International Security
Political Science 221
Dr. Jeffrey Lantis Office Hours:
Kauke 107, #2408 MW 3:30-5:00pm
Course Description
We are living through extraordinary times in international security. In just the past five years, we have witnessed war in the Middle East, genocide in Africa, insurgency and conflict in Iraq, instability in South Asia, new terror threats, and heightened concerns about U.S. military overstretch. This course is designed to provide students with a strong foundation in modern security studies. Using both classic and contemporary works, we will examine a number of important issues related to international security affairs in the past century. The first section of the course will focus on the traditional security studies literature, addressing topics such as the causes of war and the evolution of military strategy. The second section of the course will examine contemporary challenges, including terrorism, civil wars, the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and deterrence. The course will also address potential solutions to international conflict such as crisis management, preventive diplomacy, and counter-terrorism initiatives. The goal of this course is to provide students with information and intellectual tools for critical thought about the past, present, and future of international security.
Course Requirements
This is an advanced course, designed as a formal seminar on international security. Students are expected to attend class and participate actively in seminar discussions. Students will complete two examinations, a conflict theory paper, a terrorism paper, and a security dilemma project. Assignments will be weighted in the following manner:
Course Participation 20%
Midterm Exam 15%
Conflict Theory Paper 10%
Strategic Culture Paper 10%
Security Dilemma Project 25%
Take-Home Final Exam 20%
Required Texts
1. John G. Stoessinger, Why Nations Go to War, Tenth Edition, 2008
2. Joseph Cirincione, Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons, 2007
3. National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, The 9/11 Report,
2004
4. John Crawford, The Last True Story IÕll Ever Tell: An Accidental SoldierÕs Account of
the War in Iraq, 2006
Participation
Students are expected to attend class, prepare course material in advance, and participate actively in class discussions. Participation is essential to the success of this course, but students will only benefit if they complete required readings and come to class ready to discuss them. The participation grade, worth 20% of the overall course grade, will be based on the quality of involvement in the class. In evaluating participation, I look for evidence that students have completed the readings and are prepared to summarize what they have learned from them in class discussions. I also reserve the right to assign study questions or other projects to ensure student participation throughout the semester. Students who have three or more unexcused absences from class meetings will receive no credit for this portion of the grade.
Conflict Theory Paper
This assignment allows students to conduct research on a major conflict, from antiquity to the present. Students are allowed flexibility in selecting a war to study, but a good base of information must be available on its causes and nature. In all cases, students should develop a strong analytical interpretation of causation by examining the outbreak of conflict through a chosen theoretical perspective or level of analysis. Assigned readings including Cashman and Robinson and Stoessinger may provide helpful foundations for this assignment. Papers should be 4-5 typed, double spaced pages, and should apply careful and consistent source citations methods (endnotes and bibliography). The assignment is worth 10% of the course grade.
Strategic Culture Paper
More international security scholars are recognizing the importance of ideational foundations of state and non-state actor behavior. This project is designed to explore the origins, historical development, and institutions that shape a countryÕs strategic culture. Students will select a country and conduct research on its strategic cultural foundations. Papers should address the following questions: What is the dominant strategic culture of the selected state? What are the origins of this strategic culture in terms of geography, political institutions, customs, religion, or shared historical narratives? What type of governing system does the country have, and who are the leaders involved in articulating the strategic culture? Finally, what are some examples of the strategic culture in action? The research paper should explore these themes in detail, based on solid references. Papers should be 5-6 typed, double spaced pages, and should apply careful and consistent source citations methods (endnotes and bibliography). More information about this assignment will be discussed in class.
Security Dilemmas Project
This group project focuses on contemporary international security dilemmas and the complexity of security policy choices. The first step of this project is to identify, from the following list, what you believe to be the most significant and interesting security dilemma today:
Students will join with others who share their concerns and work as an elite team of investigators on this topic for our new, international security think-tank under development at The College of Wooster. The goal of the group effort is to produce a security policy briefing report and paper for consideration by U.S. policy-makers. Papers and presentations should review the history of the security dilemma, describe contemporary dynamics in international security, and prescribe U.S. and global security policy solutions. Students are reminded to consider various dimensions of the security policy struggle with regard to opportunities and constraints at all levels of analysis. Put simply, this assignment involves research, collaborative work, rigorous policy analysis, and development of visual displays of information for the security policy briefing.
Group presentations will be held for the entire class period on the assigned dates throughout the semester—with 35 minutes devoted to the briefing and the remaining period to questions and discussion. All group members should then be ready to answer questions and lead discussion.
