Hegemony and US Foreign Policy in the 21st Century Fall 2008 SIS 400.01: Thursdays 2:10 pm – 4:50 pm SIS 203
Dr. Peter Howard office hours: Hurst 206B Mondays: 11:15 – 12:15 202-885-1541 Thursdays: 11:30 – 2:00 [email protected] and by appointment
This course is a senior seminar designed to explore the interplay between hegemony and contemporary US foreign policy. The course will explore theoretical conceptions of hegemony and bring these theories to a discussion of key issues in US foreign policy. The goals of the course are for students to develop a deep understanding of the leading theories of hegemony within International Relations, the debates between these theories, and the implications of hegemony in contemporary issues of US foreign policy. The first part of the course will be devoted to exploring hegemony from a theoretical perspective. The different understandings of hegemony lead to very different readings of US foreign policy in the 21st century. Students will then be asked to apply these insights to the major issues in US foreign policy, paying special attention to how the dynamics of hegemony give these issues a decidedly different tone when compared to other tools of foreign policy analysis. This course asks students to look beyond an individual, bilateral, regional or functional basis and consider contemporary foreign policy issues from a broad systemic perspective—an international environment wrestling with the question of US hegemony in the twenty first century.
As a senior seminar, the course demands a significant reading and in-class participation, as the core of the class will be discussion oriented. Students are expected to have completed all of the assigned reading prior to class, and to come to class with questions, analysis, insights, and critiques for the day‘s discussion. To that end, students will bring a short written reaction to the readings to class, which can serve as the starting point for a discussion on the day‘s topic. In each class, there will also be a discussion of current events. The unfolding of various world events will serve as illustrations for the course topics, and may inspire further discussion.
Course Schedule
Note: Required readings are available on reserve at the library and will also be posted on the Blackboard website. Some reading assignments may change over the course of the semester depending on ongoing world events.
1 August 28: The US in World Affairs Introduction and overview of the course. What is the US position in the world today and what issues does that raise?
Charles Krauthammer, ―The Unipolar Moment,‖ Foreign Affairs: America and the World (1990/91).
William J. Dobson, ―The Day Nothing Much Changed,‖ Foreign Policy, September/October 2006.
G. John Ikenberry, ―Strategic Reactions to American Preeminence: Great Power Politics in the Age of Unipolarity,‖ National Intelligence Council, July 2003. Available at: http://www.dni.gov/nic/confreports_stratreact.html
G. John Ikenberry, After Victory (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), chapter 1.
Stephen Burman, ―America‘s Global Footprint,‖ The State of the American Empire, pages 16-17.
Highly Recommended: Felix Ciuta, ―What Are We Debating? IR Theory between Empire and the 'Responsible' Hegemon,‖ International Politics 43:2 (April 2006), pp. 173-196.
September 4: Military Power and Hegemonic War Realists focus on security, military power, and hegemonic war. What are the sources of US hegemony? What role does a hegemon play in the international system? How do theories of hegemonic war operate? What do these theories say about the US today?
Barry Posen, ―Command of the Commons: The Military Foundation of US Hegemony,‖ International Security 28:1 (Summer 2003).
Robert Gilpin, ―The Theory of Hegemonic War,‖ Journal of Interdisciplinary History 8:4 (Spring, 1988), pp. 591-613.
William C. Wohlforth, ―The Stability of a Unipolar World,‖ International Security 24:1 (Summer, 1999), pp. 5-41.
K. Edward Spiezio, ―British Hegemony and Major Power War, 1815-1939: An Empirical Test of Gilpin's Model of Hegemonic Governance,‖ International Studies Quarterly 34:2 (June 1990). Focus on pages 165-171 and skim the rest.
Stephen Burman, The State of the American Empire, chapter 5.
Browse www.globalsecurity.org to see just how powerful the US military is and where it is deployed around the world.
2 Highly Recommended: G. John Ikenberry, After Victory (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), chapter 2. Jonathan D Caverley, ―United States Hegemony and the New Economics of Defense,‖ Security Studies 16:4 (2007). Susan Strange, ―The Persistent Myth of Lost Hegemony,‖ International Organization 41:4 (Autumn, 1987), pp. 551-574.
Recommended: Robert Gilpin, War and Change in World Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981). Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of Great Powers (New York: Vintage Books, 1987).
September 11: Hegemonic Stability Theory Liberalism, IPE in particular, focuses on the provision of public goods and institutional leadership. What are the sources of US hegemony? What role does a hegemon play in the international system? How does Hegemonic Stability Theory operate? What does this theory say about the US today?
Robert Keohane, After Hegemony (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984), chapter 3.
Charles P. Kindleberger, ―Dominance and Leadership in the International Economy: Exploitation, Public Goods, and Free Rides,‖ International Studies Quarterly 25:2 (June 1981), pp. 242-254.
David A. Lake, ―Leadership, Hegemony, and the International Economy: Naked Emperor or Tattered Monarch with Potential?‖ International Studies Quarterly 37:4 (December 1993), pp. 459-489.
G. John Ikenberry, After Victory (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), chapter 3.
Stephen Burman, The State of the American Empire, chapters 2 and 3.
Read the brief notes at http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pol116/hegemony.htm and browse the recommended articles linked on the bottom of the page.
Highly Recommended: Isabelle Grunberg, ―Exploring the "Myth" of Hegemonic Stability,‖ International Organization 44:4 (Autumn, 1990), pp. 431-477.
Recommended: Margit Bussmann and John R. Oneal, ―Do Hegemons Distribute Public Goods?‖ Journal of Conflict Resolution. 51:1 (2007), pp. 88-111. Duncan Snidal, ―The Limits of Hegemonic Stability Theory,‖ International Organization 39:4 (Autumn 1985), pp. 579-614.
3 Barry Eichengreen, ―Hegemonic Stability Theories of the International Monetary System,‖ NBER Working Paper No. 2193, 1987. Available at: http://www.nber.org/papers/w2193.pdf Or (reprinted in somewhat shorter form) Barry Eichengreen, ―Hegemonic Stability Theories of the International Monetary System,‖ in Jeffry Frieden and David Lake, International Political Economy 3rd edition (New York: St. Martin‘s Press, 1995), chapter 15. Robert Keohane, After Hegemony (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1984). Charles Kindleberger, The World in Depression, 1929-1939 ( Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973).
September 18: Ideational Hegemony Critical Theorists and Constructivists see ideational elements as the foundation of hegemony, but in very different ways. How does Gramsci‘s theory of hegemony operate? How do constructivist and other ideational theories of hegemony operate? How do liberals understand the role that ideas play? What role does hegemony play in the international system, and what does this say about the US today?
John Gerard Ruggie, ―International Regimes, Transactions, and Change: Embedded Liberalism in the Postwar Economic Order,‖ International Organization 36:2 (Spring, 1982), pp. 379-415.
Robert Latham, The Liberal Moment (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997), pages 57 – 65.
Andreas Bieler, Adam David Morton, ―A critical theory route to hegemony, world order and historical change: neo-Gramscian perspectives in International Relations,‖ Capital & Class 82 (Spring 2004).
Enrico Augelli and Craig Murphy, ―Gramsci and international relations: a general perspective with examples from recent US policy toward the Third World,‖ in Stephen Gill, ed. Gramsci, Historical Materialism and International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), chapter 5.
Joseph S Nye Jr., ―Soft Power and American Foreign Policy,‖ Political Science Quarterly 119:2 (Summer 2004).
Stephen Burman, The State of the American Empire, chapter 7.
Recommended: Noam Chomsky, ―World Order and Its Rules: Variations on Some Themes,‖ Journal of Law and Society 20:2 (Summer 1993), pp. 145-165. Jonathan Joseph, ―Hegemony and the structure-agency problem in International Relations: a scientific realist contribution,‖ Review of International Studies 34 (2008), pp 109-128. Bruce M Knauft, ―Provincializing America: Imperialism, Capitalism, and Counterhegemony in the Twenty-first Century,‖ Current Anthropology 48:6, December 2007. Robert Cox, ―Gramsci, hegemony and international relations: an essay in method,‖ in Stephen Gill, ed. Gramsci, Historical Materialism and International Relations (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993), chapter 4.
4 Thomas Risse, ―US Power in a Liberal Security Community,‖ in G. John Ikenberry, ed. America Unrivaled (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002), chapter 9. Stephen R. Gill; David Law, ―Global Hegemony and the Structural Power of Capital,‖ International Studies Quarterly 33:4 (December 1989), pp 475-499. Thomas R. Bates, ―Gramsci and the Theory of Hegemony,‖ Journal of the History of Ideas 36:2 (April - June 1975), pages 351-366. Dirk Nabers, ―Crisis, Hegemony and Change in the International System: A Conceptual Framework,‖ German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Working Paper no. 50, May 2007.
September 25: Historical Hegemony The modern international system can be seen as a series of hegemonic cycles. How do cycles of hegemony operate? What did British Hegemony look like and how did it operate? Are there lessons or comparisons that can be drawn between past hegemons, such as the British, and the US today?
George Modelski, ―The Long Cycle of Global Politics and the Nation-State,‖ Comparative Studies in Society and History 20:2 (April 1978), pp 214-235.
Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of Great Powers (New York: Vintage Books, 1987), pages 151-158.
Fareed Zakaria, ―The Future of American Power,‖ Foreign Affairs May/June 2008.
Patrick Karl O‘Brien, ―The Pax Britannica and American Hegemony: Precedent, Antecedent or Just Another History?‖ in Patrick Karl O‘Brien and Armand Cleese, eds., Two Hegemonies: Britain 1846-1914 and the United States 1941-2001 (Ashgate, 2002), pages 3-27.
David A. Lake, ―British and American Hegemony Compared: lessons for the current era of decline,‖ in Michael Fry, ed. History, the White House and the Kremlin (London: Pinter, 1991), pp 106-122.
G. John Ikenberry, After Victory (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), chapter 4.
Highly Recommended William R. Thompson, ―Systemic Leadership, Evolutionary Processes, and International Relations Theory: The Unipolarity Question,‖ International Studies Review 8:1 (2006), pages 1- 22. Jonathan Colman, ―The Expansion and Contraction of the British Empire, c. 1870-1980,‖ History Review (September 2006).
