Lecturer: Dr Gary Murphy

Contact Information:
Tel: 700 5664
Room: Q128
E-Mail: gary.murphy@dcu.ie

American Foreign Policy LG 521 addresses issues surrounding the development of American foreign policy in the post Cold War world. Since the attacks on the United States on September 11th 2001,  America's Foreign Policy has underwent a dramatic transformation as the United States has flexed its muscles in its role as a sort of globocop in pursuit of both the perpertrators of the attacks and so-called rogue states. The administration of George W. Bush has also been active in pursuinbg a more stand alone foreign policy as seen by its rejection of the Kyoto Treaty on the environment and its rejection of the anti-ballistic missile treaty in place for the past 30 years.

This course examines what America's role has been in a foreign policy context since the ending of the Cold War and aims to offer an understanding of America's role as a political player in world affairs through a series of case studies examining American policy with regard to both nation-states and international organisations. It discusses the structures and decision making processes of American governments' in the post Cold War period and explores the domestic constraints placed on American foreign policy.

Outline
Students should acquire an insight into the complex politics of American foreign policy in the post Cold War world, and be able to place both past and continuing developments in American foreign policy in their appropriate international contexts.

Assessment

This course is assessed by a mixture of class presentation and assignment. Students must deliver a presentation on a topic of their choice and produce a 3000 word essay on topic related to the course. The essay is worth 80% and the presentation 20%.

• An overview of American foreign policy, 1945-1989
• Sole Superpower: The American response to the demise of the Soviet Union, 1989-1990
• Dealing with a post-communist Russia: US-Russian relations in the 1990s
• In search of a new enemy? America and the Gulf-War
• The changing dynamic of America foreign policy in a post Cold War Europe
• Is there still a special relationship? Anglo-American relations in the 1990s
• American policy towards the Asia-Pacific: From deadly conflict to prosperous co-existence
• America and the ‘third world’: From critical sphere of importance to neglected regions
• A change of direction? American foreign policy during the first Clinton Presidency
• The second Clinton Presidency: Selected foreign policy case-studies
• Competing in the global economy: America in an age of geo-economics
• Dominant Voice? America at the United Nations
• The future of American foreign policy

Useful Introductory Readings:

The best introductory text is

Bruce Jentleson's  American Foreign Policy: The Dynamics of Choice in the 21st Century (New York, 2000)

Other useful texts are:
 

• Ambrose, Stephen E., Rise to globalism: American foreign policy since 1938 (New York, 1993)
• Bronstone, Adam, European Union-United States security relations : transatlantic tensions and the theory of international relations (New York, 1997)
• Christopher, Warren, In the stream of history : shaping foreign policy for a new era (California, 1998)
• Cox, Michael, US Foreign Policy after the Cold War: Superpower without a mission? (London, 1995)
• Cromartie, Michael (ed.), Might and right after the Cold War: can foreign policy be moral? (Washington, 1993)
• Dark, K. & A.L. Harris, The new world and the new world order: US relative decline, domestic instability in the Americas, and the end of the Cold War (New York, 1996)
• Dethloff, Henry C, The United States and the global economy since 1945 (New York, 1997)
• Dougherty, James, American foreign policy: FDR to Reagan (New York, 1986)
• Dumbrell, John, The making of US foreign policy (2nd ed., New York, 1998)
• Dumbrell, John, American foreign policy: Carter to Clinton (London, 1997)
• Gaddis, John Lewis, We now know: rethinking Cold War history (Oxford, 1997)
• Hartmann, Frederick , America's foreign policy in a changing world, (New York, 1994)
• Hogan, Michael J., America in the world: the historiography of American foreign relations since 1941 (Cambridge, 1995)
• Kegley, Charles W., American foreign policy: pattern and process (5th ed., New York, 1996)
• Lundestad, Geir, Empire by integration : the United States and European integration, 1945-1997 (New York, 1998)
• Marte, Gordon, (ed.), American foreign relations reconsidered, 1890-1993 (New York, 1994)
• Midlarsky, Manus, John A. Vasquez and Peter V. Gladkov, From rivalry to cooperation :Russian and American perspectives on the post-Cold War era (New York, 1994)
• Nye, Joseph S., Bound to lead : the changing nature of American power (New York, 1991)
• Robinson, William I., Promoting polyarchy : globalization, US intervention, and hegemony (Cambridge, 1996)
• Vernon, Raymond, Beyond globalism: remaking American foreign economic policy (New York, 1989)