Course Description: Political relations between the United States and Europe in the 20th and 21st centuries will be examined in this course, with focus on economic and security issues.  US-European diplomacy before and during the two world wars and cold war will be considered, along with the US-European relationship in the contemporary era.  Conflict and cooperation between the US and European powers in the Balkans, Afghanistan, and Iraq will be among the contemporary issues examined.  Current trade disputes, the future of the European Union and its implications for American foreign policy, and the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will also be considered.  In keeping with the goals of the FYS, we will use a variety of written and oral assignments and work through the stages of writing and revising a substantial research paper.

Requirements: Grading will be based on: four written reactions to assigned readings (50%) of roughly 4 pages each; a final paper (25%) of roughly 10-12 pages which will expand upon on of the short papers, due on May 4; a preliminary outline of this paper with thesis statement and list of sources (10%); and class participation (15%), which is expected to be informed, thoughtful, and frequent.  At a minimum, I expect you to be in class, having completed and carefully considered the assigned reading, and prepared to respond to specific questions and engage in discussion.

Required Texts:

• Wesley Bagby, America's International Relations Since World War I.  Oxford, 1999.  ISBN: 019512389
• Laurent Cohen-Tanugi, Alliance at Risk: The United States and Europe Since September 11. Johns Hopkins, 2003.  ISBN: 0801878411
• Philip Gordon and Jeremy Shapiro, Allies at War: America, Europe, and the Crisis over Iraq.  McGraw Hill, 2004.  ISBN: 0071441204
• Frank McDonough, The Origins of the First and Second World Wars (Cambridge Perspectives in History). Cambridge, 1997.  ISBN: 0521568617

January 24-28: Introduction: French and EU Politics
    Rourke, "International Organization: Focus on the European Union."
    Economist, articles on French and EU politics.
    Breyer, “Europe’s Constitution.”
    Savage, “Europe and Islam.”
    Pond, “Europe’s Shock and Awe.”
    Cohen-Tanugi, An Alliance at Risk, 1-20, 61-89.
 

January 31-February 4: World War I
    McDonough, The Origins of the First and Second World Wars, 1-42.
    Bagby, America's International Relations Since WWI, 18-49.

February 7-11: World War II
    McDonough, The Origins of the First and Second World Wars, 43-115.
    Bagby, America's International Relations Since WWI, 73-130.

February 14-18: Break

February 21-25: Paris

February 28-March 4: The Cold War to 1980
    Bagby, America's International Relations Since WWI, 137-160, 199-227, 237-247, 261-263, 267-274, 294-303.

March 7-11: The Cold War and its Aftermath, 1969-2005
    Bagby, America's International Relations Since WWI, 320-326, 335-338, 349-366, 379-387, 397-403.
    Gordon and Shapiro, Allies at War, 19-71.
 

March 14-18: The Balkans
    Bass, “Milosevic at the Hague.”
    Daalder, “The United States, Europe, and the Balkans.”
    Liotta, “After Kosovo.”
    McMahon, “International Involvement in Bosnia.”

March 21-25: The Euro and Issues in EU-US Trade
    Umbach, “EU’s Links with China.”
    Mundell, "Significance of the Euro."
    Economist, "Dangerous Activities."

March 28-April 1: Iraq and Afghanistan
    Gordon and Shapiro, Allies at War, 75-221.
    Whitmore (Globe), “NATO in Afghanistan.”

April 4-8: Africa and the Middle East
    Cordesman, “NATO in the Middle East.”
    Elbe, “HIV/AIDS and the Changing Landscape of War in Africa”
    Kemp, “Europe’s Middle East Challenges.”
    Toungara, “Ethnicity in Cote D’Ivoire.”
    Research paper outline with preliminary thesis statement and bibliography due.

April 11-22: Senegal/Break
    Chafer, “France and Senegal: The End of the Affair?”
    Galvan, “Social and Political Turnover in Senegal.”

April 25-29: The Future of NATO and the EU
    Cimbalo, “Saving NATO from Europe.”
    Everts, “The EU’s New Security Strategy.”
    Robertson, “Our Grandchildren’s NATO.”
    de Wijk, “European Military Reform for a Global Partnership”
    Cohen-Tanugi, An Alliance at Risk, 46-60, 111-134.

