(8-07-2009 draft)
PLIR 4650 and 7500
American foreign policymAKING
Fall 2009—Wed.
Professor William B. Quandt
Office Hours: T. and Th. 1:30 to 2:30 pm
and by appointment, Cabell 255
e-mail: wbq8f@virginia.edu
Class Home Page: U Va Collab
WBQ Home Page: http://www.people.virginia.edu/~wbq8f
This course
will focus on how the
The class will be conducted as a seminar, which means that each student is expected to participate actively, to do the reading in advance, and to write a number of short papers prior to many of the class sessions. Your grade will be based on participation in class and your written work.
For eight of the ten weeks from September 2 to November 11, you will write a short three to four-page (single-spaced) paper on that week’s topic. I would like all of you to write one of your papers on the theory topic for Sept 2.
If you decide to write two papers
on a specific case, for the first week your paper should focus on the key
elements in the case, the crucial decisions as you see them, the turning
points, the key actors. Think of this as
an analytical narrative of the case. The
second week you will be expected to engage more explicitly with theory,
demonstrating which of the various approaches that we will have studied is most
useful for understanding key dimensions of the case. The weekly paper is due by e-mail to me (in
an attached Word document) no later than
For the topic of the pro-Israel lobby, I will organize the class into working groups that will produce a joint memo that examines elements of the original argument by Walt and Mearsheimer as well as views of critics. That memo will be due November 16, prior to the class meeting on November 18, and it should not exceed four single-spaced pages. Graduate students will have one extra writing assignment to be developed in consultation with the instructor.
You should purchase the following books:
G. Allison and P. Zelikow, Essence of Decision
M. Beschloss and S. Talbot, At the Highest Levels (available used on Amazon at a very low cost)
F. Kaplan, Daydream Believers
E. May and P. Zelikow, The Kennedy Tapes
G. Packer, Assassins’ Gate
W. Quandt,
W. Quandt, Peace Process, 3rd edition (recommended)
T. Ricks, The Gamble
Other readings will be on e-reserve on the UVa Collab site under resources.
Course outline
September 2– Theories of International Relations and
Foreign Policy
Quandt, Peace Process, pp. 1-20.
Holsti, Waltz, e-reserve
September 9 – The Cuban Missile Crisis I
The Kennedy Tapes, pp. pp. xvii-193
Krasner, Legro-Moravcsik, e-reserve
September 16 – The Cuban Missile Crisis II
Jervis, e-reserve
September 23 – Arab-Israeli Peace Negotiations I
Kissinger, parts I and II, e-reserve
Quandt, Peace Process, chs 4-5.
September 30 – Arab-Israeli Peace Negotiations II
Carter, I, II,
Camp David Strategy Memo, e-reserve
M. Leffler, “End of the Cold War”, e-reserve
October 14 – Ending
the Cold War II
M. Haas, “The
Reactions to Shifts in Soviet Power, Policies, or Domestic Politics?” e-reserve
Karabell, “Backfire”, e-reserve
October 21 –
Quandt, Peace
Process, chs. 11-12
For this week, I also want you to select one
of the following books to read:
Dennis Ross, The Missing Peace (because
of the book’s length, you may focus
on either the Israeli-Palestinian
track or the Israeli-Syrian track)
Martin Indyk, Innocent Abroad
Aaron Miller, The Much Too Promised Land
Also, Rob Malley and Hussein Agha, e-reserve;
and J. Pressman, e-reserve
Quandt review I, e-reserve
Quandt, Peace Process, ch. 13
Kaplan, Intro, chs 1-3
“A Clean Break”, e-reserve
Woodward, Plan of Attack, e-reserve
9/11 Report, e-reserve
November 4 – The
Kaplan,
chs. 4-6
November 11—
Massing review of Ricks, NY Review of
Books,
Iraq Study Group Report, e-reserve
Quandt memo on
November 18– The Lobby
Letters in London Review, e-reserve
Foreign Policy, May-June,
2006 and July-August 2006, e-reserve
NY Review of Books, Massing Review, e-reserve
Quandt review II, e-reserve
Quandt, Peace Process, ch. 14
December 2 – Final class session