Columbia University                                                    Political Science W3963x                                                            Autumn 2000

 

 

                   UNITED STATES FOREIGN POLICY

 

 

Class Meetings:  Mondays  4:10-6:00.                                                           Professor Richard K. Betts

Office Hours:  Wednesdays  2:30-5:00                                               Institute of War and Peace Studies

(except when meetings require rescheduling)                             Room 1328, International Affairs Building

or by appointment.  Telephone:  212-854-7325                                         E-Mail:  <rkb4@columbia.edu>

 

 

The course is organized in two phases.  Part One explores several sets of functional and regional issues in U.S. foreign policy, focusing on normative questions about power and values, the U.S. role in the world, defense policy, intervention abroad, human rights, covert political action, and economic interests and leverage.  Part Two surveys the policymaking process, focusing on empirical questions about external, constitu­tional, organizational, psychological, and other constraints on policy decision, and the critical differences between decision and implementation.  Roman numerals below correspond roughly to weekly meetings.  Do the next section's readings each week unless instructed otherwise.

 

Requirements:  Because this is a four-point course the workload is one-third heavier than for a normal course.  Because this is a seminar, and not a lecture course in which you can make up for indolence at one point by cramming at the end, success of the discussions depends on having students fully prepared for each session.  Those who do not wish to commit themselves to read, ponder, and write carefully about a demanding amount of material, and to do so on time for each meeting, should not take this course.  Since enrollment is limited, the instructor accepts only students who promise to honor all requirements.  For back­ground, general knowledge of the history of U.S. foreign policy in the past century, and knowledge of current events on the level of careful daily reading of the New York Times or Washington Post, is assumed.  If admitted to the class you must: (1) attend all class sessions (absences without compelling reasons will be penalized); (2) faithfully complete all assigned readings before class sessions in which they are discussed (unprepared students will be penal­ized); (3) participate sensibly in those discussions (students who seldom contribute, or who blather ceaselessly, will be penalized); (4) write three five-page papers (no more than 1,500 words) on topics from a choice of five options assigned by the instructor, due at the beginning of the class on the due date (NO late five-page papers will be accepted, since they are meant to prepare you for discussions that day -- if you do not finish in time, you must do one of the later options); (5) write one fifteen-page paper (5,000 words absolute maximum) on a topic of your own choice, due at noon on Tuesday, December 12.  All must write mailing address, phone number, and E-Mail address on the first page of the paper.  The instructor is happy to take the time to provide comments, except for students who do not care to get them.  If you want written comments you must provide a self-addressed 9x12 return envelope (postage not necessary).  Approxi­mately one third of the course grade will be based on the five-page papers, one third on the fifteen-page paper, and one third on performance in class.

Part One: Policy Issues

 

 

I.                 Interests and Ide­als                                                     9/11/00

 

            Louis Hartz, The Liberal Tradition in America (Harcourt, Brace, 1955), chap. 11.

 

            George F. Kennan, American Diplomacy, 1900-1950 (University of Chicago Press, 1951), chaps. 1-6.

 

            John Gerard Ruggie, Winning the Peace (Columbia University Press, 1996), chaps. 1-4.

 

            Michael Mandelbaum, "Foreign Policy as Social Work," Foreign Affairs 75, no. 1 (January/February 1996).

 

 

II.               Decline and Ascendancy                                              9/18/00

 

            Paul Kennedy, The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers (Random House, 1987), Introduction, pp. 514-535, and Epilogue.

 

            Barry P. Bosworth and Robert Z. Lawrence, "America's Global Role: From Dominance to Interdependence," in John D. Steinbru­ner, ed., Restructuring American Foreign Policy (Brookings Institution, 1989).

 

            William C. Wohlforth, "The Stability of a Unipolar World," International Security 24, no. 1 (Summer 1999).

 

            Christopher Layne, "The Unipolar Illusion: Why New Great Powers Will Rise," International Security 17, no. 4 (Spring 1993).

