MORALITY AND FOREIGN POLICY
This course examines the meaning and relevance of ethics within an often uncertain and unpredictable world of international politics. To what extent can moral reasoning among citizens within civil society be matched by statesmen and nations who often compete and clash beyond their own borders? An answer to this question must come to grips with a number of practical and theoretical concerns. First, a meaningful discussion about foreign policy values enables us to become more self-conscious about the defining characteristics of political ethics and the categories of judgment that constitute moral choices. Politics, as Aristotle and Kant would remind us, is inherently a philosophical discipline; men and women cannot live without a philosophy which gives meaning to their existence, by explaining it in terms of causality, rationalizing it in terms of philosophy proper, and justifying it in terms of ethics.
Second, morality in politics and diplomacy grows out of underlying philosophical outlooks on human nature, politics, power, and justice? Part of our focus in this class will be on the master thinkers and statesmen whose intellectual and political legacies have shaped our understanding of morality and foreign policy. The statesmen who became masters of events and, thus, conscious creators of history–the Richelieus, Napoleons, Bismarcks, and Wilsons–had one quality in common: they combined a general conception of foreign policy, of its directions and methods, with the ability to manipulate concrete events in light of that conception.
Third, moral choice in foreign policy is partly defined by competing theoretical traditions in the field of international relations. The ends and means of foreign policy have been judged differently by Realists, Liberals, Marxists, and other Postmodern intellectual currents. Ethical perspectives in world politics have contributed to debates about the scope of interdependence, the clash between national and transnational interests, the role of international law and organizations, as well as the justification for intervention in the internal affairs of sovereign states.
Fourth, diplomats or foreign policy leaders are challenged to translate general moral principles into workable and concrete policies. One byproduct of ongoing democratization of nations and international structures is renewed discussion about the normative foundations of the national interest concept. How exactly do universal principles of justice and goodwill translate into successful foreign policy initiatives? What foreign policy examples–human rights, promoting economic and social justice, disarmament, or self-determination–provide meaningful lessons for the future. Of increasing importance is how, and the extent to which, policy-makers and thinkers can communicate effectively with one another. No leader can deal with the contingencies of world politics without some organizing principles, or theory, of foreign policy. Part of this theory touches on the moral potential of individuals and nations. As Winston Churchill wisely observed: "Those who are possessed of a definite body of doctrine and of deeply rooted convictions upon it will be in a much better positions to deal with the shifts and surprises of daily affairs."
The outline for the course includes three lists of sources for assigned and future readings. The readings should be explored in tandem with the discussion topics outlined in the seminar schedule. Students are expected to read a common body of writings to help us in discovering principles of politics and foreign policy that relate morality to international relations. Considerable attention is devoted to competing intellectual and philosophical traditions shaping our discourse about the nature of political and international ethics. Each individual will be required to make a number of oral presentations from various texts, in addition to writing and defending a major research presentation.
LIST I
x Required books for the course
x1. ON JUSTICE, POWER, AND HUMAN NATURE, Thucydides
x2. THE PRINCE, Machiavelli
x3. THINKING ABOUT INTERNATIONAL ETHICS: MORAL THEORY AND CASES FROM AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY, Francis Harbour
x4. THE MOBILIZATION OF SHAME: A WORLD VIEW OF HUMAN RIGHTS, Robert F. Drinan, S.J.
x5. EICHMANN IN JERUSALEM: A REPORT ON THE BANALITY OF EVIL
6. ETHICS AND FOREIGN POLICY, Joseph S. Nye, Jr.
x7. ETHICS AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS 15, 2001 (Carnegie Council on Ethics & International Affairs)
