IAFS 4500/The Post-Cold War World

Fall 2011

Instructor: Dr. Gregory D. Young

Office: Ketchum Hall, Room 4A

Office Phone: (303) 492-4265

E-mail: gyoung@colorado.edu

Lecture Times: Tuesdays and Thursdays 12:30-1:45pm in Hellums Hall 263

Syllabus: http://socsci.colorado.edu/~gyoung/home/4500/4500_syl.htm

Office Hours: Tuesdays & Thursdays 11:00-12:30 or by appointment

COURSE LINKS

· Weekly Thought Paper Questions

· Schedule for Current Event Presentations

· Schedule and Links to Course Reading Summaries

· Link to Potential Midterm Questions

· Midterm Grading Statistical Summary

· Link to Take-Home Final Exam Question

Course Objectives and Description

Almost twenty years have passed since the end of the Cold War, but we are still struggling to understand the nature of the world that has emerged in its wake. What are now the main sources of conflict in the “new world order”, now that the fifty-year bipolar standoff between the U.S. and the USSR has dissolved? Is terrorism of the kind exhibited on 9/11 the biggest threat to global security or is there a new, more sinister threat from weapons of mass destruction? This course is going to focus on the weapons of mass destruction that defined the “balance of terror during the Cold War. Clearly before one can understand the most important global issues confronting the post-Cold War World, one must understand the Cold War. Therefore, the first part of the course will confront the origins of, dynamics during, and reasons for the end of the Soviet/U.S. balance of terror. The latter part will examine the role of WMD in the Post-Cold War world. The end result will be a paper/take-home final exam that attempts to define what exactly what the new world order is and what should be the new paradigm for global interaction.

Course Requirements

Required Reading

There are no textbooks to purchase for this class. All course readings (and a World Atlas) delineated in the course schedule are available at the following online site to which all students will subscribe: http://www.americaandtheworld.com. This site (AATW) provides both distribution and reference for this course, but also copyright payment for the articles you will read. Access to this website will be purchased for $45.00. Access will be explained in detail in class. The readings for this course are interdisciplinary, including works from political science, history, economics and geography. All of the readings are required Other readings will be linked to this syllabus.

READINGS AND CLASS PARTICIPATION

It is essential that students attend every class and be on time. Regular attendance and active participation in any class discussion will enhance your understanding of the course material and almost certainly improve your performance on the midterm exam, weekly papers and on your final paper, which are together worth 80% of the course grade. Attendance is also a large portion of your 10% participation grade. More than five unexcused absences will result in a failing grade in the course. Notifying your instructor by email prior to class will constitute an excused absence. Send email absence notifications to gyoung@colorado.edu. In this semester, the required readings range from 100 to 150 pages per week, as set out in the course schedule. Students should come to class having already completed (and thought carefully about) the assigned reading for each class period.

MIDTERM EXAM AND TAKE-HOME FINAL EXAM

The midterm exam will be held during normal class time on Tuesday, October 18^th . The exam will consist of several terms and two essay questions. Students will write the exam in a BlueBook provided to the instructor at least one day in advance of the exam. The final exam will be a take-home essay due in the professor’s box by 4:30pm on the final exam day (Tuesday, December 13th). The question(s) for the final will be posted on the last class day. The final exam will also be graded on appropriated grammar, punctuation and spelling. The final exam grade will be reduced by 10% for every day that it is turned in late. The two exams are worth 50% of your final course grade.

WEEKLY THOUGHT PAPERS

At the end of lecture each Thursday, a thought question will be posed to the class and posted on the course web site. The question will relate to either the topic in that week’s lectures. Students will write a two-page, single-spaced (Approximately 900-1000 words) response to the question to turn in the following Thursday in class. Please include a word count on the first page. These papers should be properly documented and footnoted using the course readings. Papers will be graded 50% on content and 50% on grammar, punctuation and spelling. Late Papers will not be accepted unless prior arrangements have been made. On a random basis, electronic copies of these papers will be checked for plagiarism. There will be thirteen questions posted. Each student must answer at least six of them. Students completing fewer than six will have zeros averaged in with their grades on the completed papers. Those students completing more than six will only have six best grades included. These thought papers account for 30% of your final course grade.

READING SUMMARY

For each section of the reading, an assigned student(s) will summarize the readings due in class that day. In a 3-4 page synopsis of each assigned set of articles or chapters, the designated student will give an overview of the key points of the reading. The summary can either be in outline form or complete paragraphs. The summary should include an answer to the “so what?” question, in other words, why should one read it when studying about war and peace. On the due date, before the start of class, the students will submit both a paper copy and an electronic copy to their instructor. The instructor will post the summary on the web for the review of your classmates. These summaries will be 10% of your final grade and graded pass/fail. Late Reading Summaries will be docked 10% per class day up to 50%.

