Judith Stiehm
stiehmj@fiu.edu
DM 275
Office Hours TTH 4:00 and 8:00
and by appointment
Leah Blumenfeld, TA
lblum001@fiu.edu
DM 486B
Office hours TTH 3:30
and by appointment
Fall 2007
CPN 145
TTH 6:25-7:40
POT 4930
Political scientists often define the state as the institution which has a monopoly on the legitimate use of force. Then we never mention force again. We talk about presidents, legislatures, courts, public opinion, and policy; we may even talk about Thucydides, but you rarely hear about the police and even more rarely about the military, war, or peace. In some International Relations courses you may study “security” and, perhaps, even war and its causes. However, the perspective in an IR course tends to be that of an elite policy maker. The goal of this course is to look at war and peace from the perspective of the ordinary, voting citizen.
The military is the essential institution in war and an important one in maintaining peace. Much of the course will be devoted to it. Two other important approaches to our topic are diplomacy and peace activism. We will take a look at them as well. Prosperity, economic stability and economic linkage are important, but those topics will have to be saved for another day.
We will look at four major books: Fiasco by Tom Ricks, 15 Stars by Stanley Weintraub, Statecraft by Dennis Ross, and An Autobiography by Gandhi. Each of you will read ONE of these books and write a review. Attached to the last page of the review you will attach the definition of plagiarism from http://w3.fiu.edu/enc.Plagiarism.htm. In addition, all of you who have read a book will (collectively) give a presentation on that book to the class. Format to be decided among you.
There will be a map assignment and map quiz. Now that we live in a global world we need to know where things are! There are three books which everyone will read. Michael Herr's Dispatches, Thomas Barnett's Blueprint for Action, and my Champions for Peace.
Each of you will (Probably working in a team of two) also give a class presentation on a topic to be selected from the list below–or on a topic you propose and get approved. These presentations will be like a military brief: no longer than 15 minutes, crisp, and information packed.
In addition there will be a number of short reading assignments that you can get off the net. It is essential that you have easy and regular access to the net.
Be collecting useful websites, journals and think tanks. We will compile and distribute a list mid-semester.
In general you will see that on Tuesday you will be presenting, or there will be discussion of a reading assignment. On Thursday I will give a lecture.
Your grade will be computed as follows: