4.0

credits

Average Course Rating

The course is designed to deconstruct key foreign policy concepts, expose procedural and structural influences upon policy formulation, and equip students to shape foreign policy through effective argument and tactics. We will examine how interests and values are understood and manifest in the political and bureaucratic process of crafting US foreign policy. The class begins by exploring the concepts of national interest and individual rights and considering their relationship to U.S. history and political ideology. It analyzes changes in the character and balance of interests and human rights in rhetoric, policy, and organizational structure, probing the links between American decision making and international and nongovernmental influences and institutions. Political and bureaucratic factors shaping U.S. policy formulation are explored through consideration of topics such the use of foreign assistance and sanctions, torture and U.S. prosecution of the "war on terror", military non/intervention in Rwanda, Sudan Iraq, Libya, and Syria and U.S. engagement with European partners and the United Nations. The class highlights tensions between individual rights and national sovereignty, exceptionalism and internationalism, and politics and ideals. Toward the end of the class, we will use the National Intelligence Council’s global trends analysis as context for considering how future developments may shape the content of U.S. foreign policy. <a href="http://bit.ly/1bebp5s" target="_blank">Click here to see evaluations, syllabi, and faculty bios</a>