 

 

III.              Military Power                                                             9/25/00

 

            Barry R. Posen and Andrew L. Ross, "Competing Visions for U.S. Grand Strategy," International Security 21, no. 3 (Winter 1996/97).

 

            Michael O'Hanlon, How to Be a Cheap Hawk (Brookings Institution, 1998), chaps. 2-4.

 

            James Schlesinger, "Raise the Anchor or Lower the Ship," National Interest no. 53 (Fall 1998).

 

            John Hillen, "Superpowers Don't Do Windows," Orbis 41, no. 2 (Spring 1997).

IV.              Economic Leverage                                                      10/2/00

 

            Ruggie, Winning the Peace, chaps. 5, 6.

 

            David A. Baldwin, Economic Statecraft (Princeton University Press, 1985), chaps. 7-10.

 

            [Eric J. Labs,] The Role of Foreign Aid in Development (Congres­sional Budget Office, May 1997), chaps. 2-3.

 

            P. T. Bauer, "Foreign Aid and the Third World," in Peter Duignan and Alvin Rabushka, eds., The United States in the 1980s (Hoover Institution, 1980).

 

 

V.               Political Intervention                                                   10/9/00

 

            U.S. Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, Staff Report: Covert Action in Chile 1963-1973, 94th Cong., 1st sess., 1975.

 

            Morton H. Halperin, "Guaranteeing Democracy," Foreign Policy No. 91 (Summer 1993).

 

            Samuel P. Huntington, "Human Rights and American Power," Commentary 72, no. 3 (September 1981).

 

            Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order (Simon and Schuster, 1996), chap. 12.

 

 

 

VI.              Europe                                                                          10/16/00

 

            John J. Mearsheimer, "Why We Will Soon Miss the Cold War," The Atlantic 266, no. 2 (August 1990).

 

            Zbigniew Brzezinski, "A Plan for Europe," Foreign Affairs 74, no. 1 (January/February 1995).

 

            Michael E. Brown, "The Flawed Logic of NATO Expansion," Survival 37, no. 1 (Spring 1995).

 

            Alexei  G. Arbatov, “Russian National Interests,” in Robert D. Blackwill and Sergei Karaganov, eds., Damage Limitation or Crisis?  Russia and the Outside World, CSIA Studies in International Security No. 5 (Brassey’s, 1994).

 

 

VII.             Northeast Asia                                                              10/23/00

 

            Edward Friedman, "The Challenge of a Rising China," in Lieber, ed., Eagle Adrift.

 

            Gerald Segal, "Does China Matter?" Foreign Affairs 78, no. 5 (September/October 1999).

 

            Chalmers Johnson and E.B. Keehn, "The Pentagon's Ossified Strategy," Foreign Affairs 74, no. 4 (July/August 1995).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Part Two:  Policymaking Process

 

 

VIII.           Can Policymaking Be Rational?                       10/30/00

 

            Graham Allison and Philip Zelikow, Essence of Decision, Second Edition (Longman, 1999).

 

 

IX.              Constitutional Constraints                                          11/6/00

                       

            Louis Henkin, Constitutionalism, Democracy, and Foreign Affairs (Columbia University Press, 1990), chap. 3.

 

            Thomas E. Mann, "Making Foreign Policy: President and Congress," in Mann, ed., A Question of Balance (Brookings Institution, 1990).

 

            The War Powers Resolution (Public Law 93-148, November 7, 1973).

 

            Robert Katzmann, "War Powers," in Mann, ed., A Question of Balance.

 

            Gregory Treverton, "Intelligence," in Mann, ed., A Question of Balance.

 

X.      Organizational Complexity and Political Control     11/13/00

 

             **** NB: First review Allison and Zelikow, Essence of Decision, chaps. 3-7. ****

 

            Stephen D. Krasner, "Are Bureaucracies Important? or Allison Wonderland,"  Foreign Policy No. 7 (Summer 1972)  or  Jonathan Bendor and Thomas H. Hammond, "Rethinking Allis­on's Models," American Political Science Review 86, no. 2 (June 1992).

