Courses

• CAS PO 576: Decision Making in U.S. Foreign Policy
  Examination of international crises from the perspective of the individual decision maker. Critical analysis and testing of the theoretical frameworks used to explain how states and statesmen behave in a crisis situation.
• CAS PO 577: Negotiation in World Affairs
  What makes for success/failure in negotiation? Examines how international actors use negotiations to advance their interests, resolve disputes, and mediate others. Case studies are drawn from crisis management, arms control, environmental controversies, and third-party interventions.
• CAS PO 578: The Foreign Policy of the People's Republic of China
  (Meets with CAS IR 577.) Explores China's perception of its role in the world, its evolution from a regional to a world power, and its security and economic relationships within the international system. Relationships with the superpowers, Third World, and world economy, focusing on technology and capital transfers.
• CAS PO 579: Japan in International Politics
  (Meets with CAS IR 579.) International and domestic influences on Japan's international behavior in the past as a predictor of Japan's future role in international politics. Covers Japan's role in the Cold War, post-war Asia, and the management of the global economy. Examines viability of the post-Cold War U.S.-Japan relationship.
• CAS PO 580: Democracy in Latin America and Its Challenges
  (Meets with CAS IR 566.) Provides an overview of democracy's achievements and challenges in Latin America. Draws comparisons between stable and unstable democracies in the region, and analyzes the reasons for, and implications of, these differences.
• CAS PO 582: Taiwan: Politics and Transformation
  (Meets with CAS IR 582.) Examines Taiwan's history, economic development, ethnic identity, democratization, and its controversial position in international politics as a key to understanding questions of political economy, democratic transition, and East Asian security.
• CAS PO 583: Gender and War
  (Meets with CAS IR 518 and WS 345.) Examines gender constructions in world politics. Topics include gender biases in international relations theories, female and males roles in war, and rape as an instrument of warfare. Also assesses roles of women as leaders, actors, and objects of foreign policy.
• CAS PO 584: Topics in European Politics and Culture
  Meets with CAS IR 452. Explores European politics through the lens of culture, using materials from literature, film, and the social sciences, including live sessions with European writers/artists. Topic for Fall 2009: Critical Moments and Memory in Europe. Includes the shadows cast by the Holocaust, the Spanish Civil War, the Cold War, and post-Communist transitions, as well as economic dislocations and immigrations.
• CAS PO 587: International Human Rights: Applying Human Rights in Africa
  Meets with CAS IR 580. Studies the growing international influence on politics of human rights principles, documents, and organizations, drawing especially on African cases such as Congo, Zimbabwe, and Sudan. Topics include universality vs. cultural relativism, individual vs. group rights, and issues in human rights enforcement.
• CAS PO 597: The Latin American Military
  Meets with CAS IR 572. Addresses the Latin American military's historical development and current role within the context of the authoritarian tradition. Political disposition, military capabilities, and the armed forces' strategic thinking are considered.
• CAS PO 599: Freedom
  Seminar on ideas of freedom--political, economic, religious, moral, intellectual, and educational--focusing on works published during the eighteenth through twentieth centuries in Europe and America.
• CAS PO 621: Seminar: The Political Economy of Advanced Industrialized Societies
  Meets with GRS IR 723. Surveys forces contributing to national differences in social and economic policy; identifies current challenges to state sovereignty, such as globalization and immigration; and examines how nations from different welfare state regimes are coping with these threats to the nation state.
• CAS PO 625: Political Movements in America
  Study of historical and current political movements in United States, including populism, environmentalism, civil rights, peace, and welfare. Why movements arise, why they fail, or why and how they are transformed; what role strategies, values, and leaders play; and what impact these movements have on political institutions and public policy.
• CAS PO 641: Public Policy Analysis: Issues, Concepts, and Tools
  Discusses the analytical foundations of public policy analysis and the limitations on "rational" policy-making, and analyzes several controversial public policies -- e.g., regulating the economy, immigration, health care reform -- which may vary from year to year.
• CAS PO 657: Problems in Comparative Political Analysis
  Focuses on the problem of nationalism. Distinguishes between and compares types of nationalism, examines their origins, and analyzes their political, social, and economic implications using as examples England, France, Germany, Russia, and the United States. Particular emphasis on the possible role of national consciousness as a stimulus of radical political change. Also discussed is the extent to which various nationals may be affected by economic trends such as globalization and the emergence of supra-national identities.
• CAS PO 670: Science Fiction and World Politics
  Uses science fiction literature as a starting point for an analysis of themes that concern scholars of present international relations, and those interested in imagining and making alternative political futures. Topics include causes of war, distribution of wealth and power, and consequences of nationalism.
• CAS PO 674: The United States as a World Power
  Meets with GRS HI 859. The course material is organized along a debate format. Although the course is primarily concerned with twentieth-century U.S. foreign policy, attention is also given to eighteenth- and nineteenth-century issues.
• CAS PO 676: Political Biography
  Political biographies and memoir literature used to evaluate twentieth-century international relations and statecraft. Topics vary but may include biographical literature related to World War II, the Cold War, and Third World political leaders.
• CAS PO 691: Seminar in Political Philosophy
  An in-depth study of a major political philosopher, historical period, or topic in political philosophy. Topic for Spring 2011: TBA.
• CAS PO 693: Enlightenment and Its Critics
  Meets with CAS HI 514 and PH 412. Explores how eighteenth-century criticisms of the Enlightenment have been taken up by twentieth-century thinkers such as Heidegger, Horkeimer, Adorno, Gadamer, and Foucault; discusses recent defenses of Enlightenment ideals of reason, critique, and autonomy by Habermas and others.

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