8. THE TWENTY YEARS' CRISIS, E. H. Carr
9. MORAL MAN AND IMMORAL SOCIETY, Reinhold Niebuhr
10. SCIENTIFIC MAN vs. POWER POLITICS, Hans J. Morgenthau (Reserve)
11. THE NEW DIMENSION OF HUMAN RIGHTS, Zbigniew Brzezinski
12. EXPORTING DEMOCRACY: FULFILLING AMERICAN DESTINY, Joshua Muravchik
13. AMERICA'S MISSION, Tony Smith
14. RIGHTEOUS REALISTS, Joel H. Rosenthal.
15. HANS J. MORGENTHAU AND THE ETHICS OF AMERICAN STATECRAFT, Greg Russell.
16. REALIST THOUGHT FROM WEBER TO KISSINGER, Michael Joseph Smith.
17. ETHICS AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, Carey B. Joynt and J. E. Hare.
18. A WORLD RESTORED: EUROPE AFTER NAPOLEON, Henry A. Kissinger.
19. DEMOCRACY IN AMERICA, Alexis de Tocqueville.
20. JOHN QUINCY ADAMS AND THE FOUNDATION OF AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY, Samuel Flagg Bemis.
21. RIGHT V. MIGHT, INTERNATIONAL LAW AND THE USE OF FORCE, Louis Henkin et al.
22. TOTALITARIANISM, Hannah Arendt.
23. BOUND TO LEAD, Joseph Nye.
24. ETHICS AND STATECRAFT, ed. Cathal Nolan
25. THICK AND THIN, MORAL ARGUMENT AT HOME AND ABROAD, Michael Walzer
26. PERPETUAL PEACE AND OTHER ESSAYS ON POLITICS, HISTORY, AND MORALS, Immanuel Kant (trans. Ted Humphreys).
27. DIPLOMACY, Henry Kissinger.
28. WARRIOR POLITICS: WHY LEADERSHIP DEMANDS A PAGAN, Robert Kaplan.
Recommended books for the course are:
1. Arendt, Hannah, THE ORIGINS OF TOTALITARIANISM or ON VIOLENCE or ON REVOLUTION or THE HUMAN CONDITION or EICHMANN IN JERUSALEM or MEN IN DARK TIMES.
2. Aron, Raymond, THE CENTURY OF TOTAL WAR or PEACE AND WAR or THE IMPERIAL REPUBLIC or POLITICS AND HISTORY.
3. Bell, Terrence, AFTER MARX.
4. Berger, Peter, PYRAMIDS OF CHANGE: POLITICAL ETHICS AND SOCIAL CHANGE.
5. Berlin, Isaiah, AGAINST THE CURRENT ESSAYS.
6. Voegelin, Eric. NEW SCIENCE OF POLITICS or SCIENCE, POLITICS, AND GNOSTICISM, or FROM ENLIGHTENMENT TO REVOLUTION, or ORDER AND HISTORY.
7. Strauss, Leo, WHAT IS POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY? or THOUGHTS ON MACHIAVELLI.
8. Butterfield, Herbert, et al., DIPLOMATIC INVESTIGATIONS or THE STATECRAFT OF MACHIAVELLI.
9. Burns, James M., LEADERSHIP.
10. Cahn, Edmund, THE MORAL DECISION or THE SENSE OF INJUSTICE.
11. Carr, E. H., CONDITIONS OF PEACE.
12. Claude, Inis, POWER AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS or STATES AND THE GLOBAL SYSTEM.
13. Coll, Alberto, THE WESTERN HERITAGE AND AMERICAN VALUES.
14. Dawisha, Adeed, ISLAM AND FOREIGN POLICY.
15. Farrell, John C., THEORY AND REALITY IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, pp. 94ff. Also IMAGE AND REALITY IN WORLD POLITICS.
16. Finky, M. I., POLITICS IN THE ANCIENT WORLD.
17. Fleiss, Peter, THUCYDIDES AND THE POLITICS OF BIPOLARITY.
18. Halle, Louis J., & Kenneth W. Thompson, (eds.), FOREIGN POLICY AND THE DEMOCRATIC PROCESS: THE GENEVA PAPERS. Also see, Halle, THE SEARCH FOR AN ETERNAL NORM; THE ELEMENTS OF INTERNATIONAL STRATEGY; OUT OF CHAOS AND MORALITY.