CURRENT EVENTS

Students should also follow contemporary world events by reading a reputable international news source, such as the New York Times on a regular basis. One to two students will present a current event orally in class each day. The presentation should be no more than five minutes in length. The source should be from a respected news source, be less than one week old and pertain in some way to global issue being discussed that week in the seminar. Each student should try to relate the article to some element of what we will be discussing in class. News reports on the Internet are acceptable sources. The current event presentation will be part of your 10% participation grade.

grading Criteria

Weekly Thought Papers (Best 7) 30%

Midterm Exam 25%

Take-Home Final Exam/Paper 25%

Reading Summaries 10%

Attendance, Current Event & participation 10%

Total 100%

Final Course Grades will be curved unless a straight 90/80/70/60 etc… proves more beneficial to the students (higher overall grade average). If curved, the mean overall average will become the highest C+ grade, and two standard deviations below the mean will be necessary to fail the course. One standard deviation about the mean becomes the criteria for an A grade. The grading policy will be explained in detail on the first day of class.

Fall 2011 Course Schedule

Day/Date	Topic/Event	Assigned Reading Due
Tuesday 23 Aug	Course Intro & Administration	None
Thursday 25 Aug	The End of the Cold War and New Paradigms for Global Interaction (Part I)	· Samuel Huntington “Clash of Civilizations” Foreign Affairs · Francis Fukuyama “The End of History” · Benjamin Barber “Jihad v. McWorld” · Robert Kaplan “The Coming Anarchy” The Atlantic Monthly, · Joseph S. Nye “A New World Order” in Nye (Ed). Understanding International Conflicts: An Introduction to Theory and History, 1997
Tuesday 30 Aug	History of the Cold War: Origins of the Cold War History of the Cold War Movie: “War & Peace in the Nuclear Age – Dawn”	· David Painter(1999), Chapter 2 in The Cold War: An International History.
Thursday 1 Sep	History of the Cold War: MacCarthyism and “Thinking the Unthinkable”	· David Painter(1999), Chapter 3 in The Cold War: An International History.
Tuesday 6 Sep	History of the Cold War Arms Control	· David Painter(1999), Chapter 4 in The Cold War: An International History.
Thursday 8 Sep	History of the Cold War U.S. Cold War Defense Policy Thought Paper 1 Due	· Richard Smoke, (1993), Chapter 4, “America fashions its national security”, in National Security and the Nuclear Dilemma.
Tuesday 13 Sep	History of the Cold War Détente	· David Painter(1999), Chapter 5 in The Cold War: An International History.
Thursday 15 Sep	History of the Cold War Nuclear Weapons & the Nuclear Arsenals Thought Paper 2 Due	· William Arkin &Richard Fieldhouse Chapter 3 “Nuclear Arsenals” in Nuclear Battlefields
Tuesday 20 Sep	History of the Cold War: The End of the Cold War	· David Painter(1999), Chapter 6 in The Cold War: An International History
Thursday 22 Sep	Nuclear War Movie: “Dr. Strangelove” (Excerpts Thought Paper 3 Due	None
Tuesday 27 Sep	Nuclear War Thinking the Unthinkable	· Herman Kahn (1984), “Thinking about the unthinkable” Part One in Thinking About The Unthinkable in the 1980s, · Henry Kissinger (1957) “The Fires of Prometheus” in Nuclear Weapons and Foreign Policy
Thursday 29 Sep	Nuclear War How it might begin Thought Paper 4 Due	· Harvard Nuclear Study Group “How Might Nuclear War Begin” in The Nuclear Reader
Tuesday 4 Oct	Nuclear War Nuclear Winter	· Carl Sagan (1989), “Nuclear War and Climatic Catastrophe: A Nuclear Winter.” In The Nuclear Reader. · Starley Thompson & Stephen Schneider (1989), “Nuclear Winter Reappraised” In The Nuclear Reader.
Thursday 6 Oct	Nuclear War By Accident Thought Paper 5 Due	· Bruce G. Blair (1993), Introduction to The Logic of Accidental Nuclear War
Tuesday 11 Oct	Strategy for Nuclear War	· Theodore Draper “Nuclear Temptations: Doctrinal Issues in the Strategic Debate.” In The Nuclear Reader · William Martel & Paul Savage, “Nuclear Strategy: What it is and Is Not” in The Nuclear Reader · Robert Jervis, “The Utility of Nuclear Deterrence” in The Use of Force
