Foreign Policy Analysis
2010/11 Teaching Block 2, weeks 13-24
Unit Owner:
Level: M
Credit points: 20
Prerequisites: None
Office hours will be advertised in class
Unit description
Foreign Policy Analysis has always played a key part in the study of International Relations. Its central contention is that the foreign and security policies of key actors in world politics are not only shaped the structure of the international system, but also by the specific characteristics of these actors. This unit examines different approaches and factors in the analysis of foreign policy decision making, such as the difference between major powers and small states, the influence of rationality and ideology, the role of domestic actors, and the analysis of group processes and foreign policy discourses. Moreover, this unit applies them to a range of historical and contemporary case studies and a variety of countries from Europe, North America and Asia.
Teaching arrangements
There are ten seminars in the unit (Weeks 13-22) which will be 50 minutes, 10 minutes break, and another 50 minutes. Attendance is required. These will be followed by two weeks (Weeks 23-24) without seminars while you focus on writing your essay.
Requirements for credit points
For credit points to be awarded for this unit, you must complete all required work (the presentation and the essay) to at least a passing standard (a mark of 50) and have no more than two non-excused seminar absences.
Summative assessment
The summative assessment for this unit is based on a 3,500-4,000 word essay at the end of the term (100% of mark). In contrast, the presentation is formative, meaning that it does not count towards the final mark for the unit but instead is aimed at preparing your for the essay. The essay and the oral seminar presentation must be on different topics. Essay questions will be distributed early in term.
Full details about all requirements and rules regarding essays – including length, formatting, submission, pass marks, extensions, feedback, resubmissions, and so on – are in the Departmental Graduate Studies handbook which is online at:
http://www.bristol.ac.uk/spais/current/currentpgt/hand/pgthandbook.pdf
Details of coursework and deadlines
Formative assessment due in weeks 13-24 (dates will be assigned in the first week of term):
Seminar presentation of 20 minutes for joint presentations and one A4-page handout
Summative assessments:
100% of mark: one essay of 3,500 -4,000 words due at the end of week 24
The deadline for submitting the essay via Blackboard is 11.00am Friday Week 24 (20 May 2011). You can access the Blackboard site via this URL: https://www.ole.bris.ac.uk/webapps/login/ by using your University login and password. The Graduate Studies Administrator will circulate detailed information on how to submit your work before each hand-in date. Only electronic submission is accepted.
Core reading
The main textbook for this course, recommended for purchase, is:
Hill, Christopher (2003) The Changing Politics of Foreign Policy, Basingstoke: Palgrave. JZ1253 HIL
Also useful are:
Neack, Laura (2008) The New Foreign Policy: Power Seeking in a Globalized Era, Rowman and Littlefield. JZ1480 NEA
Smith, Steve, Hadfield, Amelia, and Dunne, Tim (eds.) (2008) Foreign Policy: Theories, Actors, Cases, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Seminar Schedule
Week 1 What is Foreign Policy Analysis?
Week 2 Geopolitics: Small States and Major Powers
Week 3 Ideology versus National Interest
Week 4 Rationality and Rational Choice
Week 5 Bureaucratic Politics
Week 6 Domestic Factors: Interest Groups and Public Opinion
Week 7 Psychological and Cognitive Approaches
Week 8 Constructivist and Postmodern Analysis
Week 9 Secrecy and Accountability
Week 10 An Ethical Foreign Policy?
Week 3. Ideology versus National Interest
Learning outcome:
By the end of this class, you should have an appreciation of the debate about whether national interests as opposed to ideology takes precedence in the formulation of foreign policy. You should also be able to say whether the social constructivists have resolved the debate.
Presentation: Does ideology or national interest provide a better framework for identifying foreign policy objectives?
Required reading:
Textbook: Kirkby, Stephen (1973) ‘National Interest versus Ideology in American Diplomacy’ in: Benewick, Robert, Berki, R. N., and Parekh, Bhikhu (eds.) Knowledge and Belief in Politics: The Problem of Ideology, London: Allen & Unwin, pp.227-44. JA83 BEN SLC
Application: Slater, Jerome (2002) ‘Ideology vs. the National Interest: Bush, Sharon, and US Policy in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict’, Security Studies, 12:1, pp.164-206.
