Fall 2013 - 63556 - PA388K - Advanced Topics in Public Policy

The purpose of this course is to introduce the major American foreign policy debates of the post-9/11 era and to place these debates in historical and theoretical context.  It begins with a study of different “traditions” in American foreign policy, their liberal and realist origins, and the problems and prospects for grand strategy in a unipolar world.  Subsequently, the course examines a different foreign policy problem or debate each week, covering issues of security, diplomacy, economics, the environment, and development.  Topics vary by year, but may include: nuclear proliferation; counter-insurgency; global environmental cooperation; humanitarian intervention; finance in the wake of the great recession; the rise of China; foreign aid and the developing world; international terrorism; the Arab Spring, and others.  The course aims to provide a basic road map to an eclectic range of problems confronting contemporary policymakers, while forcing students to think hard about the trade-offs and assumptions that lie behind competing policy alternatives
 
Dr. Green, a visiting professor this semester, has a PhD in Political Science from MIT and currently holds a professorship at Williams College.