After hearing about this on NPR this morning and listening to some of the suggestions, such as our diplomats should drive hybrids, I wanted to know more, especially since according to Amb. Shearer foreign policy professionals have contacted him with the feedback that his students have done as well or better than experts in the field:
"Some foreign policy experts have come back to me," Shearer says, "And said, 'Your students have shown it isn't rocket science. Smart undergraduates can figure out solutions maybe better than experts."
One of the things I wanted to know immediately was what books were consulted by the students. I'm interested in this stuff so I wanted to be enlightened. Fortunately that is contained in the report they produced (in the syllabus and works consulted section pages 43 to 46).
Required Texts:
Second Chance - Zbigniew Brzezinski (Carter National Security Advisor and current Obama campaign National Security Advisor)
America Against the World - Andrew Kohut and Bruce Stokes (Pew Research Center Director and NPR Commentator)
State of the American Empire - Stephen Burman (I don't have any information on the author but while looking the book up I found this in the one review on Amazon "The trouble is it is an exceedingly biased, imbalanced attack on the United States and a rallying cry for others to "resist" its "imperialism." True, the current President has made profound mistakes and used alarmingly bad judgment and rhetoric on top of it. But suggesting that it would be desirable for the world if China and Russia would form "an anti-American bloc" along with Kazakhstan, Kyrgastan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan (p. 113)? This suggestion, along with numerous similar ones, show this book's weakness of perspective and balance too." take it for what it's worth)
Memo to the President Elect - Madeline Albright (Clinton era Secretary of State)
That's an interesting selection of works and it's nice to see that the required texts cover the political and foreign policy spectrum:
The students divided up recent books on American foreign policy by authors from the Left, Right and Center of the political spectrum. Each student took a book and presented the seminar with a critical summary of the author's proposed strategy. Students then debated and agreed upon a Top Ten list of key issues that the next president will face in the world.
source
Optional Resources:
The American way of Strategy - Michael Lind
Ethical Realism - Anatol Lieven
World War IV - Norman Podhoretz
The Idea That Is America - Anne Marie Slaughter
The American Era - Robert Lieber
The Opportunity - Richard Haass
Power, Terror, Peace and War - Walter Russell Mead
Power and Superpower - Morton Halperin et al
Hard Power - Kurt Campbell and Michael O'Hanlon
The Sorrows of Empire - Chalmers Johnson
America at the Crossroads - Francis Fukuyama
Statecraft - Dennis Ross
The Fourth Power - Gary Hart
Works Consulted:
The above plus
Bridging the Foreign Policy Divide - Derek Chollet, Tod Lindberg, David Shorr
The Spirit of Democracy - Larry Diamond
Geopolitics a Very Short Introduction - Klaus Dodds
The Next American Century: How the US Can Thrive as Other Powers Rise - Nina Hachigian and Mona Sutphen
Nemesis: The last Days of the American Republic - Chalmers Johnson
In Defense of the Bush Doctrine - Robert G. Kaufman
American Empire: a Debate - Christopher Layne and Bradley A. Thayer
The Peace of Illusions: American Grand Strategy From 1940 to the Present - Christopher Layne (member of Coalition for a Realistic Foreign Policy)
Democracy's Good Name: The Rise and Risks of the World's Most Popular Form of Government - Michael Mandelbaum
A Question of Torture: CIA Interrogation, From the Cold War to the War on Terror - Alfred W. McCoy
The Worst President in History - Sean Wilentz
OK, so we have our touchstones and our spirit guides, what exactly is our goal for the class?
Number one appears to be on the order of, "Decide everything George Bush has done is wrong". The course description puts it like so:
An upper division DWA seminar whose purpose is to examine prospects for US foreign policy after the Bush Administration. Students will examine critically differing prescriptions for how to repair, restore or alter America's leadership role in global affairs.
or more accurately "The students and I decided that America's foreign policy was flawed so I structured the course that way". And by the way when did, "Students will examine critically differing prescriptions" come to mean all the required texts and the only texts scheduled for class discussion will be by liberals?
The second, and larger, goal appears to be to apply critical thinking skills to the readings above and refine those ideas down to a Top Ten list of immediate concern for the next President and to suggest solutions that fit within the Mission Statement of the United States of America developed by the students:
The Mission of The United States of America is to ensure the government abides by the values enumerated in it's founding documents; to secure the rights of it's citizens; to build upon existing relations and foster new relationships in an effort to promote the economic and social well-being of the global community; to protect the United States and it's allies from traditional and transnational threats; to enhance the position of the developing world; and to guarantee the principles of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are universally obtained for the common good.
Personally I thought the the old mission statement of:
We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.
was perfectly adequate, but hey I am not paying a bazillion dollars a semester to get
The list that was chosen seems reasonable:
IranIraq- Transnational Terrorism, al-Qaeda, and Torture
- Relations with Europe, NATO, Russia and The CIS
- Iran and Nuclear Proliferation
- Oil and Energy Issues
- US-UN Relations, Humanitarian Intervention, and Global Health
- China
- Pakistan and Afghanistan
- Israel and Palestine
- Illegal Immigration and NAFTA
and the memos are actually well organized with a statement of the problem, the strategic interests involved, means, divided into 1st month, 1st 6 months, and 1 year and beyond, and possible outcomes sections,
The means suggested run the gamut from reasonable, such as increasing employer sanctions for hiring an illegal alien; to ridiculous, such as requiring US diplomats to drive hybrid cars; to the impossible - immediately closing Guantanamo Bay and shipping the detainees to their home countries without recognizing that some of the countries wont take the prisoners back and that US law doesn't allow just deporting prisoners to countries where the are likely to be tortured; to the insanely expensive such as requiring the top 7 oil companies to give 1% of their quarterly profit to help start an "Alternative Energy Coalition"
Over the next few days I will take a look at each of the subject areas and we can see if we agree with those who feel this is better work that the "experts" are turning out.
Topic One - IRAQ
Topic 2 - TRANSNATIONAL TERRORISM, AL-QAEDA, AND TORTURE
Topic 3 - RELATIONS WITH EUROPE, NATO, RUSSIA, AND THE COMMONWEALTH OF INDEPENDENT STATES
Radio Free Moronosphere
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