Week 5: US Policy in Middle East, and with Russia & China

Questions for Extra Credit Work:

Choose one of the questions below to answer. Submit your answer in class.

1. What reasons were given by the Bush administration for the Iraq war? Which reasons proved valid and which did not?
2. What have been some of the successes of the war on terrorism? What have been the failures?
3. Analyze the U.S. containment and engagement policies for China by answering the following two questions. What international relations and foreign policy theories is each policy based on? And how do their policy prescriptions become different as a result?

Week 4: Post-Cold War American foreign policy

Questions for Extra Credit Work:

Choose one of the questions below to answer. Submit your answer in class.

On page 414, Jentleson writes, “Just as the Vietnam War shattered the Cold War consensus, the Iraq War had a similar impact on the September 11 consensus.”

1. Explain what the Cold War consensus is and how it was shattered by the Vietnam War.
2. Explain what the September 11 consensus is and how the Iraq War shattered it.

Week 3: The Cold War

Questions for Extra Credit Work:

Choose one of the questions below to answer. Submit your answer in class.

1. Choose one US foreign policy failure that happened during the Cold War and analyze the conceptual flaw(s) that led to it.
2. The Munich analogy was cited by many top US officials to justify America’s involvement and its continued presence in Vietnam (pp. 172-173). What, in your view, is the problem with this analogy?

Week 2: Realism v. Liberalism, Hard v. Soft Power

Question for Extra Credit Work:

Choose one of the questions below to answer. The first one is for our Monday class, and the second one for our session on Wednesday. Submit your answer in class.

1.  Should Vietnam’s foreign policy be guided more by realism or liberalism? Why?
2. What is more important for Vietnam to develop — hard power or soft power? Why?

 

Week 1: Introduction. How American foreign policy is made.

Readings:

• Jentleson 27-55, chapter 2: “The Domestic Context: The Three Branches and the Process of Choice.”
• Jentleson 76-84, “Public Option: What is it? What is its Impact?”