19. Hampshire, Stuart, et al., PUBLIC AND PRIVATE MORALITY or MORALITY AND CONFLICT.
20. Hardin, Garrett, PROMETHEAN ETHICS: LIVING WITH DEATH, COMPETITION AND TRIAGE.
21. Higham, Robin (ed.), INTERVENTION OR ABSTENTION.
22. Herz, John, POLITICAL REALISM AND POLITICAL IDEALISM or THE CRISIS OF WORLD POLITICS.
23. Hula, Eric, NATIONALISM AND INTERNATIONALISM.
24. Kennan, George, REALITIES OF AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY or MEMOIRS or THE CLOUD OF DANGER.
25. Kertesz, Stephen, DIPLOMACY AND VALUES.
26. Kipnis, Kenneth and Diana Meyers, POLITICAL REALISM AND INTERNATIONAL MORALITY.
27. Lippmann, Walter, A PREFACE TO MORALS or THE GOOD SOCIETY or THE PUBLIC PHILOSOPHY.
28. MacIntyre, Alasdair, AFTER VIRTUE.
29. May, Henry F., THE END OF AMERICAN INNOCENCE.
30. Morgenthau, Hans, POLITICS AMONG NATIONS or IN DEFENSE OF THE NATIONAL INTEREST or TRUTH AND POWER or (with David Hein) ESSAYS ON LINCOLN'S FAITH AND POLITICS.
31. Murray, John Courtney, THE MORAL DILEMMA OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS or MORALITY AND MODERN WAR.
32. Osgood, Robert, IDEALS AND SELF-INTEREST IN AMERICA'S FOREIGN RELATIONS or LIMITED WAR.
33. Nagel, Thomas, MORTAL QUESTIONS.
34. Sandel, Michael J., LIBERALISM AND THE LIMITS OF JUSTICE.
35. Fox, Richard W., REINHOLD NIEBUHR: A BIOGRAPHY.
36. Blum, D. Steven, WALTER LIPPMANN: COSMOPOLITANISM IN THE CENTURY OF TOTAL WAR.
37. Steel, Ronald, WALTER LIPPMANN AND THE AMERICAN CENTURY.
38. Thucydides, THE COMPLETE WRITINGS.
39. Visscher, Charles De, THEORY AND REALITY IN PUBLIC INTERNATIONAL LAW or THE STABILIZATION OF EUROPE.
40. Walzer, Michael, JUST AND UNJUST WARS (2nd ed).
41. Wight, Martin, POWER POLITICS.
42. Wright, Quincy, A STUDY OF WAR, 2 vols., or THE STUDY OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS or THE CONTROL OF AMERICAN FOREIGN RELATIONS.
43. Donelan, Michael, THE REASON OF STATES and THE COMMUNITY OF STATES.
44. Kuhn, Thomas S., THE STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS.
45. Parkinson, F., THE PHILOSOPHY OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS.
46. Vasquez, John, ed., CLASSICS OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS.
47. ETHICS, Volume 96, No. 3, April 1986.
48. Held, Virginia, et al., PHILOSOPHY, MORALITY, AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS.
49. Cox, Richard, LOCKE ON WAR AND PEACE.
50. Acheson, Dean, "Morality, Moralism, and Diplomacy," in GRAPES FROM THORNS or (YALE REVIEW, 1957).
51. Doyle, Michael, WAYS OF WAR AND PEACE.
LIST II
Topics and Background Readings
I. Approaches to Ethics, Diplomacy, and Statecraft
Hannah Arendt, "Thinking and Moral Considerations," SOCIAL RESEARCH 38 (Autumn 1971): 417-46.
Seyom Brown, THE CRISES OF POWER.
I. L. Claude, AMERICAN APPROACHES TO WORLD AFFAIRS.
Thomas I. Cook and Malcolm Moos, POWER THROUGH PURPOSE: THE REALISM OF IDEALISM.
