OUTLINES  (Spring 2008)

  1.     A Conceptual Framework
  2.     Global and Transnational Issues
  3.     The United States
  4.     The Americas
  5.     Europe
  6.     Sub-Saharan Africa
  7.     The Middle East
  8.     Central and South Asia
  9.     East Asia and Oceania

[Syllabus]

I. A Conceptual Framework  [Readings #1]

  1. Definitions

    1. academic disciplines

      1. political: historians vs. political scientists

      2. social: historians vs. sociologists vs. anthropologists

      3. "area studies"

      4. practitioners

    2. theories of politics

      1. realism / pragmatism vs. idealism

        1. Kennan and Brzezinski and Scowcroft vs.
          Wilson and Albright and Wolfowitz

      2. bureaucratic politics

    3. forms of self-identification

      1. ethnic / racial / tribal vs. religious vs.
        nationalist vs. ideological

    4. forms of government

      1. monarchy vs. theocracy vs. democracy vs.
        dictator vs. totalitarian

    5. other "cracies" and "archies"

      1. matriarchy?  patriarchy?  oligarchy?  anarchy?  plutocracy? 
        aristocracy?  meritocracy?  bureaucracy? 

  2. Weapons of Mass Destruction

    1. nuclear weapons

      1. theory

        1. e = mc2

      2. fission  ("atomic")

        1. enriched uranium

        2. plutonium

        3. "boosted" weapons

      3. fusion

        1. thermonuclear weapons  ("hydrogen bombs")

      4. means of delivery

        1. the "nuclear triad"

        2. strategic defense

    2. radiological weapons  ("dirty bombs")

      1. means of delivery

    3. chemical weapons

      1. means of delivery

    4. biological weapons

      1. means of delivery

 

II. Global and Transnational Issues  [Readings #2]

  1. International Law

    1. "hard law" vs. "soft law"

    2. enforcement

    3. legitimacy and world opinion

    4. international areas

      1. the oceans

      2. Antarctica

      3. space

  2. The United Nations

    1. the Security Council  (SC)

      1. the "Permanent Five"

      2. reform: future permanent members? 

    2. the General Assembly  (GA)

      1. DISEC, SPECPOL, SOCHUM, and the rest

    3. the Secretary-General and his Secretariat  (UN-SG)

      1. Lie, Hammarskjöld, U Thant, Waldheim, de Cuellar,
        Boutros-Ghali, Annan, and Ban Ki-moon

    4. the International Court of Justice  (ICJ)

    5. Economic and Social Council  (ECOSOC)

      1. Commission on [x] 

    6. the Trusteeship Council

    7. other stuff

      1. IAEA, UNICEF, High Commissioners, etc.

  3. International Finance and Business
    1. International Monetary Fund  (IMF)
    2. World Bank
      3.
    3. corruption
  4. Non-Governmental Organizations  (NGOs)

    1. advocacy  (e.g. Amnesty International)

    2. humanitarian relief  (e.g. Red Cross / Red Crescent)

  5. World Health Issues

    1. pandemics

      1. "avian flu"

      2. terrorism (biological weapons)

      3. HIV / AIDS

        1. sub-Saharan Africa

    2. chronic health issues

      1. food and (clean) water

      2. curable diseases  (e.g. malaria, tuberculosis)

  6. Climate Change

    1. global sources of energy

    2. the history of the controversy

      1. the ozone layer: a hopeful precedent? 

      2. the Kyoto Protocol

    3. the state of the problem today

 

III. The United States  [Readings #3]

  1. The U.S. Government  (USG)

    1. political appointees

    2. the civil service

    3. contractors

  2. National Security Council  (NSC)

    1. National Security Advisor

  3. Department of Defense  (DOD)

    1. Office of the Secretary of Defense  (OSD)

    2. Joint Chiefs of Staff  (JCS)

    3. USA, USN, USAF, and USMC

    4. the special forces community

  4. Department of State

    1. Office of the Secretary of State  (S/S)

    2. the Foreign Service

  5. The Intelligence Community  (IC)

    1. Director of National Intelligence  (DNI)

      1. National Intelligence Council  (NIC)

    2. Central Intelligence Agency  (CIA)

      1. operations  ("cowboys")

      2. analysis  ("eggheads")

    3. National Security Agency  (NSA)

    4. National Reconnaissance Office  (NRO)

    5. Defense Intelligence Agency  (DIA)

    6. Federal Bureau of Investigation  (FBI)

    7. everybody else

 

IV. The Americas  [Readings #4]

  1. NAFTA

    1. the United States

    2. Canada

    3. Mexico

  2. The Caribbean

    1. Cuba

    2. Haiti

    3. others

  3. Central America

    1. The Late Cold War, 1980s

      1. El Salvador

      2. Nicaragua

    2. Panama

      1. 1989: Noriega and "Just Cause"

      2. the Canal

    3. others

  4. South America

    1. ideologues and narcotraficantes

      1. Peru

      2. Columbia

      3. Hugo Chávez

    2. the road back to democracy

      1. Chile

      2. Brazil

      3. Argentina

 

V.  Europe  [Readings #5]

  1. Regional Organizations

    1. NATO  (North Atlantic Treaty Organization)

    2. EU  (European Union)

  2. Regional Tendencies and Tensions

    1. West vs. East

      1. historical context

      2. money

      3. security

      4. "Central Europe"? 