May 2-4: Final Exams

May 6: Depart

  First year seminars are intended to refine and expand the research and communictation skills developed in the first year fall course.  Toward this end, in this and all first year seminars, students will be:
a) given diverse and repeated opportunities to write and speak, including opportunities to benefit from detailed formative feedback from instructors and peers.
b) asked to assess adequately the research requirements of a particular assignment and to seek out efficiently the means of meeting those requirements.
c) given diverse opportunities to incorporate appropriate illustrative or persuasive detail in oral and written communication
d) required to complete at least one and no more than two projects comprising some combination of formal and informal oral, written, and research activities that demonstrate a satisfactory grasp of the program’s communication goals.
e) instructed in and held responsible for the ethical use of sources.
f) required to assemble all their work in a portfolio that includes a written assessment of that work, and to submit the completed portfolio to their faculty for review.

  For your paper due May 4, you will be expected to research and write an argumentative essay on an issue of your choice in US-European relations, past or present.  Consult with me early and often as you consider possible topics and begin to write.  I can't tell you what to write about, but I will give you my opinion of ideas you may have, and possibly suggest other approaches to the topic you want to discuss.  This assignment requires you to assert your thoughts and opinions about a particular topic in the news in a knowledgeable way, and to support your argument with substantial research.  In many cases, you will find it useful to begin your research by consulting periodicals like the  Economist, Foreign Affairs or Foreign Policy.  While research on the internet is expected and encouraged, it is not sufficient.  Significant evidence from a variety of scholarly sources (books and peer-reviewed journal articles) is expected.

 As you begin to write, your first and foremost concern should be, "what is my argument?"  Do not start to type until you know what your paper is about and you have a clearly formulated thesis statement.  This should be one sentence, stating concisely and specifically the point your paper will be trying to prove.  It should be a debatable point (a good thesis is not obvious or self-evident), which declares your opinion in precise detail.  This statement should appear very early in your paper--ideally in the first paragraph--and every sentence that follows should be intended to prove it.  Outline your argument carefully and in detail before you begin writing, and after letting the reader know what you intend to prove, let them know how you intend to prove it in a few sentences.  Do not spend time on general introductory or concluding paragraphs which are only loosely related to your thesis.

 Proofread your essay carefully before you submit it, or better still, have someone else read it and critique it.  Note that proofreading and spell-checking are not the same thing, and both are required.  You are not being graded primarily on style, but a disjointed, muddled presentation can very definitely make your argument unclear and ineffective, for which you will lose points.

  Provide citations if you directly quote a source, paraphrase an argument found elsewhere, or refer to factual information which is not common knowledge.  Citations may be parenthetical in the paper's text, footnotes, or endnotes.  Form is your choice; I have no preference as long as it is consistent throughout the paper.  Citations should include (or refer to a bibliographical reference which includes) the author's full name, title of the work, publisher and date of publication, and page number.  Citations from the Internet should provide, in a footnote or endnote, the exact web address and date accessed.

 Use 12 point type and one inch margins on the top, bottom, and both sides of the page.  Number your pages, and start counting with the first page of text.

 Papers must be submitted by 4:30 p.m. on May 4.  Extensions will be given only in cases of very serious illness or family emergency.  Computer problems are not an acceptable excuse.  No extensions will be given on December 16 under any circumstances.  Late papers will be penalized one half grade (.5 on the four-point scale ) per day late.

 You will be expected to hand in four short papers reacting to assigned course readings over the course of the semester.  The topics and due dates are up to you, though the first two of these papers must be submitted by the week of March 14, and the second two must be submitted between March 21 and April 25.

 These papers should be roughly 4 pages (double-spaced) in length, and do not need to refer to any additional research beyond the assigned class readings for that week.  As with the longer paper described above, they should begin with a focused, coherent thesis and be organized throughout to prove that point.  They should reflect a careful examination of the entire reading assignment for that week, and should argue a point which reflects the student's agreement, disagreement, or expansion upon some aspect of that material.  Think of this assignment as an invitation to ask what you consider to be a useful discussion question about a given week's topic, and to compose your own answer to that question.  You are also strongly encouraged to use this assignment to criticize points made in the texts with which you disagree.

 The structure and composition of these essays is very much your choice, and you should make every effort to think and write creatively about the topics raised in the readings.  You should also feel free to contact me at any point before these essays are submitted with questions or ideas you'd like to discuss.

 These papers must be handed in at the beginning of class on the first class meeting of the week in which the reading assignment you are writing about is to be discussed.  This means you will be submitting a paper a given topic on the day we begin discussing that topic in class, not afterward.  Late papers will be penalized .5 per day late, as described above.  The standards for editing and style described above also apply.