Postgraduate Course: U.S. Grand Strategy and Foreign Policy (PGSP11618)
Course Outline
| School | School of Social and Political Science |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course will analyse the competing explanations for historical and contemporary U.S. foreign policies. It will encourage you to explain and evaluate competing strategies for how the U.S. can best achieve its foreign policy goals across a range of issues and regions. It will also examine the foreign policy process to debate the relative influence of government bodies and other actors on the policy-making process. |
| Course description |
The course will be divided into three sections. The first will discuss the insights of the main IR theoretical traditions (including traditional and critical approaches) and cover the debate over which grand-strategy the US should adopt to achieve its foreign policy goals. The second will take an in-depth look at the principal actors and influences in the US foreign policy decision making process. The third section will analyse a variety of US foreign policies focused on regions (eg. Europe and the Middle East), themes (eg. military intervention or the environment) or issues of topical importance (eg. rise of China).
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | None |
| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2024/25, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 30 |
| Course Start |
Semester 1 |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
200
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 30,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 4,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
166 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
90 %,
Practical Exam
10 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
Essay 1 (1500 words) 35%
Policy Brief (2500 words) 55%
Seminar participation 10% |
| Feedback |
Essay 1 will be returned before the essay deadline to give students feedback on their writing before the Policy Brief is due. |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Develop an advanced critical understanding of the principal theories and concepts related to US grand strategy foreign policy.
- Evaluate current US foreign policies across a range of issues and topics.
- Critically analyze the US foreign policy-making process and the principal political forces that influence it.
- Communicate through empirically grounded and theoretically informed written work and discussions, their understanding of US grand strategy and foreign policy.
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Reading List
Brands, Hal (2014) What Good is Grand Strategy? Cornell University Press
Cox, Michael and Doug Stokes (eds.) (2018) U.S. Foreign Policy, Oxford University Press.
Hook, Stephen and Christopher Jones (eds.) (2012) Routledge Handbook of American Foreign Policy, Routledge.
Parmar, Inderjeet (ed.) (2014) Obama and the world: new directions in US foreign policy. Second edition. New York: Routledge.
Reveron, Derek S., Nikolas K. Gvosdev and John A. Cloud (eds.) (2018) The Oxford Handbook of US National Security, Oxford University Press.
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Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
By the end of the course students will have strengthened their skills in:
- Critical thinking through the analysis of US grand strategy and foreign policy
- Research skills through the execution of a research essay and policy brief
- Effective communication skills through discussion, debate, and small-group work
- Working with others in small-group activities and presentations. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Stephen Hill
Tel: (0131 6)51 5362
Email: stephen.hill@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr John Riddell
Tel: (0131 6)50 9975
Email: John.Riddell@ed.ac.uk |
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