Recommended: William R. Thompson, ―Systemic Leadership, Evolutionary Processes, and International Relations Theory: The Unipolarity Question,‖ International Studies Review 8:1 (2006), 1-22.
5 Scott C. James and David A. Lake, ―The Second Face of Hegemony: Britain's Repeal of the Corn Laws and the American Walker Tariff of 1846,‖ International Organization 43:1 (Winter 1989), pp 1-29. Beverly J Silver and Giovanni Arrighi, ―Polanyi's ‗double movement‘: The belle epoques of British and U.S. hegemony compared,‖ Politics & Society 31:2 (June 2003). Arthur Herman, ―The ‗myth‘ of British seapower,‖ Orbis 49:2 (Spring 2005). Patrick Karl O‘Brien and Armand Cleese, eds., Two Hegemonies: Britain 1846-1914 and the United States 1941-2001 (Ashgate, 2002).
October 2: The Origins of Post-War US Hegemony Book review due US hegemony has its origins in the aftermath of World War II. How did the US manage its hegemonic position after the war, and what institutional order did it establish? Why this order and not some other? How has it evolved and what are the implications of these changes?
G. John Ikenberry, After Victory (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), chapters 5 and 6.
John Gerard Ruggie, ―The Past as Prologue? Interests, Identity, and American Foreign Policy,‖ International Security 21:4, Spring, 1997.
Melvyn P Leffler, ―Cold War and Global Hegemony, 1945-1991,‖ Magazine of History 19:2 (March 2005).
Michael Dunne, ―US foreign relations in the twentieth century: From world power to global hegemony,‖ International Affairs 76:1 (January 2000).
Highly Recommended: G. John Ikenberry, ―Rethinking the Origins of American Hegemony,‖ Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 104, No. 3. (Autumn, 1989), pp. 375-400. Patrick Thaddeus Jackson, Civilizing the Enemy: German Reconstruction and The Invention of The West (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press), 2006. Michael Hunt, The American Ascendancy (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press), 2007.
October 9: (YOM KIPPUR, class to be rescheduled at some point) Contemporary Hegemony—The Grand Strategy Debate Grand Strategy provides an overarching approach to US foreign and defense policy. In the Cold War, containment served as a grand strategy to guide US actions. What grand strategy should the US adopt today? What are the options and the implications of those options? How does President Bush‘s National Security Strategy fare? What assumptions of hegemony or empire are built into these strategy proposals?
Readings on Presidential Campaign on Foreign Policy / National Security Strategy TBA.
6 Barry Posen and Andrew Ross, ―Competing visions for U.S. grand strategy,‖ International Security 21:3 (Winter 1996/1997).
Daniel H Nexon and Thomas Wright, ―What's at Stake in the American Empire Debate,‖ The American Political Science Review 101:2 (May 2007).
Robert Kagan, ―The September 12 Paradigm,‖ Foreign Affairs, September / October 2008.
Charles A. Kupchan and Peter L. Trubowitz, ―Grand Strategy for a Divided America,‖ Foreign Affairs, July/August 2007.
G. John Ikenberry, After Victory (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), chapters 7 and 8.
George W. Bush, ―The National Security Strategy of the United States of America,‖ September 2002. Available at http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss.pdf
G. John Ikenberry, ―America‘s Imperial Ambition,‖ Foreign Affairs, September / October 2002.
William Pfaff, ―The Question of Hegemony,‖ Foreign Affairs, January/February 2001.
Michael Mandelbaum, ―David‘s Friend Goliath,‖ Foreign Policy, January/February 2006.
Thomas P. M. Barnett, ―The Pentagon‘s New Map,‖ Esquire, March 2003. Available at http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com/published/pentagonsnewmap.htm
Daniel W. Drezner, ―The New New World Order,‖ Foreign Affairs, March/April 2007.
G. John Ikenberry and Anne-Marie Slaughter, ―Forging a World of Liberty Under Law,‖ final report of the Princeton Project on National Security. Available at http://www.wws.princeton.edu/ppns/report/FinalReport.pdf
Highly Recommended: Yale H Ferguson, ―Approaches to Defining ‗Empire‘ and Characterizing United States Influence in the Contemporary World,‖ International Studies Perspectives 9:3, August 2008. Jonathan Monten, ―Primacy and Grand Strategic Beliefs in US Unilateralism,‖ Global Governance 13:1, January-March 2007, pages 119-138. Bruce W. Jentleson, ―America's Global Role after Bush,‖ Survival 49:3, September 2007. President Clinton‘s National Security Strategy, available at http://clinton3.nara.gov/WH/EOP/NSC/html/documents/nssr-1299.pdf X (George Kennan), ―The Sources of Soviet Conduct,‖ Foreign Affairs, July 1947. John Gerard Ruggie, ―Third Try at World Order? America and Multilateralism after the Cold War,‖ Political Science Quarterly 109:4 (Autumn, 1994), pp 553-570. Christopher Layne, ―Offshore balancing revisited,‖ The Washington Quarterly 25:2 (Spring 2002). Philip H. Gordon, ―The End of the Bush Revolution,‖ Foreign Affairs July / August 2006. Stephen M. Walt, ―Taming American Power,‖ Foreign Affairs, September / October 2005.
