Assignments

Assignments Overview

Your grade in this course depends upon

  1. Section participation/presentations
  2. Two ungraded two-page papers
  3. Two 8-page papers

Section Presentations: What They Are

Top policy makers are often asked to present their views on important foreign and security policy matters to the National Security Council (NSC), the key Executive Branch forum where such matters are discussed. In our sections you will also be asked to present to the NSC. As in a real NSC appearance you will give a short presentation and then you will be questioned by an opinionated and perhaps skeptical panel that includes the President of the United States and some Cabinet officers. You should assume that the meeting is held in tight secrecy. There is no point in playing to the cameras because there aren't any. But you better impress the President or he/she might fire you!

Your presentation will last five (5) minutes. If you run over you may be cut off. Your presentation should include (1) an argument, and (2) supporting evidence or reasoning. Your section leader and your fellow students will then pose questions and ask you to address counter-arguments, in role as NSC members. Be prepared to defend your argument with deductive or historical evidence. You choose the topic of your presentation. You can make an argument that reacts to an issue raised in class or in the course readings, or you can address a subject of special concern to you. Your presentation can overlap with your paper topic.

We suggest that you bring an outline of your presentation and either hand it out or put it up on the blackboard, to help your audience follow your argument. We also suggest that you summarize your argument in a couple of sentences before marching through it. Again, this makes you easier to follow. We recommend that you practice your speech a couple of times—to the mirror or, better still, to a friend—before giving it.

The NSC sometimes hears differing views in its deliberations. Accordingly we will try to organize presentations as debates between two members of the section who frame different views of an issue. Reminder: you are also required to provide your section leader with a two-page (double-spaced) paper summarizing your talk, due on the day you speak.

Two Ungraded 2-page papers

The ungraded talk-summary paper is due on the day you present your talk. We require that you submit a finished draft of at least one of your 8- page papers a week before its due date in order to get comments for rewrite from your section leader. You are wise to submit both papers to your section leader for comments. So please leave yourself time to get comments on drafts of the 8-page papers before you submit final drafts.

Your response paper should advance an argument about the reading or lectures. Your argument can dispute argument(s) advanced in the reading or lectures; can concur with argument(s) advanced in the reading or lecture; can assess or explain policies or historical events described in the reading and lectures; or can relate current events in the press today to ideas or events in the readings or lectures. We encourage evaluation of policies or ideas covered in the reading or lecture. Are they right or wrong? Good or bad?

Somewhere in your paper—preferably at the beginning—please offer a 1-2 sentence summary of your argument. Your paper should be about two typed pages (double spaced—not 1.5 spaced please—with standard one-inch margins on left, right, top and bottom). It will not be graded but is mandatory and must be completed to receive full credit for class participation.

Your papers may be improved by keeping up with current international affairs during the semester. Four publications offer especially excellent coverage: The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist (a weekly), and The Far Eastern Economic Review (formerly a weekly, now a monthly).

Two 8-page papers

Your section leader will give you feedback on a draft of your paper if you submit a draft a week before you submit your final paper. You must do this for one of your papers. You are wise to do it for both papers. You are encouraged to consult with each other as you prepare this paper.

Before writing your papers, please familiarize yourself with the rules of citing sources and make sure you follow them. Failure to cite sources properly is plagiarism.

Your paper should be eight typed double-spaced pages, with normal 1" margins and normal-size typeface. Start your paper with a short summary introduction that states your question(s) and distills your answer(s). And offer a conclusion.

First Paper Assignment

Select a major episode in American foreign policy from the following list, and write a short paper that identifies what you believe is the single best explanation for American policies. Please also identify what you believe are the one or two best competing explanations and explain why you find them less compelling. Finally, feel free to identify policy prescriptions that follow from your analysis, if any do. Use historical evidence to support your argument. You may want to draw on one or more theories discussed in this course to construct your explanation but can also rely on other theories.

  1. American policy leading up to its entry into World War I, and/or American entry into World War I, and/or American conduct of World War I.
  2. American policy leading up to its entry into World War II, and/or American entry into World War I, and/or American conduct of World War II.
  3. America's decision to wage the Cold War.
  4. The strategies and tactics adopted by the United States in the Cold War.
  5. American entry into and/or conduct of the Korean War.
  6. American conduct of the War on Terror, 2001-present.

If the facts you need to fully assess your explanations are not found in the available course readings, describe what additional facts you would need to provide a more thorough assessment, and explain why these additional facts would shed light on the questions you address.

Second Paper Assignment

Select an episode in American foreign policy from the list below and write a short paper that evaluates the policy, or a major element of the policy (that is, a major decision or set of decisions, or a major idea or set of ideas). In offering your evaluation, please comment on

  1. the validity or falsehood of the factual and theoretical assumptions that produced the policy; and/or
  2. the results the policy produced—were they those that policymakers sought to produce?

Were they good or bad? If you argue that a policy was mistaken, identify the alternative policy that you prefer. You are also invited to identify prescriptions for current policy that follow from your analysis, if any do. Use deductive logic and historical evidence to support your argument.

If the evidence available in the assigned readings is too thin to allow you to fully evaluate the policy or policy element that you have chosen to discuss, please say so and describe the information that you would need to perform a more thorough evaluation.

  1. U.S. foreign policies in the interwar years (1919-1941).
  2. U.S. entry into and/or conduct of the Korean War.
  3. The national security policies1 of the Eisenhower Administration (1953-1961).
  4. U.S. policies in the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.
  5. U.S. policies in Indochina, 1945-1975.
  6. Any other U.S. intervention in the Third World.
  7. The 2001-present War on Terror.
  8. Another U.S. foreign policy of your own choosing; or a foreign policy idea that was proposed but was not adopted.

Your paper should be eight typed double-spaced pages, with normal 1" margins and normal-size typeface. Start your paper with a short summary introduction that states your question(s) and distills your answer(s). And offer a conclusion.