Teaching
Instructor of Record (Student Evaluations)
This course focuses on the institution of the U.S. presidency, with a focus on the development of the office over time, executive power, and the president's relationship with other key actors. In the first class, we will explore the origins of the office itself and how it has evolved into the “modern presidency.” We will then move quickly into campaigning, the nomination process, and elections. Thereafter, we will spend time focusing on presidential power and--after briefly considering the role of the vice presidency--we will examine the executive’s relationship with the American people, Congress, and the courts. Lastly, we will critically examine the thesis of the “Two Presidencies” and look at the power of the president in controlling the foreign policy of the United States.
Instructor of Record (Student Evaluations)
Course Description: The period of heightened geopolitical tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union known as the Cold War lasted from the end of the Second World War to the early 1990's. The Cold War, however, had causes existing long prior to the 1940's, and likewise yielded effects that still exist with us today. Geographically, the conflict touched nations far from the Iron Curtain, including states in Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Africa. What caused the Cold War to begin? What led it to end? In what ways is the Cold War analogous, or not, to U.S.-China competition today, and are we now in a "New Cold War"?
Instructor: Glenn Smith
Course Description: This course provides an introduction to major theoretical and practical issues in American constitutional law and politics. In particular, the course will focus on the role of the Supreme Court in the American political and legal process---and on the distribution of power among federal-government branches and between the federal government and state governments.
GPS/Political Science 400: International Relations of the Asia-Pacific (Fall 2020)
The United States Congress is the most studied branch of U.S. Government, and it is central to our understanding of policy, elections, and representative democracy. The purpose of this course is to examine two fundamental questions: (1) what do members of Congress do and why and (2) how do the individual and collective actions of members of Congress explain national policy? We will examine the process of legislating as well as the role of political parties, leaders, and interest groups. Throughout, we will study how Congress has evolved and consider its
effectiveness as an institution. This course will examine the nomination and election of members of Congress, constituent relationships, the development of the institution, formal and informal structures, leadership, comparisons of House with Senate, lobbying, and relationship with the executive branch. We will also compare the role of Congress in domestic policy to its role in foreign policy.
Instructor of Record
Why do wars happen? This course surveys the major explanations for the outbreak of war across levels of analysis — human nature and individual leaders, domestic politics and regime type, and the structure of the international system. We examine bargaining and information failures, commitment problems, the role of nuclear weapons, and the debate over whether war between major powers has become obsolete, testing each account against historical cases from the First World War to the present.
Instructor of Record
Who decides when the United States goes to war? This course examines the constitutional allocation of the war powers between Congress and the president, the historical practice that has grown up around it, and the gap between the two. Students work directly with the constitutional text, Youngstown and its progeny, Office of Legal Counsel opinions, the War Powers Resolution, and the authorizations for the use of military force Congress has actually passed — from the Gulf of Tonkin through the post-9/11 AUMFs and recent debates over Iran.
Instructor of Record
An introduction to how lawyers and judges reason: the structure of legal arguments, reasoning by analogy and precedent, statutory and constitutional interpretation, and the role of policy in judicial decision-making. Students learn to read cases closely, identify holdings and dicta, construct and attack arguments, and write in the forms the profession uses.
Instructor of Record
When, if ever, is it permissible to go to war, and what may be done in fighting one? This course examines the just war tradition from its classical and religious origins through contemporary debates, covering jus ad bellum, jus in bello, and jus post bellum. Topics include humanitarian intervention, preventive war, targeted killing, drone warfare, civilian immunity, and the relationship between the moral tradition and the modern law of armed conflict.
International Studies 102: International Relations of the Asia-Pacific (Winter 2018, Spring 2019, Fall 2019)
Instructor: Steph Haggard (Student Evaluations: 2018, 2019S, 2019F)
Course Description: This course provides a survey of some key issues in the international relations of the Asia-Pacific. The course is divided into four modules: a) historical background and theories for thinking about the international relations of the region, focusing particularly on the rise of China, b) a look at key strategic relationships, covering the main actors: the US, China, Japan, Taiwan, the two Koreas and Southeast Asia, c) a consideration of how economic interdependence and institutions affect diplomacy and the prospects for conflict and cooperation, and d) a look at some key military-strategic issues: the prospect for arms races, the South China Sea and the new questions arising out of the cyber domain.
GPPS 407: The International Relations and National Security of China (Winter 2021, Winter 2023)
GPPS 443: U.S. National Security and Decision Making (Winter 2019, Winter 2022, Winter 2023)
Instructor: Vice Admiral Robert Thomas (Instructor Evaluation)
Course Description: The course provides a practitioner’s perspective on the methodologies of and influences on decision making in the US national security apparatus. It provides the skills for analyzing the interactions among the executive, legislative, interagency stakeholders, the media, intelligence community, and the military and its supporting industrial complex. We will look at decisional influences and biases that led to key national security decisions, beginning with the 1947 National Security Act.
GPCO 467: Policy Responses to Global Problems (Winter 2019)
Instructors: Barbara Walter and Weiyi Shi
Course Description: This capstone is designed to test the analytic skills of students, using them to explain complex real-world problems: security, persistent recurring conflict, persistent inequality and intergenerational debt, women’s rights, environmental change, energy/resource systems, and financial contagion. Emphasis will be placed on determining the nature and dimension of the problem, exploring a range of solutions and assessing the capacity of public institutions.