Readings POLSC 4 — World Politics (Fall 2013)

Dr. Donald Douglas, LBCC, Fall 2013 POLSC 4 

World Politics – Take-Home Essay Assignment

Students are to write a 4-6 page essay, double spaced with 10- or 12-point font, stapled in the upper left-hand corner. The topic is for students to evaluate possible U.S. military intervention in Syria using international relations theory. Students should focus on the following questions: What’s the U.S. interest in Syria? Is this a “vital national interest” or something else? How will American security be advanced by war in Syria? Apply international relations theories to evaluate those questions from different perspectives. And use the following readings for your essay: Michael Crowley, “The Syria Problem (Printer Version)," Time (Sept. 09, 2013); Erica Borghard “Arms and Influence in Syria: The Pitfalls of Greater U.S. Involvement,” Cato Institute (August 7, 2013); Anthony Cordesman, “U.S. Strategy in Syria: Having Lost Sight of the Objective…”, Center for Strategic and International Studies (September 12, 2013); Charli Carpenter, “Responsibility to Protect — Or to Punish: Morality and the Intervention in Syria,” Foreign Affairs (August 29, 2013); Frederick Kagan, “What to Do About Syria,” Weekly Standard (September 13, 2013); and “Experts to Obama: Here Is What to Do in Syria,” Weekly Standard (August 27, 2013). (All readings are available online and will be posted at the class blog and announced in class.)

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Dr. Donald K. Douglas
Long Beach City College: Fall 2013
Office Location: T2361
Office Hours: M-W 10:05-11:05am; T-TH 2:30-4:00pm
E-mail: ddouglas [at] lbcc.edu

Course Outline and Reading Assignments:

I. The Study of World Politics (August 26, 28 and September 4)

James M. Scott, Ralph G. Carter, and A. Cooper Drury, IR (Boston: Wadsworth, 2014), Chapter 1.
Jack Snyder, “One World, Rival Theories,” Foreign Policy (November/December 2004).

II. Anarchy, States and Non-State Actors (September 9 and 11)

Scott, Carter and Drury, IR, Chapter 2.
Kenneth Waltz, “The Anarchic Structure of World Politics” (1979), in Robert J. Art and Robert Jervis, eds., International Politics: Enduring Concepts and Contemporary Issues.
Jessica Mathews, “Power Shift,” Foreign Affairs (January/February 1997).

III. Liberalism and Realism (September 16)

Scott, Carter and Drury, IR, Chapter 3.
John Mearsheimer, "Structural Realism," in Tim Dunne et al., eds., International Relations Theories: Discipline and Diversity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013).
Robert Keohane and Joseph Nye, “Realism and Complex Interdependence,” Chapter 2, in Power and Interdependence, 3rd edition (2001).


 *** Midterm Examination – September 18 ***


IV. Alternative Perspectives on IR (September 23 and 25)

Scott, Carter and Drury, IR, Chapter 4.
Richard K. Ashley, “The Poverty of Neorealism,” International Organization (Spring 1984), especially pp. 225-230 and 237-281.
Alexander Wendt, "Anarchy is What States Make of It: The Social Construction of Power Politics," International Organization (Spring 1992), especially pp., 391-395, 403-407,and the conclusion.
Andrés Velasco, "The Dustbin of History: Dependency Theory," Foreign Policy (November/December 2002).
J. Ann Tickner, "Engendered Insecurities: Feminist Perspectives on International Relations," in Gender in International Relations: Feminist Perspectives on Achieving Global Security (1992).

V. Understanding Conflict and War (September 30 and October 2)

Scott, Carter and Drury, IR, Chapter 5.
Joshua Goldstein, "Think Again: War," Foreign Policy (September/October 2011).


 *** Midterm Examination – October 7 ***


VI. International Conflict Management (October 9 and 14)

Scott, Carter and Drury, IR, Chapter 6.
John Lewis Gaddis, "The Long Peace: Elements of Stability in the Postwar International System,” International Security (Spring 1986).
Charles Kupchan and Clifford Kupchan, "Concerts, Collective Security, and the Future of Europe," International Security (Summer 1991), especially pp. 113-137.