Critique: Weldes, Jutta (1996) ‘Constructing National Interests’, European Journal of International Relations, 2:3, pp.275-318.
Recommended reading:
Arkes, Hadley (1972) Bureaucracy, the Marshall Plan and National Interest, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. HC240 ARK
Ball, Terence (2006) Political Ideologies and the Democratic Ideal (sixth edition), New York: Pearson. JC423 BAL
Campbell, David (1998) Writing Security: United States Foreign Policy and the Politics of Identity (revised edition), Manchester: Manchester University Press. E744 CAM also SLC
Carlsnaes, Walter (1986) Ideology and Foreign Policy: Problems of Comparative Conceptualization, Oxford: Basil Blackwell. JX1305 CAR SLC
Carter, K., and Maze, Holly (1989) The Asian Dilemma in U.S. Foreign Policy: National Interest versus Strategic Planning, New York: M.E. Sharpe. DS518.8 CAR
Cassels, Alan (1996) Ideology and International Relations in the Modern World, London: Routledge. JX1391 CAS
Cerny, Philip G. (1980) The Politics of Grandeur: Ideological Aspects of de Gaulle’s Foreign Policy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DC417 CER
Chafetz, Glenn, Spirtas, Michael, and Frankel, Benjamin (eds.) The Origins of National Interests, London: Frank Cass. JZ1395 ORI
Dawisha, Adeed (ed.) (1983) Islam in Foreign Policy, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DS 39 ISL
Fawn, Rick (ed.) (2004) Ideology and National Identity in Post-communist Foreign Policies, London: Frank Cass. JC311 IDE
Fox, John P. (1982) Germany and the Far Eastern Crisis 1931-1938: A Study in Diplomacy and Ideology, Oxford: Clarendon Press. DD241.C5 FOX
Frankel, Joseph (1970) National Interest, London: Pall Mall Press. JX1395 FRA
Goldstein, Judith, and Keohane, Robert O. (eds.) (1993) Ideas and Foreign Policy: Beliefs, Institutions, and Political Change, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. JX1391 IDE
Halliday, Fred (2005) The Middle East in International Relations: Power, Politics and Ideology, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. DS63.18 HAY
Hastedt, Glenn P. (2009) American Foreign Policy: Past, Present, Future (seventh edition), Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Prentice Hall. JX1417 HAS
Hunt, Michael H. (1987) Ideology and U.S. Foreign Policy, New Haven: Yale University Press. E183.7 HUN
Huntington, Samuel P. (1993) ‘The Clash of Civilizations?’, Foreign Affairs, 72:3, pp.22-49.
Huntington, Samuel P. (1997) ‘The Erosion of American National Interests’, Foreign Affairs, 76:5, pp.28-49.
Karam, Azza (ed.) (2004) Transnational Political Islam: Religion, Ideology and Power, London: Pluto. JC49 TRA
Kennan, George F. (1952) American Diplomacy 1900-1950, London: Secker & Warburg. E744 KEN
Kent, John (1992) British Imperial Strategy and the Origins of the Cold War, 1944-49, Leicester: Leicester University Press. DA588 KEN
Kramer, Mark (1999) ‘Ideology and the Cold War’, Review of International Studies, 25:4, pp.539-76.
Kull, Steven (1992) Burying Lenin: The Revolution in Soviet Ideology and Foreign Policy, Boulder, Col.: Westview. DK 289 KUL
Landau, Jacob M. (1994) The Politics of Pan-Islam: Ideology and Organization (new edition), Oxford: Clarendon Press. DS 35.7 LAN
Lenczowski, John (1982) Soviet Perceptions of U.S. Foreign Policy: A Study of Ideology, Power, and Consensus, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press. E183.8.R9 LEN
Little, Richard, and Smith, Michael (eds.) (1991) Perspectives on World Politics: A Reader (second edition), London: Routledge. JX1391 PER
Mandaville, Peter G. (2007) Global Political Islam, London: Routledge. BP173.7 MAN
Melograni, Piero (1989) Lenin and the Myth of World Revolution: Ideology and Reasons of State, 1917-1920, Atlantic Highlands, N.J.: Humanities Press International. HX550.T5 MEL
Miles, Jack (2004) ‘Religion and American Foreign Policy’, Survival, 46:1, pp.23-47.