Cecil V. Crabb, THE AMERICAN APPROACH TO FOREIGN POLICY: A PRAGMATIC PERSPECTIVE.
Reinhold Niebuhr, CHRISTIANITY AND POWER POLITICS.
__________, THE NATURE AND DESTINY OF MAN, 2 vols.
__________, CHRISTIAN REALISM AND POWER POLITICS.
Robert A. Strong, BUREAUCRACY AND STATESMANSHIP.
Kenneth W. Thompson, MORALISM AND MORALITY IN POLITICS AND DIPLOMACY.
__________, AMERICAN DIPLOMACY AND EMERGENT PATTERNS.
__________, "Morality and Foreign Power," REVIEW OF POLITICS, July
1977.
Louis J. Halle, OUT OF CHAOS.
__________. THE SEARCH FOR AN ETERNAL FORM.
__________. HISTORY, PHILOSOPHY AND FOREIGN RELATIONS.
John Herz, POLITICAL REALISM AND POLITICAL IDEALISM.
Hans J. Morgenthau, IN DEFENSE OF THE NATIONAL INTEREST.
II. The Moral Problem in Foreign Policy
Hannah Arendt, THE ORIGINS OF TOTALITARIANISM.
__________, THE HUMAN CONDITION.
__________, EICHMANN.
__________, MEN IN DARK TIMES.
__________, ON VIOLENCE.
Herbert Butterfield, INTERNATIONAL CONFLICT IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.
__________, CHRISTIANITY AND HISTORY.
__________, CHRISTIANITY, DIPLOMACY AND WAR.
__________, MAN AND HIS PAST.
Edmund Cahn, THE SENSE OF INJUSTICE.
E. H. Carr, THE TWENTY YEARS' CRISIS.
__________, CONDITIONS OF PEACE.
W. David Clinton, THE TWO FACES OF NATIONAL INTEREST.
Norman Graebner, IDEAS AND DIPLOMACY.
Stuart Hampshire, et al., PUBLIC AND PRIVATE MORALITY.
Daniel G. Lang, FOREIGN POLICY IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC: THE LAW OF NATIONS AND THE BALANCE OF POWER.
Hans Morgenthau, TRUTH AND POWER.
__________, DILEMMAS OF POLITICS.
__________, POLITICS IN THE 20TH CENTURY.
__________, THE PURPOSE OF AMERICAN POLITICS.
Reinhold Niebuhr, THE IRONY OF AMERICAN HISTORY.
__________, MORAL MAN AND IMMORAL SOCIETY.
__________, BEYOND TRAGEDY.
__________, THE CHILDREN OF LIGHT AND THE CHILDREN OF DARKNESS.
__________, JUSTICE AND MERCY.
__________, THE STRUCTURE OF NATIONS AND EMPIRES.
Greg Russell, JOHN QUINCY ADAMS AND THE PUBLIC VIRTUES OF DIPLOMACY.
__________, "Searching for Realism's Grand Design: George F.
Kennan and the Ethics of American Power in World Affairs," POLITICAL SCIENCE
REVIEWER, 1990.
__________ (with Daniel G. Lang), "The Ethics of Power in American
Diplomacy: The Statecraft of John Quincy Adams," REVIEW OF POLITICS, Winter,
1990.
__________, "Jeffersonian Ethics and Foreign Affairs: John Quincy
Adams and the Moral Sentiments of a Realist," INTERPRETATION, Winter,
1990-91.
__________, "Hans J. Morgenthau and the Normative Foundations
of Diplomacy and Statecraft," DIPLOMACY AND STATECRAFT, March, 1991.
__________, "Reconciling International Rights and External Wrongs:
The Force of Arms and Ideas in War," Carnegie Council on Ethics and International
Affairs (Gulf War case study), 1992.
__________, "America's National Purpose Beyond the Cold War:
New Lessons from the Old Realism," VIRGINIA QUARTERLY REVIEW, Summer, 1992.
