This course covers the history of American foreign policy since 1914, current policy questions, and the future of U.S. Policy. We focus on policy evaluation. What consequences did these policies produce for the U.S. and for other countries? Were/are these consequences good or bad?

Open to qualified graduate students who would like to pursue special subjects or projects. Please consult graduate administration prior to registration. Description from the course home page: The purpose of this seminar is to examine systematically, and comparatively, great and middle power military interventions into civil wars during the 1990's. These civil wars were high on the policy agenda of western states during the 1990's. Yet, these interventions were usually not motivated by obvious classical vital interests. Given the extraordinary security enjoyed by the great and middle powers of the west in the Cold War's aftermath, these activities are puzzling.

This course will explore the organization and functions of the U.S. Intelligence Community, its interaction with national security policymakers, key issues about its workings, and the challenges it faces in defining its future role. The events of 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq have focused new attention on national intelligence, including the most significant reorganization of the community since the National Security Act of 1947. The course will highlight some of the major debates about the role, practices, and problems of national intelligence.

This class first offers some basic analytical frameworks -- culture, social structure, and institutions -- that you can use to examine a wide range of political outcomes. We then use these frameworks to understand (1) the relationship between democracy and economic development and (2) the relative centralization of political authority across countries. We will use theoretical arguments and a wide range of case studies to address several questions: Why are some countries democratic and others not? How does democracy affect economic development and political conflict? Why do some countries centralize power while others threaten to fall apart through secession and civil war? We will use examples from a wide range of countries including Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Iraq, Italy, Mexico, and the United States. The lessons drawn from these countries will prepare you to analyze other countries of your own choosing in the paper assignments. At the end of the course, you should be able to analyze political events around the world, drawing on the theoretical explanations provided in the class.

In one of the greatest ecological disasters of our time, the ancient marshlands of Mesopotamia are systematically being converted to dry salt flats as a result of human mismanagement of the regions water resources. Landsat satellite imagery reveals that in the last 10 years, wetlands that once covered as much as 20,000 square km in parts of Iraq and Iran have been reduced to a small fraction of their original size. The authors of a new report released by the United Nations Environment Programmes (UNEP) at the 11th Stockholm Water Symposium on August 13, 2001, warn that the marshlands could completely disappear within the next 3-5 years unless dramatic steps are taken immediately to reverse the damage being done. The UNEP Executive Director described the wetlands condition as a major environmental catastrophe that will be remembered as one of humanity's worst engineered disasters. He noted that the tragic loss of this rare wetland has occurred in approximately the same period since world leaders pledged to safeguard the environment at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (the Earth Summit) held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. Regarded by historians as one of the cradles of civilization, the Mesopotamian Fertile Crescent has supported Marsh Arab society for millennia. But through the damming and siphoning off of waters from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, the countries of Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria have decimated the ecosystem and, with it, a culture rooted in the dawn of human history (dating back to ancient Sumeria about 5,000 years ago).

This course focuses on evolution of contemporary politics and economics. Subject divided into four parts: (a) Context: historical and strategic perspectives, theoretical issues, and sources and forms of conflict; (b) Continuity: detailed analysis conflicts systems and their persistence, as well as regional competition and recent wars -- focusing on specific countries and cases; (c) Complexity: highlighting situation specific strategic gains and losses; and (d) Convergence: focusing future configurations of conflict and cooperation. Throughout the course, special attention is given to sources and transformations of power, population dynamics and migration, resources and energy, as well as implications of technological change.

In this lesson, students explore their various opinions about the War in Iraq, create and view Venn diagrams that compare and contrast the Wars in Iraq and Vietnam, and write informed letters to their senators about the War.