05: Geopolitics in international relations

Seminar Outline and Concepts
Dr. Reinhard Heinisch, Associate Professor University of Pittsburgh
heinisch@pitt.edu
(412) 361-6781

Concepts and Points of Discussion:

American Foreign Policy-Its History, Doctrines, Mythologies and National Narratives:
Discusses the American origin myth, security problems, political values and objectives, dominant philosophies, self-perception and perception of others.

European Foreign Policy – The European Experience and Its Consequences:
Discusses European formative experiences and responses, myths and perceptions, the transition from national to transnational, including CFSP & ESDP, relationship with – NATO.

General Concepts of International Relations Theory:
Discusses: power-politics, state/state sovereignty, the world system and its actors, classical/neorealism, (neo)institutionalism, idealism, neoliberalism.

Decision-Making in the US, EU, and International Institutions:
Discusses the roles and institution of the foreign policy making process, such as different US agencies, EU institutions and International Organizations (NATO, UN-SC, OECE, WTO, etc.).

The Transatlantic Relationship – Dominant Issues and Perceptions:
Discusses the emergence and development of the transatlantic relationship over time, focuses on issues of agreement and disagreement.

9/11and Its Consequences
Discusses the new paradox of power and the Bush Doctrine, revisits the neo-conservative.

Iraq — Controversy and Cooperation
Discusses the fallout from the controversy of the war in Iraq and seeks to assess the current state of the transatlantic relationship.

Future Direction of Transatlantic Partnership/Agenda
Seeks to assess the permanent consequences of the transatlantic conflict over Iraq, examines the mutual perception of future global threats and issues, and discusses US troop redeployment and new alliances.

Required Reading:
Books:
Elizabeth Pond, Friendly Fire: The Near-Death of the Transatlantic Alliance (Brookings Institution Press 2004
Robert Kagan Of Paradise and Power America an Europe in the New World Order (Knopf 2003, New York)
Fraser Cameron, US Foreign Policy After the Cold War: Global Hegemon or Reluctant Sheriff (Routledge 2002, London)
Zbigniew Brzezinski The Choice Global Domination or Global Leadership (Basic Books 2004, New York)
Joseph S. Nye. The Paradox of American Power – Why the World s only Superpower Can t Go it Alone (Oxford University Press 2002, Oxford)
All of the above texts are all recent, relatively short and very readable; they include European and American authors, including a political practitioner. Moreover, they cover a variety of theoretical perspectives from the most influential neoconservative thinker (Kagan) to more liberal internationalists (Brzezinski) and institutionalists (Nye).

Articles reflecting Classical IR-Theory

Realism:
Thucydides “Melian Dialogue/Fate of Melos” 431BC History of the Peloponnesian War:
http://www.arts.uwaterloo.ca/~wbmoul/courses/PSci281/text/Melian%20Dialogue.pdf

Hans J. Morgenthau, Politics Among Nations: The Struggle for Power and Peace, Fifth Edition, Revised, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978, pp. 4-15
SIX PRINCIPLES OF POLITICAL REALISM (download:
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/morg6.htm)

Just War Doctrine
St. Thomas Aquinas: Whether it is sinful to wage war — Summa Theologica
(download: http://www.jesseromero.com/jrc_20030305.htm)

Current US National Security Strategy:
The National Security Strategy of the United States of America
(download: http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss.html)