Results for POLISCI

Approaches to the study of conflict and cooperation in world affairs. Applications to war, terrorism, trade policy, the environment, and world poverty. Debates about the ethics of war and the global distribution of wealth.

Some 20 years after the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States confronts a dizzying array of foreign policy challenges. The world in which we find ourselves is complex, contradictory, and highly uncertain. What role can and should the United States play in such a world? What are the major international challenges with which U.S. policymakers and the American people will have to contend in the immediate future and over the longer term? Given that the power of the United States is limited, how should we determine our priorities? Under what conditions should the United States be prepared to use force, and when is force inappropriate? What lessons have we learned from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan? Can¿and should¿the United States provide the kind of global leadership that our political leaders tell us that we must? In this course we will explore the substance of U.S. foreign policy as well as the political considerations that influence both the making and the actual conduct of American diplomacy. Topics will include the challenges to policy associated with the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, international terrorism, failing and failed states, and regional, interstate, and intrastate conflict. We will also examine how the changing distribution of power in the international system is likely to impact the United States and its allies. Finally, we will consider how domestic political considerations influence both the framing and the implementation of this country¿s foreign policy. In addition to the readings, students, operating in teams of three, will research and write a short policy memorandum on a topic the instructor designates. Students, each of whom will be assigned a particular role, will also take part in a 48-hour crisis simulation at the end of the course.

Our understanding of warfare often derives from the lofty perspective of political leaders and generals: what were their objectives and what strategies were developed to meet them? This top-down perspective slights the experience of the actual combatants and non-combatants caught in the crossfire. This course focuses on the complexity of the process by which strategy is translated into tactical decisions by the officers and foot soldiers on the field of battle. We will focus on three battles in American history: Gettysburg (July 1863), the Battle of Little Bighorn (June 1876), and the Korengal Valley campaign in Afghanistan (2006-2010). In addition to reading major works on these battles and the conflicts in which they occurred, we will travel to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and the Little Bighorn battlefield in Montana. The course¿s battlefield tours are based on the ¿staff rides¿ developed by the Prussian Army in the mid-1800s and employed by the U.S. Army since the early 1900s. While at Stanford, students will conduct extensive research on individual participants at Gettysburg and Little Bighorn. Then, as we walk through the battlefield sites, students will brief the group on their subjects¿ experience of battle and on why they made the decisions they did during the conflict. Why did Lt. General Longstreet oppose the Confederate attack on the Union Army at Gettysburg? What was the experience of a military surgeon on a Civil War battlefield? Why did Custer divide his 7th Cavalry troops as they approached the Little Bighorn River? What was the role of Lakota Sioux women after a battle? Travel will be provided and paid by Sophomore College (except incidentals) and is made possible by the support of the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC). The course is open to students from a range of disciplines; an interest in the topic is the only prerequisite.

What is the relationship between religion, international conflict and peace? This course takes up this question by examining contemporary thinking in international relations, conflict management, political science, and religious ethics. Topics to be taken up include: whether religion is fundamentally a positive or negative force in conflict management; how do major world religions think about war and peace; the relationship of religion to terrorism; whether thinking about religion in international conflict requires its own categories, distinct from models concerning ethnic or nationalistic communities in conflict; varieties of religious militancy; religion's potential role in conflict resolution; among others. Through these investigations, students will better grasp the contemporary scholarship on the place of religion in international conflict and peace building. nnnReadings are interdisciplinary in nature, and include case studies. No prerequisite. Open to all majors/minors, and will be particularly beneficial to students in International Relations, Religious Studies, International Policy Studies, and Political Science, as well as students with specific regional political interests where the themes of the course are especially relevant (e.g., Middle East, Latin America, Russia and Eastern Europe, Africa, and so on).

May be repeated for credit.

May be repeated for credit.

May be repeated for credit.

This course offers students interested in contemporary global politics a unique introduction to the critical analysis of current events through the lens of award-winning non-fiction writing. Each week, we will explore a new political issue crucial to understanding today¿s world by reading some of the most gripping (and best written!) first- and second-hand narratives of these events, as recounted by journalists, academics and documentarians working in the field. Topics will include: global poverty, the overthrow of authoritarian regimes, terrorism, genocide and crimes against humanity, the Israel-Palestinian conflict, financial crises, and political corruption. In class, students will discuss the readings and learn to apply major social scientific theories to systematically analyze these complex political issues. Through this course, students will not only gain exposure to some exemplary writing on topics of current importance, but also acquire the skills and tools necessary to understand some of the most intractable and interesting problems in the world today.

This course offers a thematic approach to the study of Middle Eastern politics. We will overview the major areas of political science research on the contemporary Middle East while simultaneously building empirical knowledge about the politics of individual countries in the region. Topics to be covered include: state capacity and democracy; economic development and mineral resources; the politics of religion and gender; international relations and civil conflict; terrorism and revolution.

May be repeated for credit.

May be repeated for credit.

May be repeated for credit.

May be repeated for credit.

May be repeated for credit.

May be repeated for credit.

May be repeated for credit.