POLITICAL STUDIES

CRN 10135

Distribution

C
Course No. PS 104
Title International Relations
Professor Sanjib Baruah
Schedule Wed Fri 1:30 pm - 2:50 pm OLIN 205
An introduction to basic concepts and selected problems in international relations. How order is maintained in world politics is the central theme of the course. We will examine the role of the balance of power, alliance systems, international organizations, and international law in maintaining order. Has a "new world order" been taking shape since the end of the cold war? We will examine a number of current issues, such as global trade and the global environment, nuclear nonproliferation, terrorism, civil wars, and failed states, and explore what international cooperation or non-cooperation in these areas means for world order.

CRN 10387

Distribution

C
Course No. PS 182
Title Contested Ideals in American Political Thought
Professor Joseph Luders
Schedule Tu Th 11:30 am - 12:50 pm OLIN 101
Cross-listed: American Studies, Historical Studies, Gender Studies

Related interest: MES, AADS

Liberty, democracy, equality. These fundamental values have been invoked, disputed, and transformed from the colonial period to the present. The contestation over the meaning of these values is not simply of historical interest. The cultural vocabulary of the past defines and shapes the current political controversies and it is only by understanding the historical development of American political thought that we can begin to comprehend the origins and dynamics of current political debates. The course examines the construction of American

political ideals and how they have been changed and broadened in particular by those who have been excluded from full citizenship rights. Racial and gender exclusions will be addressed by examining explicit critiques and demands for inclusion as well as by critically surveying the canonical texts in American political thought. The course concludes with an analysis of the contours of contemporary political discourse as

manifested in debates over selected political issues. Course readings include selections from John Winthrop, James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, John Dewey, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, Frances Willard, Emma Goldman, Betty Friedan, Phyllis Schlafly, W.E.B. Du

Bois, Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Cornel West, and others.

CRN 10319

Distribution

C
Course No. PS 214
Title United States - Latin American Relations
Professor Omar Encarnacion
Schedule Mon Wed 3:00 pm - 4:20 pm OLIN 205
Cross Listed: LAIS

A comprehensive overview of the relationships between the United States and the nations of Latin America, how this process was affected by historical and ideological events, and what possibilities exist for its future. The course is divided into three sections: first, historical overview of the events that shaped US-Latin American relations, emphasizing US military interventions in Latin America, US attempts to establish political and economic hegemony, and US efforts to export democratic government; second, an examination of the principal issues that currently dominate the relations between the US and its southern neighbors: economic integration, trade, drugs, and immigration; third, a close look at the relationships between the United States and three countries of special interest to it and its domestic politics: Cuba, Mexico and Puerto Rico. Open to all students.

CRN 10347

Distribution

C
Course No. PS 216
Title Individual, Society, and Politics in Latin America
Professor Omar Encarnacion
Schedule Mon Wed 11:30 am - 12:50 pm OLIN 205
Cross-listed: LAIS

This course examines contemporary political life in Latin America. Special attention is given to the manner in which individuals affect political and social change in Latin America. More specifically the seminar examines what social conditions propel individuals to become political actors in Latin America, what strategies they employ to advance their agenda, and how they impact the political arena. Two innovations distinguish this seminar. First, the materials to be examined are quite eclectic and include film, political biographies, memoirs, and contemporary media such as the Internet. The second and most important one is that lectures, presentations, and discussions will be held predominantly in Spanish, allowing students the opportunity to use the Spanish language in a setting other than literature courses. Therefore, proficiency in Spanish is a requirement for admission into the seminar. Knowledge of Latin America is also desired.

CRN 10137

Distribution

C
Course No. PS 251
Title Globalization and Citizenship
Professor David Kettler
Schedule Mon 10:00 am - 11:20 am OLIN 204

Wed 10:00 am - 11:20 am OLIN 205

PIE Core Course

The course examines a major tension in contemporary political life, and specifically a major problem of democracy. While democratic political participation largely adheres to citizenship in nation states, key political issues are increasingly defined and political decisions made in transnational settings, often overriding or controlling the decisions of democratic governments. The wide range of problems affected and the role of non-governmental actors distinguish the effects of globalization from the usual scope of international relations studies. In any case, the course will concentrate on new experiments in civic action across state boundaries, notably participation in human rights organizations, non-governmental environmental action projects, and attempts to add a popular civic component to the global economic order (including problems of transnational unionization). We will look first at citizenship, drawing mainly on U. S. historical experience; second, we will review some prominent political features of globalization; and third, we will study experiences and proposals for citizenship beyond national frontiers.

CRN 10393

Distribution

C
Course No. PS 272
Title Topics in Public Policy
Professor Oren Levin-Waldman
Schedule Tu Th 10:00 am - 11:20 am OLIN 303
The course will explore a variety of topics in public policy analysis including policy formation, implementation and evaluation. The course will focus on the process by which policy is formulated - the interaction of policy entrepreneurs, interest groups, politicians and public officials - as well as issues involving the politics of policy choice. Why do some policy alternatives become more viable than others? We will look at structural variables such as the constitutional system that defines the limits of policy debate. The course will examine the relationship between social science methods and policy analysis. With the use of social science methods does policy analysis become a neutral enterprise or are these methods used to promote particular ideological and political agendas?

