DRAFT SYLLABUS
Of the many influences on the US foreign
policy formulation, the role of think tanks is among the most important and
appreciated.
Richard N. Haass
The current president of CFR and a former Director of Policy and
Planning - U.S. Department of State
Course Description and Objective:
Particularly after the 1929 economic crisis, and the move
from Keynesian capitalism to the neoliberal era in the second half of the 20th
century, we started to see the materialization of political institutions above
and beyond the state bureaucracy. The result was the Washington Consensus,
which created the World Bank and the IMF. Over the next half-century, the world
economic community was dominated by the policies of these institutions. In the
1950s, we also saw the birth of the European Union as a new political actor
within world politics. This led to the rise of regional economic, political and
cultural competition over economic resources.
Think tanks (semi-governmental institutions) are the other
important economic and political actors within and between the modern
nation-state. We will review the concept of the nation-state in this class. The
emergence of think tanks or policy institutes dates back to the time of imperial
Britain. These institutions were affiliated with security studies at the
beginning stages of their emergence because they support the colonial dream of
imperialism; however, this has changed slightly with the establishment of
American think tanks and the rise of the US as a global power. Hence, the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (1910), the Brookings Institute
(1916), the Hoover Institution (1919), The Century Foundation (1919), the Council
on Foreign Relations (1921) and the Rand Corporation (1946) were all founded in
the first half of the 20th century. They were, and still are
affiliated with the security establishment of the US. However, these
organizations started to play a more effective role within domestic politics in
the second half of the 20th century, because of the rise of the
neoliberal economy. Less Keynesianism in the modern American Economy led to an
increase in the power and number of these policy-oriented institutions, and
they expanded to the social and economic field within the US. As a result, the
Heritage Foundation (1973) and Cato Institute (1974) were established. However,
the power of think tanks did not become apparent until the first half of the
1980s. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, think tank politics began to
dominate the American political landscape inside
the beltway, taking on issues like drug policy to immigration, foreign
policy and health care. This power led to considerable attention from American
corporations. As a result of this trend, many more think tanks were
established, and some changed their structures to collaborate with and meet the
needs of corporations. Private funding has poured into these policy
institutions ever since, and the term, ‘inside the beltway politics,’ coined in
the 1980s and popularized in the 1990s, describes these circumstances. Today,
the power and role of think tanks cannot be ignored, and should be studied
academically from the standpoint of their origins, particularly their domestic
and now international political usage.
We will also study the emergence, development and role of
non-governmental organizations such as the Committee to Protect Journalists,
Doctors Without Borders, Mercy Corps, Amnesty International, and Human Rights
Watch. All of these organizations are fairly new to the global social and
political arena.
Required
Readings:
1. Think Tanks: The Brain Trusts of US Foreign Policy By Kubilay
Yado Arin (2014).
2.
International
Organizations: Politics, Law, Practice By Ian Hurd (2010). http://www.cambridge.org/us/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/international-relations-and-international-organisations/international-organizations-politics-law-practice
3. NGOization Complicity, Contradictions and Prospects (Edited)
By Aziz Choudry and Dip Kapoor (2013)
First Week
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· Introduction to Course and overview syllabus
· Behind Closed Doors: Elite Politics, Think-Tanks and
US Foreign Policy By Tugrul Keskin and Patrick Halpern (Posted on D2L)
· Methodological
Approach: Typologies of Think Tanks (Kubilay Yado Arin)
· Policy Communities,
Advocacy Coalitions and Epistemic Communities (Kubilay
Yado Arin)
· Introduction to the study of international organizations (Ian Hurd)
· A guide to the study of international organizations (Ian Hurd)
·
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Second Week
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· Do Think Tanks Matter? Opportunities, Constraints
and Incentives for Think
Tanks in Canada and the United States By
Donald E. Abelson
· Demanding Information: Think Tanks and the US
Congress. Anthony M. Bertelli and Jeffrey B. Wenger. (Posted on D2L)
·
The
Role of the Think Tanks in the US Foreign Policy. U.S. Foreign Policy Agenda
Volume 7 An Electronic Journal of the U.S. Department of State Number 3. http://photos.state.gov/libraries/vietnam/8621/translations/ej112002.pdf
· The World Trade Organization (Ian Hurd)
· Theoretical
Explanations for the Political Influence of Think Tanks (Kubilay Yado Arin)
· Fragmentation of the
Political System and Veto Players (Kubilay Yado Arin)
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Third Week
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· US Think Tanks and the Politics of Expertise: Role,
Value and Impact Mahmood Ahmad. (Posted on D2L)
· A Challenge to Washington Think Tanks Murray
Weidenbaum.