7 Richard N. Haass, ―Regime Change and Its Limits,‖ Foreign Affairs, July / August 2005. Barry R Posen, ―The struggle against terrorism: Grand strategy, strategy, and tactics,‖ International Security 26:3 (Winter 2001/2002). G John Ikenberry, ―American grand strategy in the age of terror,‖ Survival 43:4 (Winter 2001). Walter Russell Mead, ―American Grand Strategy in a World at Risk,‖ Orbis 49:4 (Fall 2005). Robert J Art, ―Geopolitics updated: The strategy of selective engagement,‖ International Security 23:3 (Winter 1998/1999).
October 16: Nuclear Proliferation and Military Force How do nuclear weapons change the calculus of military force and hegemony? What is the current regime governing nuclear proliferation, how does it work, and why is it under threat? Why are states seeking to acquire nuclear weapons? What are the implications of further nuclear proliferation? Does the spread of nuclear weapons change the conditions of hegemony or challenge theories of hegemony?
Keir A. Lieber and Daryl G. Press, ―The Rise of U.S. Nuclear Primacy,‖ Foreign Affairs, March/April 2006.
William Walker, ―Nuclear enlightenment and counter-enlightenment,‖ International Affairs 83:3, May 2007, pages 431-453.
George Perkovich, ―The End of the Nonproliferation Regime?‖ Current History 105:694, November 2006.
Lawrence Scheinman and William Potter, ―The Nuclear Conundrum,‖ Harvard International Review 26:4, Winter 2005.
Stephen Peter Rosen, ―After Proliferation: What to Do If More States Go Nuclear,‖ Foreign Affairs, September / October 2006.
TV Paul and Mahesh Shankar, ―Why the US-India Nuclear Accord is a Good Deal,‖ Survival 49:4, Winter 2007/2008.
Scott D. Sagan, ―How to Keep the Bomb From Iran,‖ Foreign Affairs, September / October 2006.
Deborah Ogza, ―The Reluctant Giant of Arms Control,‖ Security Dialogue 34:1, 2003.
Michael J Mazarr, ―The Folly of 'Asymmetric War,‖ The Washington Quarterly 31:3 (Summer 2008).
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Speech before the UN General Assembly, September 26, 2007. Available at: http://www.globalsecurity.org/wmd/library/news/iran/2007/iran- 070926-irna01.htm
8 Stephen Burman, The State of the American Empire, chapter 6.
Highly Recommended: Kenneth Waltz, ―The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: More May Better,‖ Adelphi Papers, Number 171 (London: International Institute for Strategic Studies, 1981). Available at: http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/waltz1.htm Scott Sagan, Kenneth Waltz, and Richard Betts, ―A Nuclear Iran: Promoting Stability or Courting Disaster?‖ Journal of International Affairs 60:2 (Spring/Summer2007), pp. 135-150. William Langewiesche, ―How to Get a Nuclear Bomb,‖ The Atlantic Monthly, December 2006.
Recommended: Michael Quinlan, ―Abolishing Nuclear Armouries: Policy or Pipedream?‖ Survival 49:4, Winter 2007/2008. John Deutch, ―A Nuclear Posture for Today,‖ Foreign Affairs, January/February 2005. Chaim Braun, Christopher F Chyba, ―Proliferation rings: New challenges to the nuclear nonproliferation regime,‖ International Security 29:2 Fall 2004. George Perkovich, ―Bush's Nuclear Revolution A Regime Change in Nonproliferation,‖ Foreign Affairs, March / April 2003. Andrew C Winner, ―The proliferation security initiative: The new face of interdiction,‖ The Washington Quarterly,‖ Spring 2005. Peter D Feaver and Emerson M S Niou, ―Managing nuclear proliferation: Condemn, strike, or assist?‖ International Studies Quarterly 40:2 June 1996. Francis J Gavin, ―Blasts from the past: Proliferation lessons from the 1960s,‖ International Security 29:3, Winter 2004/2005. Scott Sagan and Kenneth Waltz, The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: A Debate Renewed (New York: WW Norton & Co.) 2003.
October 23: Terrorism Research paper proposal due Does modern terrorism pose a threat to a hegemonic order? If so how, and what does this struggle look like? Can one side ―win‖ and what would that look like? Or, is the threat from terrorism overblown?
J. Michael McConnell, Director of National Intelligence, ―Annual Threat Assessment of the Intelligence Community for the Senate Armed Services Committee,‖ February 7, 2008. Available at http://odni.gov/testimonies/20080227_testimony.pdf. Focus on the Terrorism section, pages 1-9, browse the rest if you are interested.
Philip Gordon, ―Can the War on Terror Be Won?‖ Foreign Affairs, November / December 2007.
Tony Blair, ―A Battle for Global Values,‖ Foreign Affairs, January/February 2007.
Bruce Riedel, ―Al Qaeda Strikes Back,‖ Foreign Affairs, May/June 2007.
Marc Lynch, ―Al-Qaeda‘s Constructivist Turn,‖ Praeger Security International.
