MVZb2068 US Foreign Policy & Populism

Fall 2020

Lecturer: Prof. Dr. Sebastian Harnisch, Heidelberg University (sebastian.harnisch@ipw.uni-heidelberg.de)

Administrative support: Dr. Jana Urbanovská (79161@mail.muni.cz)

Online course (platform: Heincof-System of the Heidelberg University)

28 - 30 October 2020

12 sessions

4 ECTS

Below please see the pdf syllabus of the course by Prof. Sebastian Harnisch

How to get to the course in the Heincof-System of the Heidelberg University:

• Link: https://heiconf.uni-heidelberg.de/3j9c-m4rz-ucn6-9xtk  
  
• Course: U.S. Foreign Policy in the Trump era
• Code word: POTUS2020#

Course description
This course examines various themes and patterns of U.S. foreign policy in the light of the current Trump administration. Students will explore institutions and individuals responsible for foreign policy decision making while considering different levels of analysis, i.e. the international system, domestic politics, as well as organizational and bureaucratic explanations. We will examine causes from different levels of analysis and a variety of theoretical perspectives. The goal is to obtain a fundamental understanding about the more general forces shaping U.S. foreign policy and apply this knowledge to the Trump presidency.

Requirements
Students are required to participate actively in the online seminar session, give an oral presentation and comment on one of the presentations by other students. Because of the digitalization of courses, all oral presentations (ppt slides) are due to be send to Prof. Harnisch (sebastian.harnisch@ipw.uni-heidelberg.de) for uploading on the HeiBox-Cloud-System a week before the course begins. Other students will then be able to engage with the material beforehand; you can sign up for commentaries two days after the upload of the presentations by again sending an email to me.

Don’t forget: Sign up for:

• your oral presentation (HeiBox-List - https://heibox.uni-heidelberg.de/d/8258e5682c314905baf6/?dl=1; deadline 15 October 2020)
  
• and for your comment (by mail to Prof. Harnisch; deadline 26 October 2020).

Grading
This course is a pass / fail course. Altogether students can get up to 100 points. The assessment is based on seminar participation (30%), the oral presentation (50%) and the commentary (20%). To pass the course, students need to get al least 60 points. 

Literature
Literature (required reading) will be accessible via this Cloud-Storage HeiBOX-Link:
https://heibox.uni-heidelberg.de/d/8258e5682c314905baf6/?dl=1
Course: U.S. Foreign Policy in the Trump era
Code word: POTUS2020#

Excuse notes
If you cannot attend a session, please send your reasons via e-mail to ib-seminar2@ipw.uniheidelberg.
de, if possible, at least 24 hours prior to the seminar. You are allowed to miss two
sessions.

Basic Literature

• Alden, Chris, and Amnon Aran. 2017. Foreign Policy Analysis: New Approaches. 2 ed. London: Routledge.
• Beach, Derek. 2012. Analyzing Foreign Policy. New York: Palgrave MacMillan.
• Beasley, Ryan K. 2013. Foreign Policy in Comparative Perspective: Domestic and International Influences on State Behavior. London: CQPress.
• Breuning, Marijke. 2007. Foreign Policy Analysis: A Comparative Introduction. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Brook, Stephen, and William Wohlforth. 2016. America Abroad: The United States´ Global Role in the 21st Century. Oxford, NY: Oxford University Press.
• Brummer, Klaus, und Oppermann, Kai. 2018. Außenpolitikanalyse. 2nd Edition. De Gruyter Oldenburg.
• Daalder, Ivo H., and James M. Lindsay. 2018. The Empty Throne: America's Abdication of Global Leadership. New York: PublicAffairs.
• Herring, George C. 2011. From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations since 1776. 1 ed, Oxford History of the United States. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Hook, Steven W. 2017. U.S. Foreign Policy: The Paradox of World Power. 4. ed. Washington, D.C.: CQ Press.
• Hudson, Valerie M. 2014. Foreign Policy Analysis: Classic and Contemporary Theory. 2 ed. Lannham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield.
• Kaufman, Joyce P. 2017. A Concise History of U.S. Foreign Policy. 4 ed. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield.
• Mearsheimer, John J. The Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams and International Realities. New Haven: Yale University Press.
• Mintz, Alex, and Karl R. DeRouen. 2010. Understanding Foreign Policy Decision Making. New York: Cambridge Univ. Press.
• Patrick, Stewart. 2009. The Best Laid Plans: The Origins of American Multilateralism and the Dawn of the Cold War. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
• Smith, Steve. 2012. Foreign Policy: Theories, Actors, Cases. Vol. 2. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Thompson, John A. 2015. A Sense of Power: The Roots of America's Global Role. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
• Walt, Stephen M. 2018. The Hell of Good Intentions: America's Foreign Policy Elite and the Decline of U.S. Primacy. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.