Security Dilemma group papers are due on Wednesday, April 30. They must be at least 20 typed, double-spaced pages in length. The paper should include careful source citation (endnotes and bibliography). Finally, the entire project will be graded based on the coherency of the written and oral arguments, the quality of the group presentation, peer evaluations, and the written paper.
Academic Integrity
This class will operate on a set of expectations consistent with the CollegeÕs Code of Academic Integrity and Code of Social Responsibility, outlined in The ScotÕs Key (www.wooster.edu/policies/scotskey.pdf) and the Handbook of Selected College Policies (www.wooster.edu/policies/policies.pdf). The Codes and guidelines form an essential part of the intellectual contract between the student and the College.
Cheating in any of your academic work is a serious breach of the Code of Academic Integrity and is grounds for an ÔFÕ for the entire course. Such violations include turning in another personÕs work as your own, copying or paraphrasing from any source without proper citation, or fabricating excuses and lying in connection with your academic work. You will be held responsible for your own actions. If you are unsure as to what is permissible, always consult with your course instructor.
Grading Scale
As stated in The College of Wooster Catalogue, letter grades are defined as:
ÒA rangeÓ indicates an outstanding performance in which there has been
distinguished achievement in all phases of the course;
ÒB rangeÓ indicates a good performance in which there has been a high level of
achievement in some phases of the course;
ÒC rangeÓ indicates an adequate performance in which a basic understanding of
the subject has been demonstrated;
ÒD rangeÓ indicates a minimal performance in which despite recognizable
deficiencies there is enough to merit credit;
ÒF or NCÓ indicates unsatisfactory performance.
Course Expectations
1. Please read the assigned materials before class meeting; they provide the basis for
class discussions.
2. Papers should be submitted in hard copy. I will not accept e-mail versions of student papers.
3. Late papers lose half a grade level for each day they are late.
Course Outline
1. Introduction to Security Studies (Week of January 14)
Selected Readings from the Debate: ÒShould the United States Seek Global Hegemony?Ó Robert Kagan, ÒThe Benevolent Empire,Ó and Charles William Maynes, ÒThe Perils of (and for) an Imperial America,Ó in John T. Rourke, ed., Taking Sides: American Foreign Policy, 2002, pp.16-35 (handout)
Selected Readings from the Debate: ÒWas the Iraq War Justified?Ó John Mueller, ÒShould We Invade Iraq? Yes: A Reason Online Debate,Ó and Brink Lindsey, ÒShould We Invade Iraq? No,Ó in Rourke, ed., Taking Sides: World Politics, 2004, pp.108-121 (handout)
Andrew Bacevich, ÒRequiem for the Bush Doctrine,Ó in Annual Editions: World Politics 2007/2008, pp.65-70 (handout)
* Structured Debate: U.S. Grand Strategy and Security Policy
* Security Dilemmas Group Assignments
2. Classic Explanations of the Origins of International Conflict (Week of January 21)
John G. Stoessinger, Why Nations Go to War, Tenth Edition, 2008, pp.1-133
Greg Cashman and Leonard C. Robinson, ÒChapter 1: Introduction to the Causes of War,Ó from An Introduction to the Causes of War: Patterns of Interstate Conflict from World War I to Iraq, 2007, pp.1-25 (handout)
* Progressive Debate: The Origins of War in the 20th Century
3. The Evolution of Modern Warfare (Week of January 28)
Stoessinger, Why Nations Go to War, pp.289-319
Michael Sheehan, ÒThe Evolution of Modern Warfare,Ó Chapter 2 in Strategy in the Contemporary World, edited by John Baylis, James Wirtz, Colin S. Gray, and Eliot Cohen, 2007, pp.43-65 (handout)
ÒReinventing War after September 11,Ó Foreign Policy, November/December 2001, pp.31-47 (handout)
4. International Terrorism and September 11 (Week of February 4)
National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, The 9/11 Report, 2004, pp.ix-399
Matthew J. Morgan, ÒThe Origins of the New Terrorism,Ó in Annual Editions: Violence and Terrorism 2007/2008, pp.9-15 (handout)
* Conflict Theory Paper Due: Monday, February 4