__________, "John Quincy Adams and the Ethics of America's National
Interest," REVIEW OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, January, 1993.
__________, "Kissinger's World Order and Statesmanship in Search
of World Order," POLITICAL SCIENCE REVIEWER, 1993.
__________, "Hans J. Morgenthau and National Interest," SOCIETY, January-February,
1994.
__________, "Madison's Realism and the Role of Domestic Ideals
in Foreign Affairs," PRESIDENTIAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, Fall, 1995
__________, "Henry Kissinger's Philosophy of History and Kantian
Ethics," DIPLOMACY & STATECRAFT, March, 1996.
__________, "John Quincy Adams: Virtue and Tragedy of the Statesman,"
THE NEW ENGLAND QUARTERLY, March 1996.
Gene Outka and John P. Reeder, RELIGION AND MORALITY.
Paul Ricoeur, YE ARE THE SALT OF THE EARTH and other writings in French and English.
Kenneth Thompson, "Realism and Idealism," BRITISH JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, July 1977.
Toynbee, Arnold. AN HISTORIAN'S APPROACH TO RELIGION, WAR, AND CIVILIZATION; THE STUDY OF HISTORY; CIVILIZATION ON TRIAL.
Paul E. Sigmund, NATURAL LAW AND POLITICAL THOUGHT.
III. The Methodological Debate
Brian Barry and Russell Hardin, RATIONAL MAN AND IRRATIONAL SOCIETY?
David Grene, THE IMAGE OF MAN IN THUCYDIDES AND PLATO.
Karl Jaspers, THE FUTURE OF MANKIND.
Morton A. Kaplan, JUSTICE, HUMAN NATURE AND POLITICAL OBLIGATION.
Jacques Maritain, MAN AND THE STATE.
Greg Russell, "Science, Technology, And Death In The Nuclear Age: Hans J. Morgenthau on Nuclear Ethics," ETHICS AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, Winter, 1990.
Thomas Nagel, MORTAL QUESTIONS.
John Rawls, NATURAL RIGHT AND HISTORY.
__________, THE POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY OF HOBBES.
Stephen E. Toulmin, AN EXAMINATION OF THE PLACE OF REASON IN ETHICS.
Eric Voegelin, THE NEW SCIENCE OF POLITICS.
IV. The Basic Disciplines: Their Concept of Morality and Foreign Policy
A. International Law (Writings by de Visscher, Jessup, Dillard, Henkin, Moynihan, etc.).
B. Diplomatic Analysis (Writings by Kennan, Morgenthau, Nicolson, etc.).
C. The Historical Perspective (Writings by Graebner, Schlesinger, Dallek, Ambrose, Beschloss and others).
D. Theology and the Moral Margin (Writings by Jerold Brauer, William Bradley, Reinhold Niebuhr etc.).
V. The Moral Imperative and Foreign Policy (For two perspectives see Hans Morgenthau, "Pathology of American Power," INTERNATIONAL SECURITY (Winter 1977) and Kenneth Thompson, FOREIGN ASSISTANCE: A VIEW FROM THE PRIVATE SECTOR.
A. The Moral Imperative and Human Rights?
B. The Moral Imperative and Foreign Aid?
C. The Moral Imperative and International
Cooperation?
D. The Moral Imperative and National Security?
E. The Moral Imperative: Diplomacy, Power
and War?
Other chapters and articles of possible relevance to the course may be found in the following books and journals.
Books:
Michael Ross Fowler, CONTENDING APPROACHES TO HUMAN RIGHTS IN U.S. FOREIGN POLICY.
Joshua Muravchik, THE UNCERTAIN CRUSADE, JIMMY CARTER AND THE DILEMMAS OF HUMAN RIGHTS.
F. H. Hinsley, POWER AND THE PURSUIT OF PEACE.
Michael Howard, WAR AND THE LIBERAL CONSCIENCE.
Hedley Bull, THE ANARCHICAL SOCIETY.