· The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank (Ian Hurd)
· CFR, Brookings and
the Neoconservative Advocacy Think Tanks (Kubilay Yado Arin)
· Elite Theory (Kubilay Yado Arin)
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Reflection Paper –
1
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Fourth Week
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· British think tanks: advancing the intellectual
debate? Philippa Sherrington. (Posted on D2L)
·
Players Beyond
Borders? German Think Tanks as Catalysts of Internationalisation. Martin
Thunert.
·
Think Tanks and
Their Impact. Robert O'neill.
· The United Nations I: law and administration (Ian Hurd)
· Government
Contractors - Frontrunners of the Military-Industrial Complex (Kubilay Yado Arin)
· Foundations,
Corporate Philanthropy and Political Advocacy
(Kubilay Yado Arin)
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Fifth Week
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· Think Tanks in Transitional China. Xufeng Zhu and Lan Xue.
· China's International Relations Think Tanks: Evolving Structure
and Process. David Shambaugh.
· China’s Foreign Policy Think Tanks: Changing Roles and
Structural Conditions. Pascal Abb. GIGA Research Unit: Institute of Asian
Studies No 213 January. http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2350136
· The Role of China’s Think Tanks in Policymaking.
Chinabusinessreview.com
· The United Nations II: international peace and security (Ian Hurd)
· Advocacy Tanks
Acting like Policy Entrepreneurs (Kubilay Yado Arin)
· The Role of
Neoconservative Think Tanks in US Foreign Policy (Kubilay Yado Arin)
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Reflection Paper – 2
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Sixth Week
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·
Does Israel
Need Think Tanks? by Hannah Elka Meyers. http://www.meforum.org/2061/does-israel-need-think-tanks
· The Israel Lobby John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt. http://www.lrb.co.uk/v28/n06/john-mearsheimer/the-israel-lobby
· The International Labor Organization (Ian Hurd)
· The Clinton
Administration (Kubilay Yado Arin)
· The Bush
Administration (Kubilay Yado Arin)
· Introduction - NGOization: Complicity,
Contradictions and Prospects - Aziz Choudry and Dip Kapoor
· Saving Biodiversity, for Whom and for What?
Conservation NGOs, Complicity, Colonialism and Conquest in an Era of
Capitalist Globalization - Aziz Choudry (Aziz Choudry and Dip Kapoor)
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Seventh Week
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·
The Ties That
Used to Bind The Decay of American Political Institutions. Francis Fukuyama. http://www.the-american-interest.com/articles/2013/12/08/the-decay-of-american-political-institutions/
·
Where Have All
the Lobbyists Gone? Lee Fang. http://www.thenation.com/article/178460/shadow-lobbying-complex
· International Court of Justice (Ian Hurd)
· The Bush Doctrine,
the Neoconservative Concept for Primacy? (Kubilay Yado Arin)
· The Neoconservative
Think Tanks, an Advocacy Coalition (Kubilay Yado Arin)
· Social Action and NGOization in Contexts of
Development Dispossession in Rural India: Explorations into the Un-civility
of Civil Society - Dip Kapoor (Aziz Choudry and Dip Kapoor)
· NGOs, Indigenous Peoples and the United Nations -
Sharon H. Venne (Aziz Choudry and Dip Kapoor)
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Reflection Paper – 3
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Eighth Week
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· The International Criminal Court (Ian Hurd)
· Conclusion: American
Politics and the War of Ideas (Kubilay Yado Arin)
· From Radical Movement to Conservative NGO and Back
Again? A Case Study of the Democratic Left (Aziz Choudry and Dip Kapoor)
Front in South Africa - Luke Sinwell (Aziz Choudry and Dip Kapoor)
· Philippine NGOs: Defusing Dissent, Spurring Change -
Sonny Africa (Aziz Choudry and Dip Kapoor)
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Ninth Week
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· Regional organizations: EU, AU and ASEAN (Ian Hurd)
· Disaster Relief, NGO-led Humanitarianism and the
Reconfiguration of Spatial Relations in Tamil Nadu - Raja Swamy (Aziz Choudry
and Dip Kapoor)
· Seven Theses on Neobalkanism and NGOization in
Transitional Serbia - Tamara Vukov (Aziz Choudry and Dip Kapoor)
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Reflection Paper – 4
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Tenth Week
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· Conclusion (Ian Hurd)
·
Emergence,
development and future trajectories of Civil Society and NGOs By Tugrul
Keskin
·
Peace-building
and Violence against Women: Tracking the Ruling Relations of Aid in a Women's
· Development NGO in Kyrgyzstan - Elena Kim and Marie
Campbell (Aziz Choudry and Dip Kapoor)
Alignment and Autonomy: Food Systems in Canada - Brewster Kneen (Aziz Choudry and Dip Kapoor) |
FINAL PAPER
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