VII. International Institutions and Security Cooperation (October 16 and 21)

Scott, Carter and Drury, IR, Chapter 7.
Thomas C. Schelling, "The Diplomacy of Violence" in Karen Mingst and Jack Snyder, eds., Essential Readings in World Politics.
Madeleine Albright, "Think Again: The United Nations," Foreign Policy (September/October 2003).

VIII. Trade, Finance, and Economic Integration (October 23 and 28)

Scott, Carter and Drury, IR, Chapter 8.
Helen Milner, "International Political Economy: Beyond Hegemonic Stability," Foreign Policy (Spring 1998).
Benjamin J. Cohen, "Currency and State Power," in Martha Finnemore and Judith Goldstein, eds., Back to Basics: State Power in a Contemporary World (Oxford University Press, 2013).


*** Midterm Examination – October 30 ***


IX. Economic Statecraft (November 4 and 6)

Scott, Carter and Drury, IR, Chapter 9.
George A. Lopez and David Cortright, "Containing Iraq: Sanctions Worked," Foreign Affairs (July/August 2004).
Charles Kenny and Justin Sandefur, "Can Silicon Valley Save the World?" Foreign Policy (July/August 2013).

X. Political Economy and Development (November 13 and 18)

Scott, Carter and Drury, IR, Chapter 10.
Andre Gunder Frank, "The Development of Underdevelopment," Monthly Review (September 1966).
"The Failure of Economic Development: Interview with William Easterly," Challenge (January/February 2002).
David Dollar and Aart Kraay, "Spreading the Wealth," Foreign Affairs (January/February 2002).
Ruchir Sharma, "Broken BRICs: Why the Rest Stopped Rising," Foreign Affairs (November/December 2012).

XI. Human Rights (November 20 and 25)

Scott, Carter and Drury, IR, Chapter 11.
Daniel Patrick Moynihan, "The Politics of Human Rights," Commentary (August 1977).
Kathryn Sikkink, "Transnational Politics, International Relations Theory, and Human Rights," PS: Political Science and Politics (September 1998).


*** Midterm Examination – November 27 ***


XII. The Global Environment (December 2)

Scott, Carter and Drury, IR, Chapter 12.
Garrett Hardin, "The Tragedy of the Commons," Science (1968).
Bjørn Lomborg, "Environmental Alarmism, Then and Now. The Club of Rome's Problem – and Ours," Foreign Affairs (July/August 2012).
Steven Hayward, "In Denial: The Meltdown of the Climate Campaign," Weekly Standard (2010).

XIII. Transitional Advocacy Networks (December 4)

Scott, Carter and Drury, IR, Chapter 13.
Margaret Keck and Kathryn Sikkink, "Transnational Advocacy Networks in International and Regional Politics," International Social Science Journal (March 1999).

XIV. The Future of World Politics (December 9)

Scott, Carter and Drury, IR, Chapter 14.
Samuel Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations,” Foreign Affairs (Summer 1993).
Robert Kagan, "History's Back. Ambitious Autocracies, Hesitant Democracies," Weekly Standard (August 2008).

*** Final Examination – December 11 ***

Reflections on Long Beach City College

My school, Long Beach City College, is celebrating its 80th anniversary this week. The Long Beach Press-Telegram wrote a nice editorial on the role of the college in the life of the Long Beach community:

As LBCC turns 80 today, it is important to recognize what has taken place inside those old buildings. The college has made incredible contributions to students, the work force and to the community since it first opened in 1927...[the college] educates students who often cannot afford or are not yet prepared for traditional four-year campuses. Others are ready for the Cal States and UCs, but do not want to go into debt for their first two years of college.

But that is only part of the LBCC story. City College is often the last stop for students at the other end of the scale, those who need the remedial skills they did not - or chose not - to get in high school. Instructors there are charged with the awesome task of getting unprepared students prepared for college-level work.

