To provide a broad theoretical and historical understanding of US foreign policy and its role in the third world and global order.
To apply the different historical and theoretical understandings of US foreign policy to specific developing world case studies and to be able to form conclusions based on the students own judgment and learning.
To encourage the development of a critical approach to US foreign policy predicated on solid theoretical and empirical evidence.
Content
Part One
This considers the major theoretical and historical perspectives on US foreign policy and its role in the third world. Historical and theoretical areas covered will include orthodox and revisionist historiography and (neo)-realist, neo-liberal, Marxist and post-structuralist explanations of US foreign policy. The historical and theoretical areas overlap with a close alignment between orthodox understandings of US foreign policy and realism and neo-liberalism, whilst revisionist accounts are more broadly aligned with critical Marxist and post-structuralist understandings of US foreign policy. This section of the module will serve to deepen the students? historical and theoretical understandings of US foreign policy and its role within the third world specifically and world politics more generally.
Part Two
This part of the course takes these insights and applies them to developing world case studies. We will move sequentially through different historical case studies that span the Cold War, post-Cold War and post-September 11th periods. This section of the course relies on primary and secondary data sources. There are a number of Internet sites where students can access sources including the National Security Archive in Washington and a number of US government agencies such as the US State Department.