Domestic Influences on Foreign Policy

Catalog description

This course will examine how domestic politics influences the formulation and implementation of foreign policy in the United States and other major powers. INTAF 508 Domestic Influences on Foreign Policy (3) This course will examine how domestic politics influences the formulation and implementation of foreign policy in the United States and other countries. Among the factors considered will be the role of lobbyists, special interests and bureaucratic politics. Among the major topics covered will be national identity, the politics of national security since World War II, foreign policy formulation in China, the domestic sources of American foreign policy, case studies in buying influence, the influence of think tanks, public opinion and ethnic groups, how other countries attempt to influence American foreign policy and how domestic groups in other countries try to influence their own foreign policy. This course will be extremely useful to any student wishing to understand how governments formulate and implement foreign policy and how that has been affected by domestic politics in the past and today. Students will learn about the history of political influences on foreign policy and how that had changed over time, especially since the end of the Cold War. Students will also develop their ability to think critically and to apply that thinking to historical and present-day examples of interest groups influencing foreign policy. The course will also emphasize professional skills including the development of the student's ability to write and to make in-class presentations.