9
―Landon Lecture (Kansas State University),‖ Remarks as Delivered by Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, Manhattan, Kansas, Monday, November 26, 2007, available at: http://www.defenselink.mil/speeches/speech.aspx?speechid=1199
National Intelligence Council, ―Managing the Global Future‖ December 2004. Sections ―Identity Politics‖ and ―Fictional Scenario: A New Caliphate.‖ Available at: http://www.dni.gov/nic/NIC_globaltrend2020_s3.html#id
John Mueller, ―Simplicity and Spook: Terrorism and the Dynamics of Threat Exaggeration,‖ International Studies Perspectives 6:2, May 2005.
Gilles Andréani, ―The ‗War on Terror‘: Good Cause, Wrong Concept,‖ Survival 46:4, Autumn 2004.
George Packer, ―Knowing The Enemy: Can social scientists redefine the ‗war on terror‘?‖ The New Yorker, December 12, 2006. Available at http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/061218fa_fact2
Jason Burke, ―Think Again: Al Qaeda,‖ Foreign Policy, May/June 2004.
Frank Scott Douglas, ―Waging the inchoate war: Defining, fighting, and second-guessing the 'Long War,'‖ Journal of Strategic Studies 30:3, 2007.
Stephen Burman, The State of the American Empire, pages 108-109.
Highly Recommended: Max Abrahms, ―What Terrorists Really Want: Terrorist Motives and Counterterrorism Strategy,‖ International Security 32:4 (Spring 2008). Christopher Blanchard, ―Al Qaeda: Statements and Evolving Ideology‖ CRS Report for Congress, February 4, 2005. Available at: http://www.fas.org/irp/crs/RL32759.pdf Daniel Byman, ―US Counter-terrorism Options: A Taxonomy,‖ Survival 49:3, Autumn 2007. F. Gregory Gause III, ―Can Democracy Stop Terrorism?‖ Foreign Affairs, September / October 2005.
Recommended: Michael Cox, ―American power before and after 11 September: dizzy with success?‖ International Affairs 78:2 April 2002. Andrew Natsios, ―Fighting Terror with Aid,‖ Harvard International Review 26:3, Fall 2004. Robert D Kaplan, ―Imperial Grunts,‖ The Atlantic Monthly, October 2005. Peter Bergen and Alec Reynolds, ―Blowback Revisited,‖ Foreign Affairs, November / December 2005.
October 30: International Law and Organizations Can international organizations such as the UN and international law operate under hegemony? How? How important are they? What is the future of international cooperation and law?
10
Former UN Secretary General Kofi Annan‘s farewell speech, available at http://www.un.org/News/ossg/sg/stories/statments_full.asp?statID=40
Martin Wolf, ―The United Nations,‖ Foreign Policy, March/April 2007.
Mark P Lagon and David Shorr, ―America and the United Nations: An Exchange,‖ Survival 49:2, Summer 2007.
Thomas Carothers, ―A League of Their Own,‖ Foreign Policy, July / August 2008.
Michael J. Glennon, ―Why the Security Council Failed,‖ Foreign Affairs, May/June 2003
Oona A Hathaway, ―Why We Need International Law,‖ The Nation, November 19, 2007.
Robert W. Tucker and David C. Hendrickson, ―The Sources of American Legitimacy,‖ Foreign Affairs, November/December 2004.
Barbara Crossette, ―Killing one's progeny: America and the United Nations,‖ World Policy Journal 19:3 (Fall 2002).
Mats Berdal, ―The UN's Unnecessary Crisis,‖ Survival 47:3 Autumn 2005.
Stephen John Stedman, ―UN transformation in an era of soft balancing,‖ International Affairs 83:5, September 2007.
Andrew Monaghan, ―‘Calmly critical‘: Evolving Russian views of US hegemony,‖ Journal of Strategic Studies 29:6 (December 2006).
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Remarks to U.N. General Assembly, September 20th, 2006. Available at: http://venezuelanalysis.com/news.php?newsno=2083
Recommended: Donald J. Puchala, ―World Hegemony and the United Nations,‖ International Studies Review 7:4 (December 2005). Nick Green, ―Stonewalling Justice,‖ Harvard International Review 26:2 (Summer 2004). Kofi Annan, ―‗In Larger Freedom:‘ Decision Time at the UN,‖ Foreign Affairs, May/June 2005 Thomas G Weiss, ―The illusion of UN Security Council reform,‖ The Washington Quarterly, Autumn 2003. Steven Holloway, ―U.S. unilateralism at the UN: Why great powers do not make great multilateralists,‖ Global Governance 6:3 (July – September 2000). Nico Krisch, ―International Law in Times of Hegemony: Unequal Power and the Shaping of the International Legal Order,‖ European Journal of International Law 16:3 (June 2005). Stuart Eizenstat, John Porter, and Jeremy Weinstein, ―Rebuilding Weak States,‖ Foreign Affairs, January / February 2005.
11
November 6: The Global Economy What role does the US play in today‘s global economy, and how does US economic policy have global impact? What are the global influences on the US economy? Does the US‘s role as hegemon give it special responsibilities in today‘s global economy? What should be on the global economic agenda?