* Security Dilemmas Group #1: The Iraq Crisis, Wednesday, February 6
5. Terrorism, Homeland Security, and the War on Terror (Week of February 11)
Stoessinger, Why Nations Go to War, pp.321-383
National Commission on Terrorist Attacks, The 9/11 Report, pp.400-608
* Security Dilemmas Group #2: Israel-Palestine, Wednesday, February 13
6. Constructivist Security Studies (Weeks of February 18 and 25)
Mark R. Amstutz, ÒThe Ethics of Force,Ó in International Ethics: Concepts, Theories, and Cases in Global Politics, Second Edition, 2005, pp.104-125 (handout)
Sarah Glazer and Patrick Marshall, ÒStopping Genocide,Ó in Global Issues 2007, pp.143-165 (handout)
Selected Readings from the Debates: ÒIs Preemptive War an Unacceptable Doctrine?Ó Yes, High Level Panel On Threats, Challenges, and Change, and No, Steven L. Kenny, from ÒThe National Security Strategy Under the United Nations and International Law; and ÒDoes the United States Have a Sound Strategy for the War on Terrorism?Ó Yes, George W. Bush from ÒPresident Discusses War on Global Terror,Ó and No, Bruce Hoffman, ÒCombating Al Qaeda and the Militant Islamic Threat,Ó in Rourke, ed., Taking Sides: World Politics, 2008, pp.204-253 (handout)
* Structured Debate: The Ethics of Preventive War
* Security Dilemmas Group #3: U.S. Military Draft? Wednesday, February 27
* Film: Hotel Rwanda
7. Strategic Culture and National Security Policy
(Weeks of March 3, March 24, and March 31)
Jeffrey S. Lantis and Darryl Howlett, ÒStrategic Culture,Ó Chapter 4 in Strategy in the Contemporary World, pp.83-100 (handout)
Thomas Mahnken, ÒUnited States Strategic Culture,Ó in Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Advanced Systems and Concepts Office, The Comparative Strategic Cultures Project, 2006 (on-line), url: www.dtra.mil/ASCO/comparativestrategiccultures.cfm
Greg Giles, ÒContinuity and Change in IsraelÕs Strategic Culture,Ó in The Comparative Strategic Cultures Project, 2006 (on-line), url: www.dtra.mil/ASCO/comparativestrategiccultures.cfm
Rodney Jones, ÒIndiaÕs Strategic Culture,Ó in The Comparative Strategic Cultures Project, 2006 (on-line), url: www.dtra.mil/ASCO/comparativestrategiccultures.cfm
* Security Dilemmas Group #4: North Korean Nuclear Ambitions, Wednesday, April 2
* Midterm Examination
8. Taking on Tehran? (Week of April 7)
Kenneth Pollack and Ray Takeyh, ÒTaking on Tehran,Ó in Annual Editions: American Foreign Policy 2006/2007, pp.189-194 (handout)
Ray Takeyh, ÒIranÕs Nuclear Calculations,Ó in Annual Editions: American Foreign Policy 2006/2007, pp.195-199 (handout)
Transcript of Letter from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to U.S. President George W. Bush,
reprinted in the New York Times, May 2006 (handout)
Thomas Preston and Michael P. Infraco, ÒThe Nuclear Standoff Between the United States and Iran,Ó in Ralph G. Carter, ed., Contemporary Cases in U.S. Foreign Policy, 2007, pp.91-120 (handout)
* National Security Council Simulation: Taking on Tehran
9. The Iraq War: Origins and Lessons (Week of April 14)
John Crawford, The Last True Story IÕll Ever Tell: An Accidental SoldierÕs Account of the War in Iraq, 2006, pp.xi-220
Daniel Lieberfeld, ÒTheories of Conflict and the Iraq War,Ó International Journal of Peace Studies, Winter 2005, pp.1-20 (handout)
* Film: PBS: America At a Crossroads, ÒWarriorsÓ
* Strategic Culture Paper Due: Monday, April 14
* Security Dilemmas Group #5: South Asia and the War on Terror, Wednesday, April 16
10. Proliferation and Deterrence Theory (Week of April 21)
Joseph Cirincione, Bomb Scare: The History and Future of Nuclear Weapons, 2007, pp.1-157
Robert Jervis, ÒThe Utility of Nuclear Deterrence,Ó in Robert J. Art and Kenneth N. Waltz, ed., The Use of Force, 2004, pp.94-101 (handout)
General Lee Butler, ÒAbolition of Nuclear Weapons Speech,Ó National Press Club, Washington, DC, December 4, 1996 (handout)
* Security Dilemmas Group #6: North Korean Nuclear Ambitions, Wednesday, April 23
11. The Future of International Security (Week of April 28)
Stoessinger, Why Nations Go to War, pp.213-287
R. Hrair Dekmejian, ÒFuture Terror: New Forms, Trends, and Antidotes,Ó
Chapter 10 in Spectrum of Terror, p.291-325 (handout)
* Final Take-Home Examination