POL 358: Strategy, War, and Politics

Secondary Battle Plan, rev. 2008-02-08; Average pages per week: 196

Prof. Alex Montgomery

ahm@reed.edu

(503) 517-7395




Class

Office



TuTh 10:30-11:50 AM

TuTh 4:00-5:30 PM or by appointment
Eliot 414

Eliot 204B
https://moodle.reed.edu/course/view.php?id=131

http://www.reed.edu/~ahm/



Course Description and Goals

This course examines contemporary problems of war and peace from a historical and theoretical perspective. What were the causes of war in the past and what can we learn from that experience? What strategies do actors in the international system use to employ force, and how have they changed in the nuclear age? What are the current problems facing decisionmakers today? The course begins with a review of political, psychological, organizational, economic, and nationalist theories of the causes of war, then uses these theories to examine the origins and character of both historical and contemporary conflicts, including the First and Second World Wars and the Iraq War. It continues by examining the effects on conflict of the nuclear revolution. The course concludes by examining the major contemporary threats to national and international security that may be faced in the coming decade.

Students will learn to perform basic research and analysis through writing and thinking about conflict from multiple different perspectives. Readings are drawn from historic and contemporary scholars of strategy, war, and politics, cover a wide variety of issues, and are presented in context with historical and contemporary events. Assignments are a mixture of analysis, research, and experiential learning.

Requirements

Class Participation

Students will have the opportunity participate in the class both during and outside of classroom hours. Each student will be assigned to three days during the semester in which they will co-author a short memo comparing and contrasting that day’s readings and posing questions for discussion. These memos should be posted in the forums on the course website by 8 PM the day before the readings are to be discussed. The posters will also start off the next day’s session with a short presentation and will open up discussion. ALL students are required to read the memos and be prepared to answer the questions the next day in class; they are also encouraged to respond to the memos in the forum as part of their participation.

Readings

Readings for the course are drawn from books available at the bookstore as well as E-Readings, which can be downloaded off the course website. For the lazy, the E-Readings can even be downloaded directly from the links on the syllabus. Readings marked “Further” are other relevant articles; they are not required for class.

Four books are for sale at the bookstore and are also on reserve at the library; Note that the Betts volume is the 2002 second edition, not the 2005 updated second edition. The relevant part (that is, all of it minus the initial commentary) of The Art of War is available on E-Readings as well, so purchasing the book is recommended, not required. Similarly, since those of you who have taken POL 240 from me already have a copy of Sagan and Waltz (and because we only use it one day), it is also recommended. Finally, those who are generally interested in the study of war classics may wish to purchase a copy of Clausewitz; make sure that you get the version edited by Michael Howard and Peter Paret, not the bowdlerized version by Anatol Rapoport.

Required

  • Richard K. Betts, editor (2002) Conflict after the Cold War : arguments on causes of war and peace.  2nd edition. New York: Longman, ISBN 0321081706
  • Robert J. Art and Kenneth N. Waltz, editors (2004) The use of force : military power and international politics.  6th edition. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield, ISBN 0742525570

Recommended

  • Sun Tzu; Samuel B. Griffith, editor (1971) The Art of War.  Oxford University Press, ISBN 0195014766
  • Scott D. Sagan and Kenneth N. Waltz (2003) The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: A Debate Renewed.  2nd edition. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, ISBN 0393977471

Optional

  • Carl von Clausewitz; Michael Eliot Howard and Peter Paret, editors (1993) On War (Everyman’s Library).  New York, NY: Knopf, ISBN 0679420436

Course Website

Frequent reading of the course website will be helpful for success in the class. Discussion and collaboration with your peers is available to you through the website as well as in class; supplemental and core readings will be made available there; and assignments will be turned in electronically using the site.

Assignments and Quals

There are two formal assignments for this course. More details regarding the assignments will be available later. If you intend to qual in this course, you must let me know the first day.

Citation and Plagiarism

A major goal of this course is to encourage good reading, research, and citation habits. Good research requires good documentation of sources and the ability to put one’s own analysis and thoughts into a paper rather than relying on others. Plagiarism and cheating are violations of academic integrity and thus violations of Reed’s Honor Principle. As specified by Reed’s academic conduct policy, such violations will result in disciplinary actions, including suspension or permanent dismissal from the College. For the purposes of this class, plagiarism is submitting a piece of work which in part or in whole is not entirely the student’s own work without attributing those same portions to their correct source. For examples of plagiarism and how to avoid it, see <http://www.csub.edu/ssric-trd/howto/plagiarism.htm> For more information on Reed’s policies see: <http://web.reed.edu/academic/gbook/comm˙pol/acad˙honesty.html>.

Accommodations

If you’d like to request academic accommodations due to a disability, please contact Associate Dean of Student Services, Sarah Parshley, Eliot 218, 503/777-7521, parshles@reed.edu. If you have a letter from Student Services, please let me know so we can discuss those accommodations.

1/29/08: 00.1. Introduction (26 Pages)

1/31/08: 00.2. Is War Inevitable? (54 Pages)

Review

Part I: The Causes of War: WWI and Iraq

2/5/08: 01.0. Grand Theories of War (119 Pages)

Further

2/7/08: 01.1. Guns of August (133 Pages)

2/12/08: 01.2. International Politics-Power Balancing (74 Pages)

Further

2/14/08: 01.3. International Politics-Power Transitions (80 Pages)

Further

2/19/08: 01.4. International Politics-Money (94 Pages)

Further

2/21/08: 01.5. International Politics-Technology (110 Pages)

2/26/08: 01.6. Domestic Politics (113 Pages)

Further

2/28/08: 01.7. Organizations (115 Pages)

3/4/08: 01.8. Nationalism (130 Pages)

3/6/08: 01.9. Psychology (113 Pages)

Part II: From WWII to Nuclear Weapons

3/11/08: 02.1. Deterrence (98 Pages)

Further

3/13/08: 02.2. Compellence (80 Pages)

Further

Spring Break

3/25/08: 02.3. Nuclear Proliferation (182 Pages)

3/27/08: —-. No Class

3/30/08: 02.4. Nuclear Crises (makeup class) (100 Pages)

4/1/08: 02.5. Nuclear Diplomacy (92 Pages)

Further

4/3/08: 02.6. Nuclear Defense (68 Pages)

Further

Part III: Contemporary Problems

4/8/08: 03.0. American Empire (85 Pages)

4/10/08: 03.1. Terrorism (87 Pages)

4/15/08: 03.2. Insurgencies (103 Pages)

4/17/08: 03.3. Ethnic Conflict (116 Pages)

Further

4/22/08: 03.4. Ending Civil Wars (120 Pages)

Further

4/24/08: 03.5. Rogue States (109 Pages)

4/29/08: 03.6. Future Causes (77 Pages)

5/1/08: 03.7. Future of War (63 Pages)

Further