American Power: Dominance and
Decline in Perspective"
Chapter 11, “How National
Security Advisers See their Role”
(Feb. 4 - Feb.
8) The Presidency and the Making of American Foreign Policy
Reading Assignment:
Snow Chapter 4
McCormick Chapter 9, “Person
and Office: President, the Presidency, and Foreign Policy”
Chapter 10, “Presidents Who
Initiate Wars”
Chapter 24, “Obama the Consequentialist”
** Presidency Group Briefings FRIDAY - FEBRUARY 8
**
(Feb. 11 - Feb. 15) Congress
and the Making of American Foreign Policy
Reading Assignment:
Snow Chapter 6
McCormick Chapter 12, “The
Shifting Pendulum of Power: Executive-Legislative Relations on American Foreign
Policy”
Chapter 17, “American Trade
Policymaking: A Unique Process”
** Congress Group Briefings FRIDAY - FEBRUARY
15 **
(Feb. 18 - Feb. 22) The
State Department and the Making of American Foreign Policy
Reading Assignment:
Snow Chapter 5
McCormick: Chapter 13,
“Leading Through Civilian Power”
** State Department Group Briefings FRIDAY – FEBRUARY 22
**
(Feb. 25 - Feb. 27) The CIA and the Making of
American Foreign Policy
Reading Assignment:
Snow Chapter 5
McCormick:
Chapter 15, “Why Intelligence and
Policymakers Clash”
** The
CIA Group Briefings WEDNESDAY – FEBRUARY 27 **
(Friday March 1) FIRST
EXAM
(March 11 - March 15) The Defense Department and the
Making of American Foreign Policy
Reading
Assignment:
Snow Chapter 5
McCormick:
Chapter 6, “American Veterans in
Government and the Use of Force”
Chapter
14, “A Leaner and Meaner Defense”
** Defense Department Group Briefings FRIDAY – MARCH
15 **
(March 15 - March 19) The
Media and the Making of American Foreign Policy
Reading Assignment:
Snow Chapter 8
McCormick: Chapter 22,
“Sources of Humanitarian Intervention: Beliefs, Information, and
Advocacy in U.S.
Decisions on Somalia and Bosnia”
** The Media Group
Briefings FRIDAY - MARCH 22 **
(March 25 - March 29) Interest Groups and the Making of American Foreign Policy
Reading Assignment:
Snow Chapter 7
McCormick: Chapter 4, “Ethnic
Interest Groups in American Foreign Policy”
Chapter 5, “The Israel Lobby”
Chapter 20, “Roles, Politics,
and the Survival fo the V-22 Osprey”
** Interest Group Group
Briefings FRIDAY - MARCH 29 **
(April 1 - April 5) Public
Opinion and the Making of American
Foreign Policy
Reading Assignment:
Snow Chapter 8
McCormick: Chapter 7,
“Events, Elites, and American Public Support for Military Conflict”
Chapter 8, “External Affairs
and the Electoral Connection”
** Public Opinion Group Briefings FRIDAY – APRIL5**
(April 8 -
April 122) Facing the Issue:
American Foreign Policy, Politics, and National Interests?
Democracy and the Dilemmas
of Making American Foreign Policy
Reading Assignment:
Snow Chapter 13
McCormick: Chapter 2, “Think
Again: American Decline”
Chapter 3, “The Tea Party,
Populism, and the Domestic Culture of U.S. Foreign Policy ”
(Wednesday April 24) SECOND EXAM