Niall Ferguson, ―Our Currency, Your Problem,‖ New York Times Magazine, March 13, 2005, pp. 19-22.
Jeffrey Frankel, ―Could the twin deficits jeopardize US hegemony?‖ Journal of Policy Modeling 28:6 (2006), pages 653-663.
Iwan Morgan, ―The Indebted Empire: America's Current-Account Deficit Problem,‖ International Politics 45:1 (January 2008).
Bruce Stokes, ―U.S. Economic Hegemony Ebbs,‖ National Journal 40 (January 26, 2008).
Steven Mufson, ―This Time, It's Different: Global Pressures Have Converged to Forge a New Oil Reality,‖ The Washington Post, July 27, 2008, page A01. Available at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/26/AR2008072601025.html
Fred C. Bergsten, ―A Partnership of Equals,‖ Foreign Affairs July/August 2008.
David Levey and Stuart Brown, ―The Overstretch Myth,‖ Foreign Affairs, March / April 2005.
Diane Kunz, ―The fall of the dollar order,‖ Foreign Affairs, July 1995.
Jeffrey E. Garten, ―The Global Economic Challenge,‖ Foreign Affairs, January/February 2005
Robert Z Aliber, ―The Dollar's Day of Reckoning,‖ The Wilson Quarterly, Winter 2005.
Jeffrey Frankel, ―Bush's Spectacular Failure,‖ The International Economy 18:2 (Spring 2004).
Stephen Burman, The State of the American Empire, chapters 1, 2, 3.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Speech to the UN General Assembly, September 16, 2005. Available at: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article10315.htm
Recommended: Ben Thirkell-White, ―The International Financial Architecture and the Limits to Neoliberal Hegemony,‖ New Political Economy 12:1, March 2007. Mathew Burrows and Gregory F Treverton, ―A Strategic View of Energy Futures,‖ Survival 49:3, Autumn 2007. Kent E Calder, ―Halfway to Hegemony: Japan's Tortured Trajectory,‖ Harvard International Review 27:3, Fall 2005.
12 Leonard Seabrooke, ―Everyday Legitimacy and International Financial Orders: The Social Sources of Imperialism and Hegemony in Global Finance,‖ New Political Economy 12:1, March 2007.
November 13: Culture How has US culture impacted the rest of the world? How wide, deep, and important is US cultural hegemony? What reaction has this spawned?
David Rothkopf, ―In praise of cultural imperialism?‖ Foreign Policy, Summer 1997.
Robert Lieber, ―Globalization, Culture, and Identities in Crisis,‖ Chapter 4 in The American Era (Cambridge University Press, 2005), pages 95-123.
Dominique Moisi, ―The Land of Hope Again,‖ Foreign Affairs, September / October 2008.
Nathan Gardels, ―Hollywood in the World,‖ New Perspectives Quarterly 23:2, Spring 2006.
Josef Joffe, ―The Perils of Soft Power,‖ New York Times Magazine, May 14, 2006.
Benjamin R. Barber, ―Jihad vs. McWorld,‖ The Atlantic Monthly, March 1992. Available at http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/199203/barber
Fouad Ajami, ―The Falseness of Anti-Americanism,‖ Foreign Policy, September/October 2003.
Stephen Burman, The State of the American Empire, chapters 4, 8.
Highly Recommended: Stephen Walt, ―The Roots of Resentment,‖ chapter 2 in Taming American Power (New York: WW Norton, 2005).
Recommended: Sami E. Baroudi, ―Countering US Hegemony: The Discourse of Salim al-Hoss and Other Arab Intellectuals,‖ Middle Eastern Studies 44:1 (January 2008), pages 105-129. Pierre Guerlain, ―The ironies and dilemmas of America's cultural dominance: A transcultural approach,‖ American Studies International 35:2 (June97). Roger Boshier, Mary Wilson, and Adnan Qayyum, ―Lifelong education and the World Wide Web: American hegemony or diverse utopia?‖ International Journal of Lifelong Education 18:4 (July 1999), p275-285. Ann Vogel, ―Who's making global civil society: philanthropy and US empire in world society,‖ The British Journal of Sociology 57:4 (December 2006). Drissel, David, ―Internet Governance in a Multipolar World: Challenging American Hegemony,‖ Cambridge Review of International Affairs 19:1 (March 2006), p105-120.
November 20: Hegemonic Challenger
13 Does the US face any states who vie to replace the US as hegemon? What is the difference between a rival within the system and a rival to the system? Is China the hegemonic challenger? How does that impact the US – China relationship? Is there a hegemonic war in the future? What would a Chinese hegemony look like? Or, does someone else fit the bill?
Bruce Russett, ―The Mysterious Case of Vanishing Hegemony; or, is Mark Twain Really Dead?‖ International Organization 39:2 (Spring, 1985), pp. 207-231.
Parag Khanna, ―Waving Goodbye to Hegemony,‖ The New York Times Magazine, January 27, 2008.
G. John Ikenberry, ―The Rise of China and the Future of the West,‖ Foreign Affairs, January / February 2008.
Christopher Layne, ―China's Challenge to US Hegemony,‖ Current History 107 (January 2008).
