The Study of International Politics III: Foreign Policy Analysis
Course Organization
Professor:
Stephanie Hofmann
stephanie.hofmann@graduateinstitute.ch
(+41 22) 908 5918
Office Hours:
Rigot, 2
Thursday, 14:00 – 16:00
Course Description
This course is an introduction to ways of thinking critically about foreign policy analysis. With the help of historical as well as current examples, we will open up the "black box" of the State and question statist approaches to foreign policy. We will decompose the State into a set of organisations and institutions and assess their weight in foreign policy formulation.
Requirements and Assignments
There are four requirements for the class:
1. Active participation in the seminar discussions is required. Students are expected to attend every class having done the required readings in advance, and to participate actively in discussions.
2. Once during the semester each student will be assigned the role of “authors’ defendant” and should be able to defend the merits of the week’s readings in seminar.
3. Each student will write two weekly discussion papers in advance of our class. These papers should range between two and three double-spaced pages, and should be circulated to the entire class via email no later than two days before the class. They should not summarize the weekly readings, but develop an argument around a particular theme of the readings as well as offer some discussion questions.
4. Take-home exam. There will be a final take-home exam due in the last week of the semester. The questions will be provided one week before the exam is due.
Assignments (2) and (3) must be completed on separate weeks; otherwise said, you cannot fulfill both requirements with the same readings.
For purposes of evaluation, the exam is worth 50%, seminar participation counts for 20%, and the short discussion papers and “author’s defendant” assignment are each worth 10%.