__________, "Hobbes and the International Anarchy," SOCIAL RESEARCH,
Winter, 1981.
Carl Becker, THE HEAVENLY CITY OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY PHILOSOPHERS.
Walter Lafeber, THE AMERICAN AGE.
Karl von Clausewitz, WAR, POLITICS, AND POWER.
Harold Nicolson, PEACEKEEPING 1919.
John Stoessinger, CRUSADERS AND PRAGMATISTS.
Robert Tucker and David Hendrickson, EMPIRE OF LIBERTY: THE JEFFERSONIAN TRADITION IN AMERICAN STATECRAFT.
Kenneth Waltz, MAN, THE STATE AND WAR.
Zbigniew Brzezinski, THE GRAND FAILURE.
Arnold Wolfers, DISCORD AND COLLABORATION.
Grace Roosevelt, READING ROUSSEAU IN THE NUCLEAR AGE.
Theodore Hesburg and Louis Halle, FOREIGN POLICY AND MORALITY, FRAMEWORK FOR A MORAL AUDIT.
Robert N. Bellah, et al., HABITS OF THE HEART: INDIVIDUALISM AND
COMMITMENT IN AMERICAN LIFE.
LIST III
World Order And The Transformation Of World Politics
Richard Falk, THE PROMISE OF WORLD ORDER: ESSAYS IN NORMATIVE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS.
F. S. Northedge, THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS.
Louis Henkin, HOW NATIONS BEHAVE: LAW AND FOREIGN POLICY.
__________, et al., RIGHT VS. MIGHT: INTERNATIONAL LAW AND THE USE
OF FORCE.
__________, "Law and Politics in International Relations: State
and Human Values," JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, Spring/Summer, 1990.
Francis Fukuyama, "The End of History," THE NATIONAL INTEREST, Summer, 1989. See also responses by Allan Bloom, Pierre Hasner, Gertrude Himmelfarb, Irving Kristol, Daniel Patrick Moynihan & Stephen Sestanovich. The celebrated article was followed in 1992 by the longer text THE END OF HISTORY AND THE LAST MAN.
James Turner Johnson, THE QUEST FOR PEACE: THREE MORAL TRADITIONS IN WESTERN CULTURAL HISTORY.
Sissela Bok, A STRATEGY FOR PEACE: HUMAN VALUES AND THE THREAT OF WAR.
__________, "Early Advocates of Lasting World Peace: Utopians
or Realists?" ETHICS AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, 1990.
Terry Nardin, "Moral Renewal: The Lessons of Eastern Europe," ETHICS AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, 1991.
Donald Snow, THE SHAPE OF THE FUTURE: THE POST-COLD WAR WORLD.
Felix Oppenheim, THE PLACE OF MORALITY IN FOREIGN POLICY.
Vaclav Havel, DISTURBING THE PEACE.
Immanuel Wallerstein, GEOPOLITICS AND GEOCULTURE.
Rachel M. McCleary, ed., ETHICS AND INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS.
Stanley Hoffmann and David Fidler, eds. ROUSSEAU ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS.
Daniel Chirot, THE CRISIS OF LENINISM AND THE DECLINE OF THE LEFT, THE REVOLUTIONS OF 1989.
Joseph Nye, "The Changing Nature of World Power," POLITICAL SCIENCE
QUARTERLY, Spring, 1990.
__________, "Soft Power," FOREIGN POLICY, Fall, 1990.
W. M. Reisman, "International Law After The Cold War," AMERICAN JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW, October, 1990.
D. Bell, "As we go into the nineties: some outlines of the twenty-first century," DISSENT, Spring, 1990.
Special Report: 2,500 Years of Democracy [symposium], HUMAN RIGHTS, Fall/Winter, 1990.
Nicholas X. Rizopoulos, ed., SEA-CHANGES: AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY IN A WORLD TRANSFORMED.
David R. Mapel, "Prudence and the Plurality of Value in International Ethics," JOURNAL OF POLITICS, May, 1990.