Thursday 13 Oct	Strategy for Nuclear War Thought Paper 6 Due	· National conference of Catholic Bishops, “Nuclear Strategy and the Challenge of Peace: The Moral Evaluation of Deterrence in Light of Policy Developments” in The Nuclear Reader
Tuesday 18 Oct	Midterm Examination	Study Study Study
Thursday 20 Oct	Nuclear Proliferation The NNPT Movie: “War & Peace in the Nuclear Age – Have and Have Not” Thought Paper 7 Due	· Ian Smart (1989), “Pinioning the Genie: International Checks on the Spread of Nuclear Weapons” In The Nuclear Reader.
Tuesday 25 Oct	Nuclear Proliferation Which is better more or less? In Class Debate	· Scott Sagan & Kenneth Waltz (2003), Chapter 1 & 2 in The Spread of Nuclear Weapons: A Debate Renewed
Thursday 27 Oct	Nuclear Proliferation India & Pakistan Thought Paper 8 Due	· Jaswant Singh (1998), “Against Nuclear Apartheid” Foreign Affairs · Kenneth Waltz, “Nuclear Stability in South Asia” in The Use of Force · Scott Sagan, “Nuclear Instability in South Asia” in The Use of Force
Tuesday 1 Nov	Nuclear Proliferation Iran Go Over Midterm Exam	· Ehsaneh I. Sadr, “The Impact of Iran’s Nuclearization on Israel” in The Use of Force
Thursday 3 Nov	Nuclear Proliferation North Korea Thought Paper 9 Due	· Broad, “Hidden Travels of the Bomb”, New York Times, Tues 9 Dec 08 · Robert Kaplan “When North Korea Falls
Tuesday 8 Nov	Chemical & Biological Weapons	· Gregory Koblentz, “Pathogens as Weapons: The International Security Implications of Biological Weapons” in The Use of Force. · Jean Pascal Zanders, (1999) “ Assessing the Risk of Chemical and Biological Weapons Proliferation to Terrorists” in The Nonproliferation Review.
Thursday 10 Nov	Military Utility of WMD Thought Paper 10 Due	· Robert McNamara (1989), The Military Role of Nuclear Weapons: Perceptions and Misperceptions.” In The Nuclear Reader. · Kanti Bajpai (2001), “The Military Utility of Nuclear Weapons” Pugwash Conference
Tuesday 15 Nov	Defensive Systems ABM & Star Wars	· Robert Bowman, “The objectives of ballistic missile defense.” In The Nuclear Reader. · Robert McNamara “The Star Wars Defense System: A Technical Note” in The Nuclear Reader
Thursday 17 Nov	Defensive Systems (cont.) Movie: “War and Peace in the Nuclear Age - Reagan’s Shield” Thought Paper 11 Due
Tue/Thu 22-24 Nov	Fall Break	None
Tuesday 29 Nov	WMD in Terrorist Hands “The Sum of all Fears”	· Graham Allison (2004), Part One “Inevitable” in Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe · Walter Laquer (1999), Weapons of Mass Destruction in The New Terrorism.
Thursday 1 Dec	The Future of WMD/ Nuclear Weapons Thought Paper 12 Due	· Thomas Schelling (2009), “A World without Nuclear Weapons”, Daedalus · Wall St. Journal “A World Free of Nuclear Weapons” January 4, 2007 · John Mueller (1988), “The Essential Irrelevance of Nuclear Weapons: Stability in the Postwar World.” International Security. · McGeorge Bundy “The Unimpressive Record of Atomic Diplomacy” in The Use of Force, (2009)
Tuesday 6 Dec	Obama and Strategic Weapons NEW START Video: President Obama’s speech on nuclear weapons in Prague 2010 Movie: Dawn of the Nuclear Age – Visions of War and Peace	· Mary Beth Sheridan, “The nuclear arms policy shoes limits U.S. faces? The Washington Post, April 7, 2010 · C. Dale Walton and Colin S. Gray (2007). “The Second Nuclear Age: Nuclear Weapons in the Twenty-First Century” in Strategy in the Contemporary World
Thursday 8 Dec	Make Up Day and Review for Final Exam Thought Paper 13 Due
Tuesday 13 Dec	Take-home Final Exam due	Study, Study, Study

ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION:

CELLULAR TELEPHONE/LAPTOP COMPUTER POLICY

Needless to say, all cellular phones must be turned off and put away at the beginning of each class meeting. Classes failing to comply will be issued a stern warning on the first occasion. The entire class will have a pop quiz over the previous reading assignments/lectures on the second and subsequent occurrences. Phones, PDAs, MP3 players and Blackberrys will not be out on desks or used during any quiz or examination. Laptop computers will be allowed in class, I still believe that they can assist learning in the classroom. However, if abuse of the privilege appears to be a distraction in class, then they will be banned.