Morgenthau, Hans J. (1950) ‘The Mainspring of American Foreign Policy: The National Interest vs. Moral Abstractions’, American Political Science Review, 44:4, pp.833-45. Serials JA1.A52
Morgenthau, Hans J. (1993) Politics among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace (revised by Kenneth W. Thompson), Boston, Mass.: McGraw-Hill. JX1391 MOR
Nolutshungu, Sam C. (1975) South Africa in Africa: A Study in Ideology and Foreign Policy, Manchester: Manchester University Press. DT779.7 NOL
Reynolds, P. A. (1994) An Introduction to International Relations (third edition), London: Longman. JX1395 REY
Rice, Condolezza (2000) ‘Promoting the National Interest’, Foreign Affairs, 79:1, pp.45-62.
Rice, Condolezza (2008) ‘Rethinking the National Interest: American Realism for a New World’, Foreign Affairs, 87:4, pp.2-26.
Schwab, George (ed.) (1981) Ideology and Foreign Policy: A Global Perspective, New York: Irvington. JX1391 CUN SLC
Shenfield, Stephen (1987) The Nuclear Predicament: Explorations in Soviet Ideology, London: Routledge & Kegan for the Royal Institute of International Affairs. UA770 SHE
Sofer, S. (1987) ‘IR and the Invisibility of Ideology’, Millennium, 16:3, pp.489-521. Serial JX1.M5
Tibi, Bassam (2008) Political Islam, World Politics and Europe: Democratic Peace and Euro-Islam Global Jihad, London: Routledge. BP173.7 TIB
Uldricks, Teddy J. (1979) Diplomacy and Ideology: The Origins of Soviet Foreign Relations, 1917-1930, London: Sage. DK266 ULD
Williams, Michael C. (2005) ‘What Is the National Interest? The Neoconservative Challenge in IR Theory’, European Journal of International Relations, 11:3, pp.307-37.
Wilson, Joan Hoff (1974) Ideology and Economics: U.S. Relations with the Soviet Union, 1918-1933, Columbia: University of Missouri Press. E183.8.R9
Yee, Albert S. (1996) ‘The Causal Effect of Ideas on Policy’, International Organization, 50:1, pp.68-108.
APPENDIX: General School Regulations
Attendance at classes
SPAIS takes attendance and participation in classes very seriously. Seminars form an important part of your learning and you need to make sure you arrive on time, having done the required reading. If you miss seminars, even if it is for a valid reason, you must contact your seminar tutor who may require you to complete ‘catch-up’ work to demonstrate that you are not falling behind on the unit.
Submission of coursework
Please note you will be required to submit coursework electronically using Blackboard, the University of Bristol’s Online Learning Environment. All submission of essays occurs through the ‘SPAIS MSc’ site and not individual units. Please see the Graduate Studies Handbook Section 3.2.9 for details Instructions will be emailed to you before each hand in deadline.
Collection of Marks/Feedback
Internal marks are subject to final adjudication by the External Examiner.
In addition to an overall mark, students will receive written feedback on their assessed work and may contact unit tutors for further comments.
Students should collect their work from the SPAIS Office who will advise students when this is ready.
All marks in the School are numerical out of 100 on the following scale:
70+ Distinction
60-69 Merit
50-59 Pass
40 and below
Fail
Length
Each piece of coursework must conform to the length requirements listed in the unit guide. Work that does not conform to length requirements will be subject to penalties. Please see Graduate Studies Handbook Section 3.2.11 for details.
Referencing
Where sources are used they must be cited. Most types of coursework must contain a bibliography and reference the material used. Inadequate referencing will result in marks being deducted. See the Study Skills Handbook for where to get help with referencing and how bad academic practice and plagiarism is dealt with.
Extensions
Extensions will only be granted by the Pathway Director. Requests should be made directly to them before the deadline. Extensions will only be allowed in exceptional circumstances and they should be accompanied with supporting documentation, for example medical certificates. The relevant forms can be found at: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/fssl/current-students/forms/index.html.
Fails and resits
Please see the Graduate Studies Handbook Section 4.7 for details.
Course packs
Most units have course packs. Course packs are optional and there will be a charge of £3 to cover printing costs. You will be advised about distribution times and locations via email.
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