 

            Charles E. Lindblom, "The Science of 'Muddling Through',"       Public Administration Review vol. 19 (Spring 1959).

 

            Alexander George, Presidential Decision-Making in Foreign Policy (Westview Press, 1980), chaps. 1-4, 6-12.

 

 

XI.              Experts: Professionalism, Guilds, Power                            11/20/00

 

            Chris Argyris, Some Causes of Organizational Ineffectiveness Within the Department of State, Occasional Paper No. 2 (Department of State, Center for International Systems Research, January 1967).

 

            Richard K. Betts, Soldiers, Statesmen, and Cold War Crises, Second Edition (Columbia University Press, 1991), chaps. 1, 2, 5-9.

 

            Richard Kohn, "Out of Control: The Crisis in Civil-Military Relations," National Interest no. 35 (Spring 1994).

 

 

XII.             Leadership: Psychology, Beliefs, Action                    11/27/00

           

            Alexander L. George and Juliette L. George, Woodrow Wilson and Colonel House (Dover, 1964), chaps. 1-2, 8, 11-15.

 

            John D. Steinbruner, The Cybernetic Theory of Decision (Princeton University Press, 1974), chaps. 1, 3, 4.

 

 

XIII.           Intelligence: Knowledge and Policy                                     12/4/00

 

            Joseph S. Nye, Jr., "Peer­ing Into the Fu­ture," Foreign Af­fairs 73, no. 4 (Ju­ly/August 1994).

 

            Richard K. Betts, "Policy-Makers and Intelligence Analysts," Intelligence and National Security 3, no. 1 (January 1988).

 

            Betts, Soldiers, Statesmen, and Cold War Crises, chap. 10.

 

            U.S. House of Representatives, Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, Subcommittee on Oversight and Evalua­tion, Staff Report: U.S. Intelligence Performance on Central America: Achievements and Selected Instances of Concern, 97th Cong., 2d sess., September 1982.

 

 

XII.             Conclusion                                                                             12/11/00

 

W3963x, “U.S. Foreign Policy,” Autumn 2000 Short Paper Topics

 

You may choose any three of the following topics and due dates.  Remember:

(1)         You must choose at least one topic from Part One, and at least one from Part Two.

(2)         Absolutely no papers will be accepted after the beginning of the class at which they are due.

(3)         The absolute length limit for each short paper is 1,500 words.

(4)         Papers may not be just descriptions of what others have said, or just statements of opinion, but must be analytical, supporting arguments with evidence and logic, and exploiting the assigned readings.

 

Part One

 

Decline and Ascendancy, September 18:  “God blessed the United States with huge ocean moats to the east and west, and weak neighbors to the north and south.  Since the collapse of the Soviet Union there is no global threat to American safety.  The United States has no material interest in involving itself in the troubles of other countries,” said the conservative dove.  “Wrong,” said the liberal hawk.  “Our material interests as well as our values will suffer if we don’t do our share in managing world order.”  Which one is right?

 

Military Power, September 25:  How much should the U.S. defense budget be, and what should we buy with it?

 

Political Intervention, October 9:  “There is no difference between secret political intervention to affect the politics of other countries, and overt intervention to promote human rights or democracy.  The issue is whether it is right to intervene or not; the choice of instruments is secondary.”  Discuss.

 

Northeast Asia, October 23:  Should the United States want China to become rich?

 

 

Part Two

 

Constitutional Constraints, November 6:  Does Congress have too much influence on warmaking, or not enough?  By what criteria?  What would it take to make you give a different answer?

 

Experts, November 20:  Should career officials in the foreign affairs and national security bureaucracies have more influence than they do or less?

 

Leadership, November 27:  What other explanations for the failure of the Senate to ratify the Versailles Treaty might one give besides those offered by the Georges?  How persuasive are they compared to explanations that emphasize psychological causes?