James F. Hoge, Jr., ―A Global Power Shift in the Making,‖ Foreign Affairs, July / August 2004.
Horace Campbell, ―China in Africa: Challenging US Global Hegemony,‖ Third World Quarterly 29:1, February 2008, pp. 89 – 105.
National Intelligence Council, ―Managing the Global Future‖ December 2004. Section ―Rising Powers: The Changing Geopolitical Landscape.‖ Available at: http://www.dni.gov/nic/NIC_globaltrend2020_s2.html
Andrew Erickson and Lyle Goldstein, ―Hoping for the Best, preparing for the worst: China‘s response to US hegemony,‖ Journal of Strategic Studies 29:6 (December 2006).
David M. Lampton, ―The Faces of Chinese Power,‖ Foreign Affairs, January / February 2007.
Zheng Bijian, ―China's ‗Peaceful Rise‘ to Great-Power Status,‖ Foreign Affairs, September/October 2005.
Rosemary Foot, ―Chinese strategies in a US-hegemonic global order: accommodating and hedging,‖ International Affairs, 82:1 (January 2006), pages 77-94.
Flynt Leverett and Jeffrey Bader, ―Managing China-U.S. Energy Competition in the Middle East,‖ The Washington Quarterly 29:1, Winter 2005/2006.
Neil C. Hughes, ―A Trade War with China?‖ Foreign Affairs, July / August 2005.
George J. Gilboy, ―The Myth Behind China's Miracle,‖ Foreign Affairs, July / August 2004.
William A Callahan, ―Future imperfect: The European Union's encounter with China (and the United States),‖ Journal of Strategic Studies 30:4/5, August 2007.
14 Stephen Burman, The State of the American Empire, chapter 9.
Highly Recommended R. Nicholas Burns, ―America‘s Strategic Opportunity With India,‖ Foreign Affairs, November December 2007. Ingo Schmidt, ―Europe: On the rise to hegemony or caught in crisis?‖ Monthly Review 54:9 (February 2003).
Recommended: Zbigniew Brzezinski and John J Mearsheimer, ―Clash of the Titans,‖ Foreign Policy, January / February 2005. Adam Ward, ―China and America: Trouble Ahead?‖ Survival 45:3, September 2003. Charles R. Irish and Robert W. Irish, ―Misdirected Ire and Lost Opportunities: The False Crisis in Sino-American Relations,‖ Journal of World Trade 39:4, August 2005. Wang Jisi, ―China's Search for Stability With America,‖ Foreign Affairs, September / October 2005. Wu Xinbo, ―The Promise and Limitations of a Sino-US Partnership,‖ The Washington Quarterly, Autumn 2004. Andrew Bingham Kennedy, ―China's Perceptions of U.S. Intentions toward Taiwan: How Hostile a Hegemon?‖ Asian Survey 47:2, March/April 2007. Ralph D. Sawyer ―Chinese Strategic Power: Myths, Intent, and Projections‖ Journal of Military and Strategic Studies. Winter 2006/2007. vol 9, no 2. Kishore Mahbubani, ―Understanding China,‖ Foreign Affairs, September / October 2005. Yakov Berger, ―China's Grand Strategy in the Eyes of American and Chinese Scholars,‖ Far Eastern Affairs 34:1 (2006), pages 14-32.
December 4: The Rise or Fall of a Great Power? What is the future of US hegemony? Is Iraq a moment of overstretch?
Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of Great Powers (New York: Vintage Books, 1987), pages 514-540.
Charles Krauthammer, ―The Unipolar Moment Revisited,‖ The National Interest, Winter 2002/2003.
Robert J Lieber, ―Falling Upwards: Declinism: The Box Set,‖ World Affairs 171:1 (Summer 2008).
Richard Haass, ―The Age of Nonpolarity,‖ Foreign Affairs, May/June 2008.
Jeffrey Record, ―The Limits and Temptations of America‘s Conventional Military Primacy,‖ Survival 47:1, March 2005.
David P Calleo, ―Unipolar Illusions,‖ Survival 49:3, Autumn 2007.
15 Michael Lind, ―Beyond American Hegemony,‖ The National Interest, May/June 2007.
Highly Recommended: Donald W White, ―Mapping Decline: The History of American Power,‖ Harvard International Review 27:3 (Fall 2005). Joseph S. Nye, Jr., ―U.S. Power and Strategy After Iraq,‖ Foreign Affairs, July/August 2003. Immanuel Wallerstein, ―Precipitate Decline,‖ Harvard International Review 29:1, Spring 2007. Paul Starobin, ―Beyond Hegemony,‖ National Journal 38:48, December 2, 2006, pages 18-25. Stephen G. Brooks and William C. Wohlforth, ―American Primacy in Perspective,‖ Foreign Affairs, July/August 2002. David C. Hendrickson, ―The Curious Case of American Hegemony: Imperial Aspirations and National Decline,‖ World Policy Journal 22:2 (Summer 2005).