CRN 10139

Distribution

C
Course No. PS 295
Title Dreams of Perfectabilty II: The Quest for Hegemony from FDR to Clinton
Professor James Chace
Schedule Mon Tu 1:30 pm - 2:50 pm OLIN 205
Cross-listed: American Studies

Immediately after the Second World War, a clash of ideologies developed into a Cold War between the two victors, the United States and Soviet Russia. To what extent was this a moral struggle and to what degree, a classic conflict of great powers? This course will analyze the direction of American foreign policy during an era that has been characterized as a pax americana. It will also make use of new material dealing with the Soviet approach to the postwar world by studying excerpts from recently released Soviet archives. The second half of the twentieth century also traces a trajectory from American predominance to American decline, and then, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, to American hegemony. The end of the Cold War marked the end of the bipolar world and the emergence of the United States as megapower. The question now is, will the twenty-first century be the American Century?

CRN 10141

Distribution

C
Course No. PS 333 Upper College Seminar
Title Nations, States and Nationalism
Professor Sanjib Baruah
Schedule Th 10:30 am - 12:50 pm OLIN 308
One of the paradoxes of the twentieth century is that increased transaction across national borders has accompanied the intensification of the forces of nationalism. The contemporary events in the former Soviet Union and in Eastern and Central Europe are only the latest examples of the power of nationalism. Yet even though we talk of national identities as if they are "natural", terms such as nations, nationalities and nationalism are difficult to define. We will examine the history of the idea of nations and the "nation state" and will read texts written from a variety of disciplinary perspectives. We will give particular attention to nationalism's relationship to the emergence of popular sovereignty and to forces of industrialism, colonialism, modernization and mass migration.

CRN 10388

Distribution

C
Course No. PS 340 Upper College Seminar
Title Equality in American Political Development
Professor Joseph Luders
Schedule Th 1:30 pm - 3:50 pm OLIN 304
Cross-listed: American Studies, Historical Studies

At the close of the twentieth century, America's commitment to equality appears to be under attack. From assaults upon welfare and affirmative action to the abandonment of racial integration in the public schools, governmental actions to promote equality are in retreat. Using an historical perspective, this course explores the current deterioration of egalitarian policies. This analysis begins with a question: Under what circumstances does the American government act to reduce class, gender, and racial inequalities? We approach this question in two ways. First, we investigate the factors that have prompted the government to promote equality. Close attention will be paid to the effects of social movements, economic crises, and war mobilization. Second, we consider the obstacles that have hindered or blocked efforts to expand equality including cultural values, racial and ethnic cleavages within the working class, business intransigence, and repression. Looking at the political dynamics that have contributed to the expansion and contraction of egalitarian initiatives in the past, the course concludes with an analysis of contemporary politics and an

attempt at forecasting the direction of equality politics in the future.

CRN 10142

Distribution

C
Course No. PS 415 Upper College Seminar
Title Faustian Bargains and the Creation of the American World
Professor James Chace
Schedule Wed 10:30 am - 12:50 pm ASP 302
Cross-listed: American Studies

The creation of the American world in which we now live largely came about because of the structures that the architects of American foreign policy designed in the decade following World War II. These institutions were expected to bind Western Europe and the United States into a political, economic, and military system that would contain the Soviet Union and ensure American predominance. The economics of John Maynard Keynes, the strategies of General George Marshall and Secretary of State Dean Acheson provided the essential foundation that led to American hegemony at the end of the 20th century. This seminar will analyze the crises that produced the Cold War, the perceptions of the men and women who shaped the response to those crises, their Faustian bargains, and the consequences for the United States, for its allies and adversaries, and for the nonaligned nations of the developing world. Students will be expected to write research papers using primary sources, often of a biographical nature, on subjects ranging from the origins of the Cold War to the American involvement in Vietnam.

Prerequisite: Courses in 20th century American history and/or American foreign policy or 20th century European history.

CRN 10143

Distribution

C
Course No. PS 423 Upper College Seminar
Title Comparative Politics
Professor Omar Encarnacion
Schedule Tu 10:30 am - 12:50 pm OLIN 304
PIE Core Course

The course introduces basic issues and concepts in the study of comparative politics, a subfield of political science most centrally concerned with the study of non-U.S. politics, but one that also seeks to understand political phenomena from around the world - democratization, revolution, the formation of the nation state, the making and permutation of political culture, to name a few - with the use of common theoretical frameworks, approaches, and tools. Critical readings of classic texts in comparative politics will provide the foundation for class lectures and discussions. An eclectic approach is taken to the empirical cases studies, combining materials from developed and developing societies as well as democratic and non-democratic political regimes. Open to students with a background in political science.