This is a course description, but it is
not the course website for
Political Science 552. The URL for the course website is on the reading
list handed out in class.
Political Science
552,
Autumn 2008 18280-1
Ohio State University,
Columbus,
Ohio
Security Policy During and After the Cold War
Monday, Wednesday 11:00-12:48 Postle Hall 1180
John Mueller
Derby 2112 and Mershon
Center
(8th and Neil) 220D
Department of Political
Science
614-247-6007
614-292-2407 (fax)
bbbb@osu.edu
http://psweb.sbs.ohio-state.edu/faculty/jmueller
The course will deal with national security and military policy issues as they have emerged and changed during and after the Cold War. Of central concern will be considerations about how external threats are identified and the reactions (or overreactions) they inspire. The material will be presented roughly in chronological order beginning with the framing of the containment and deterrence policies at the end of World War II and concluding with an examination of national security policy issues confronting the United States and the world at the present time. Included will be discussions of such concerns as the Korean War, the Berlin and Cuban crises, Vietnam, the Iran hostage crisis, the demise of the Cold War and of the Soviet Union, the unification of Europe, ethnic conflict, economic sanctions, and the rise of democracy and capitalism on a global basis. There will be extensive consideration of terrorism and of the efforts to counter it, of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and of the potential for the proliferation of "weapons of mass destruction." Of particular interest, as well, will be an assessment of broad historical trends as they have played out since 1945.
The course will be in lecture format, with opportunity for questions and discussion. There will be considerable use of Powerpoint slides as well as documentary material on videotape.
Grading. There
will
be a midterm (October 27) and a final examination (December 10). The
exams will be about
half objective (short answer, identification, etc.) and half essay.
Copies
of previous exams will be available on the course website.
Books.
Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al-Qaeda and
the Road to 9/11 (either the hard cover or paperback
edition is OK) (the paperback edition is available for $10.85 at
amazon.com)
Robert C. DiPrizio,
Armed Humanitarians
John Mueller, Overblown (available for $16.50 at amazon.com)
Robert H. Johnson, Improbable Dangers This book is available 1) on the web at no charge in PDF form through http://psweb.sbs.ohio-state.edu/faculty/jmueller/books.htm 2) on reserve as a book at Sullivant Library, or 3) as a coursepack at Uniprint (Tuttle) or online at uniprint.owu.edu/