Students With Disabilities

If you qualify for accommodations because of a disability, please submit to me a letter from Disability Services in a timely manner so that your needs be addressed. Disability Services determines accommodations based on documented disabilities. Contact: 303-492-8671, Willard 322, and www.Colorado.EDU/disabilityservices 
Disability Services' letters for students with disabilities indicate legally mandated reasonable accommodations. The syllabus statements and answers to Frequently Asked Questions can be found at www.colorado.edu/disabilityservices 

Cheating and Plagiarism

Cheating (using unauthorized materials or giving unauthorized assistance during an examination or other academic exercise) and plagiarism (using another's ideas or words without acknowledgment) are serious offenses in a university, and may result in a failing grade for a particular assignment, a failing grade for the course, and/or suspension for various lengths of time or permanent expulsion from the university. All students of the University of Colorado at Boulder are responsible for knowing and adhering to the academic integrity policy of this institution. Violations of this policy may include: cheating, plagiarism, aid of academic dishonesty, fabrication, lying, bribery, and threatening behavior. All incidents of academic misconduct shall be reported to the Honor Code Council (honor@colorado.edu; 303-725-2273). Students who are found to be in violation of the academic integrity policy will be subject to both academic sanctions from the faculty member and non-academic sanctions (including but not limited to university probation, suspension, or expulsion). Other information on the Honor Code can be found at http://www.colorado.edu/policies/honor.html and at http://www.colorado.edu/academics/honorcode/

The development of the Internet has provided students with historically unparalleled opportunities for conducting research swiftly and comprehensively. The availability of these materials does not, however, release the student from appropriately citing sources where appropriate; or applying standard rules associated with avoiding plagiarism. Specifically, the instructor will be expecting to review papers written by students drawing ideas and information from various sources (cited appropriately), presented generally in the student’s words after careful analysis, synthesis, and evaluation. An assembly of huge blocks of other individuals' existing material, even when cited, does not constitute an appropriate representation of this expectation. Uncited, plagiarized material shall be treated as academically dishonest, and the paper will be assigned an ‘F’ as a result. Papers submitted by any student, written in part or in whole by someone other than that student, shall be considered to constitute fraud under the University Honor Code, and result in the assignment of an 'F' for the entire course. If the student is confused as to what constitutes plagiarism, he/she should review the CU Honor Code on this topic. If you have any questions regarding proper documentation in your writing, please discuss it with your instructor.

RELIGIOUS OBSERVANCES

The university has received valid complaints from students regarding the lack of adequate faculty accommodation for some students who have serious religious obligations, which may conflict with academic requirements such as scheduled exams. Campus policy regarding religious observances requires that faculty make every effort to deal reasonably and fairly with all students who, because of religious obligations, have conflicts with scheduled exams, assignments or required attendance. In this class, any notification of absence by email constitutes and excused absence. See full details at: http://www.colorado.edu/policies/fac_relig.html 
A comprehensive calendar of the religious holidays most commonly observed by CU-Boulder students is at http://www.interfaithcalendar.org/ 

SEXUAL HARASSMENT

The University of Colorado Policy on Sexual Harassment applies to all students, staff and faculty. Sexual harassment is unwelcome sexual attention. It can involve intimidation, threats, coercion, or promises or create an environment that is hostile or offensive. Harassment may occur between members of the same or opposite gender and between any combination of members in the campus community: students, faculty, staff, and administrators. Harassment can occur anywhere on campus, including the classroom, the workplace, or a residence hall. Any student, staff or faculty member who believes s/he has been sexually harassed should contact the Office of Sexual Harassment (OSH) at 303-492-2127 or the Office of Judicial Affairs at 303-492-5550. Information about the OSH and the campus resources available to assist individuals who believe they have been sexually harassed can be obtained at http://www.colorado.edu/odh/

BASIC COURTESY TO YOUR CLASSMATE AND YOUR INSTRUCTORS

Please arrive on time and do not leave early. If you absolutely must leave early, please let me know at the beginning of class and sit near a door so you do not cause too much disruption. Similarly, if arriving late, please take a seat as quickly and quietly as possible. Take care of all your business before class begins; do not leave and return during class as this creates a disturbance to others.

Taking this course signifies acceptance of the terms and conditions stated in this syllabus.