Recommended: Rajiv Chandrasekaran, ―Who Killed Iraq?‖ Foreign Policy, September / October 2006. Daniel Byman, ―Five Bad Options for Iraq,‖ Survival 47:1 March 2005. Layne, Christopher. "The Unipolar Illusion Revisted: The Coming End of the United States Unipolar Moment" International Security 31:2, Fall 2006. Niall Furguson and Laurence J. Kotlikoff, ―Going Critical,‖ The National Interest, Fall 2003. Thomas Ricks, Fiasco (New York: The Penguin Press, 2006).
December 12 (Friday): Final papers due 12:00 noon.
Course Requirements
Students in this course are required to attend each class, participate in class discussion, do the assigned readings, deliver a presentation in class, and turn in papers of their own individual, original work on the specified dates. All students are expected to have read, and to abide by, the Academic Integrity Code of the American University. A copy can be found at: http://www.american.edu/academics/integrity/code01.htm.
The grade for this course will comprise of the following:
Category Points
Weekly papers 20
Presentation of discussion topic 5
Book review 15
Research Proposal 10
Research Paper 25
16
Class Participation 25
---- Total 100
Weekly Reaction Papers: Each week, students will turn in a brief (2-3 page) reaction paper. The paper should analyze, critique, and react to the topic for the week based on the assigned readings. These reaction papers are meant to serve as the starting points for in-class discussion topics. Therefore, students should bring their papers with them to class, and may want to refer to their papers in class discussion. Students should turn in a reaction paper for each week of class except for the first day and the day they are scheduled for a presentation.
Presentation: Alone or in groups of two, students will sign up to present discussion topics based on that week‘s readings to the class. The presentations should raise key points of debate, contention, and discussion from the readings. Do NOT simply summarize the readings. These presentations will then serve as the foundation for a class discussion. Students are encourage to be creative and innovative with the presentations—use technology, distribute discussion questions or additional readings or internet links prior to class, frame debates, or bring in additional materials. Students are strongly encouraged to discuss their presentations with the instructor in advance. Presentations should be limited to no more than 10 minutes.
Book review: Students should select a book relevant to the class, read it, and write an analytical book review of about 4-5 pages. You may choose a book from the list that will be provided in class or choose another book in consultation with the instructor. The book review should summarize the main argument of the book, critically evaluate that argument, locate the work within the larger discussion of hegemony and US foreign policy, and discuss its relevance to the class and / or contemporary policy debates and issues. The book review is due on October 2.
Research proposal and paper: Students will write a significant research paper that addresses a question engaging theoretical approaches to hegemony and key issues in US foreign policy. Students are strongly encouraged to discuss their choice of topics with the instructor before writing. The research paper proposal is due October 23. The proposal (4 pages) should contain the elements of a basic research design: the topic and its relevance, the research question, the initial argument answering the question, the methodology for demonstrating the argument, and plan for continued research including identification of evidence to be acquired. The proposal should lay out a plan for completing the larger research paper. The final paper will then execute that plan, producing a well written research paper. The final paper is due on December 12.
Class Participation: Class participation will include attendance, contribution to the class discussion, asking intelligent questions in class, and being an attentive listener to other students. Class participation will also incorporate following current events and news on US foreign policy. Students may supplement their class participation by contributing on-line to the blog: www.sis382.blogspot.com.
17 Students will be required to follow the current events and the news US Foreign Policy. Contemporary events will be used to illustrate issues and topics, and students need to know what is going on in the world to fully participate. You can be up to date by reading the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Economist, or any other quality news publication either in print or on-line. You may wish to supplement your reading with broadcast media such as NPR, CNN, or the major network newscasts. Be aware, however, that the network nightly news does not always cover every important issue and often gives the short-shrift to important global issues. Using global media outlets, such as the BBC, is also encouraged to provide an alternative perspective.
To be up to date on current events, you need to be an intelligent and informed consumer of news, which often requires using multiple sources. It is up to you to decide how best to keep abreast of the news. Discussion of current events will occur in class. You can also participate in an on-line discussion of current events at the blog: www.sis382.blogspot.com.
Please note: Students are required to access the course Blackboard website, which contains links to a number of the course readings, important class announcements, internet links, the syllabus, and other relevant material. You can reach the course website from www.american.edu/blackboard. It is the student‘s responsibility to be informed of changes in reading requirements and schedule. This is best accomplished by checking the Blackboard website regularly. In addition, there will be no makeups, nor will paper deadlines be waived without a written doctor‘s excuse.
Green Teaching Initiative: In accordance with the Green Teaching Initiative, make an effort to conserve paper. Do readings on-line to minimize printing. Save paper on assignments by printing on both sides of the page and using 1.5 or single spacing (and adjust page recommendations accordingly). Feel free to use your laptop to take notes in class. If you have hand-outs for a presentation, post or email them rather than printing. Suggest other ways the class could go green!
Required Texts
G. John Ikenberry, After Victory: Institutions, Strategic Restraint, and the Rebuilding of Order after Major War (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001).
Stephen Burman, The State of the American Empire; How the USA Shapes the World (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007).
Additional readings are on reserve at the Library and are posted as electronic reserves on the course Blackboard site. Some recommended readings may not be posted on reserve, but are, for the most part, available through the library‘s electronic databases including EBSCO, ProQuest, and JSTOR.
18