Read the rest of the editorial. LBCC also has a reputation as having one of the strongest extracurricular programs in the region, and the college's boosters help the campus retain its standard of community leadership as well.

On a personal level, I've been very proud to make my career as a community college instructor at LBCC. Community colleges are not presitigious institutions, and in fact some graduates of Ph.D. programs are often not encouraged to apply at the two-year level, as the community college teaching load is not always conducive to research. Yet, I like the absence of the "publish-or-perish" thing - I read or research what I want, with no demands for publication. It's a trade off between prestige and flexibility, and not a bad one at that.

But sometimes I'm taken back by some of the things people will say about community colleges or my position as a two-year college professor.

Over at FireDogLake the other day, I challenged Christy Hardin Smith's attacks on General Petraeus (in one of my periodic commenting forays into the hard-left blogosphere).

Check out the thread: I obviously went into the hornet's nest and was attacked relentlessly. I was called a "dick" by Hardin Smith. Other commenters likely Googled me to find out where I taught, with one commenter dismissing my community college teaching as speaking to "a lack of ability." Others started denouncing me as "Douglass", with the emphasis on "ass." Still others argued "it's a junior college" and he doesn't teach "upper division" classes. Some even questioned whether I was really an associate professor!

And for what? Why all these ad hominems? For criticizing an attack post on General Petraeus' credibility, a post I said was about as nasty as MoveOn.org?

In any case, no worry. FireDogLake's a bastion of Bush-bashing anti-Americanism and the commenters there are ignorant and shamelessly intolerant.

But let me leave readers with a little more perspective on the communty college tradition from my experience: I'm a rigorous professor, and I have very high expectations for my students. In my international relations and comparative politics courses, I'm training students in political science fundamentals, in the disciplinary literature and methods needed for successful university transfer. Many of my students go on to Berkeley, UCLA, and USC, and other excellent four-year collleges. I seek to challenge my charges - many of whom have come from disadvantaged backgrounds - so they'll be ready for the rigors and competition of elite university life.

My students often thank me for pushing them. Here's an e-mail from a student who transferred to Berkeley awhile back, and was responding to a quick note I sent her to see how she was doing:

It's funny that you write to me now...[I was] just reflecting today on how your classes provided such an excellent foundation for the political science courses...taken so far. I'm actually in my second semester in Berkeley so I still have about a year and a half left until I graduate and go to law school...Academically I think Berkeley is overrated; they hardly require critical thinking or analysis and make us rely heavily on readings and honing the skill of regurgitating them. I wish the grading was more difficult and we weren't babied so much here but I guess the demographics of these students give them more of a sense of entitlement to an A grade than the students in Long Beach. I don't know if I'm making any sense but it's just my analysis of my experience, Berkeley is only difficult to me because it's this little bubble that is so detached from the real world; academically it's very easy if one works hard enough. The professors seem so much more concerned with their own research and reputation that they allow for a system in which the students to learn for a grade as opposed to acquiring real knowledge. I hope your classes are going well; some of the best readings I've ever read for political science came from your course and the same authors always reappear, so I guess I'm saying you made a really good and relevant choice with the readings. The case studies were especially helpful and mirror what we are doing in one of my political science classes now. It was nice hearing from you, thank you for your continued support.

I get comments like this from my former students every now and then.

These testimonials are some of the most important rewards of teaching. Community colleges are vital to the lives of their neighborhoods, as the Long Beach Press-Telegram editorial indicates, and as my experiences confirm.

I find it disturbingly ironic that radicals who consider themselves "progressives" are so intent to impugn the credentials of professors at the community college level. In fact, the students who I teach need the best possible instruction possible: If you think about it, I'm one of those "highly qualified" instructors teaching "disadvantage students" in "depressed neighborhoods" (the type of teachers liberals are always demanding when they bash standards-based education).

But facts like this don't get in the way of the pseudo-elitist idiots like those over at FireDogLake and elsewhere. These folks have no clue as to what it's really like in the educational trenches, and frankly, they don't even care.