    2. North vs. South

      1. money

      2. ethnic differences

    3. Europe vs.

      1. the United States

      2. the Middle East

      3. Asia

  3. Specific Regions and Nations

    1. Britain, France, Germany, and Italy

    2. Scandinavia and the Low Countries

    3. Poland

    4. former Soviet republics

    5. Russia? 

    6. Turkey? 

  4. The Yugoslav Civil War, 1990-1998

    1. the Balkans  (east and south)

    2. Bosnia  (1995)

    3. Kosovo  (1998)

      1. Kosovar independence?  (2007?) 

 

VI. Sub-Saharan Africa  [Readings #6]

  1. Concepts

    1. North Africa

      1. the Sahara

    2. competing allegiances

      1. ethnicity +

      2. religion +

      3. nationalism =

      4. civil war

    3. international organizations

      1. the United Nations

      2. the African Union

      3. NGOs

  2. East Africa

    1. Sudan

      1. Darfur

      2. north vs. south

    2. Somalia

  3. Central Africa
    1. Rwanda
    2. Democratic Republic of Congo
    3. Angola
  4. West Africa

    1. Nigeria

    2. Liberia

  5. South Africa

 

VII.  The Middle East  [Readings #7]

  1. Turkey

    1. European or Middle Eastern? 

    2. Atatürk and secularism

    3. hot buttons

      1. the "Armenian Question"

      2. the Kurds

      3. Cyprus

  2. The Arab-Israeli Conflict

    1. historical context

    2. life in the "occupied territories"

      1. Hamas and the Gaza Strip

      2. Fatah and the West Bank

    3. "land for peace"? 

  3. The Rise of Political Islam

    1. the failure of Arab nationalism

    2. the Iranian Revolution  (1979)

      1. the hostage crisis

    3. radical Islam in Sudan and Afghanistan in the 1990s

    4. jihadists in Afghanistan and Bosnia

    5. Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda

      1. East Africa bombings (1998) and the U.S.S. Cole (2000)

      2. September 11th, 2001

      3. Bali, Madrid, London, and Iraq

        1. al-Qaeda, but which one(s)? 

  4. North Africa
    1. Algeria
    2. Libya
  5. The Persian Gulf

    1. oil and wealth

    2. the Iran-Iraq War, 1980-1988

      1. Arab support for Saddam Hussein

      2. "re-flagging" and the US-Iran conflict

    3. "Desert Shield" and "Desert Storm," 1990-1991

      1. "on to Baghdad"? 

      2. Kurdish and Shiite insurgencies

    4. Iraqi containment, 1991-2002

      1. "no-fly zones"

      2. the "London Iraqis"

      3. Iraq and WMDs? 

    5. the Second Iraq War, 2003-present

      1. the neo-conservatives and 9/11

      2. "de-Baathification" and the Iraqi Army

      3. insurgency and sectarian civil war

 

VIII.  Central and South Asia  [Readings #8]

  1. Russia
    1. Yeltsin
      1. privatization
    2. Putin
      1. "we're back!" 
      2. future of democracy? 
  2. The Caucasus

    1. Chechnya

    2. Armenia

    3. Georgia

  3. The "Stans"
    1. Kazakhstan
    2. Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan
  4. Afghanistan
    1. the Soviet occupation, 1979-1989
    2. civil war and the Taliban
    3. the U.S. invasion, 2001-2002
    4. current situation
  5. Pakistan

    1. Musharraf

    2. Pakistan and radical Islam

    3. "the Islamic atomic bomb"

      1. A. Q. Khan

  6. India

    1. economy

    2. politics

    3. Kashmir

    4. Pakistan-India-China

 

IX.  East Asia and Oceania  [Readings #9]

  1. The People's Republic of China

    1. politics

    2. economy

      1. the coast vs. the interior

    3. hot buttons

      1. Taiwan and the "one-China policy"

      2. Japan

      3. the United States

      4. Tibet and other racial minorities

  2. Japan

    1. politics

    2. economics

  3. Korea
    1. the North
      1. nuclear weapons
    2. the South

  4. Southeast Asia

    1. Thailand

    2. Vietnam

  5. Offshore Asia

    1. Taiwan

    2. the Philippines

    3. Indonesia

    4. Singapore

  6. Oceania

    1. Australia and New Zealand? 

 

[Syllabus]

dave@rezelman.org   |   Home Page   |   Norfolk Academy   |     drezelman@norfolkacademy.org