David Lyons, ETHICS AND THE RULE OF LAW.
Paul Kennedy, THE RISE AND FALL OF THE GREAT POWERS.
Seminar Requirements
Individuals are expected to be present and prepared for each meeting of the seminar. Participants will be asked to deliver a number of brief oral presentations from either required or suggested readings. In addition, each individual will present their research paper to the seminar at the end of the semester. Presentations also should be designed to lead other members of the seminar in discussion of the materials at hand. Brief essays will be assigned in conjunction with two films, Hamlet and Judgment at Nuremberg. A final examination will be administered at the last seminar meeting on April 27th. A review for the Final will be distributed one or two weeks in advance of the exam date.
Research Paper and Writing Assignments
Members of the seminar are at liberty to select their own topic and are encouraged to broaden their own intellectual and ethical interests in politics and international relations. The length of the paper should be right at fifteen pages. About the only requirement is that the research problem have a direct relation to philosophical or historical traditions of moral reasoning discussed in the seminar. In addition, familiarity with different ethical traditions does not preclude papers that tackle the details of policy formulation and implementation.
Individuals should formulate their topics in the form of a 3-5 page written proposal or abstract. These proposals must be turned in to me no later than February 14th. Include at the end of your 3-5 page proposal as extensive a bibliography as you can compile. Each seminar participant is expected to schedule a meeting in my office to discuss their paper proposal during the week of February 18th.
Think clearly at the outset about what you want to say, why you wish to say it, and what you expect to discover after all of your hard work. Arrive at a clear understanding of how ethics or moral choices will permeate the substance of your paper. Papers certainly may be written from diverse perspectives emphasizing bureaucracy and organization, diplomatic history, policy related topics, intellectual biography, warfare and conflict, international law and organization, or political philosophy. In all matters of style and organization, refer either to Kate Turabian's A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations or the Chicago Manual of Style. All notes and documentation should be located at the end of the paper. Double-space throughout and observe one inch margins on all sides. The research paper is due absolutely no later than Monday, May 3rd, at High Noon!
The two take-home essay assignments on Hamlet
and Judgment at Nuremberg should range from 4-6 pages in length.
Double space throughout and observe one inch margins on all sides.
Essays will be due within two weeks after each screening. The
assignments will be in the nature of brief "reaction papers" that focus
on the central moral dilemmas in various settings.
Schedule & Assignments
January 17: Organizational Meeting
January 24 : Political Ethics & Theoretical Traditions in International Relations
January 31: International Ethics and Philosophical Traditions (Student
Presentations)
Judao-Christian
Kantian//Deontological
Bentham/ Utilitarianism
Confucianism
Machiavelli/Reason of State
Aristotelian/Aretaic
Thucydides/Historical
Hobbes' State of Nature in World Politics
Lockean Liberalism: Rights & Obligations
Marx & Lenin: Socialist Ethics
Michael Walzer, Ethics & Just War
February 7: Hamlet & Tragedy (Take Home Essay)
February 14: Thucydides: Justice & Power (Student Presentation)
Paper Proposals Due
February 21: Immanuel Kant: Liberalism & Perpetual Peace
February 28: Machiavelli and the Ethics of Evil (Student Presentation)
March 8: Judgment at Nuremberg & War Crimes (Take-Home Essay)
March 15: Adolph Eichmann ( Student Presentation)
March 16-24 : Spring Recess
March 28: Ethical Cases in American Foreign Policy (Student Presentation)
April 4: Promoting Human Rights in Foreign Policy (Student Presentation)
April 11: Roundatable Discussion of Ethical Topics (Carnegie Journal)
April 18: Research Paper Presentations
April 25: Research Paper Presentations (Distribution of Final Exam Review)
May 2: Final Examination
May 3: Papers Due
Seminar Grades
20% Paper
20% Oral Presentation of Paper
20% Oral Presentations of Books & Assigned Topics
20% Movie Essays
20% Final Examination