Course Description
How do leaders handle international crises? What pressures do they experience, what policy options do they have, and how do their choices affect crisis outcomes? We address these questions by examining how leaders within major states handled international crises during the period 1816-1948.
Athena Title
Crisis Diplomacy
Prerequisite
INTL 3200 or INTL 3200E or INTL 3300
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
At the conclusion of this course, students should be able to: Describe the characteristics of international crises; Explain the rational decision-making model and how decisions made during crises might deviate from it; Discuss the actors, issues, dynamics, and outcomes of numerous historical crises, including World War I, World War II, the Wars of Italian and German Unification, and the Crimean War (among others); Identify some factors that distinguish the crises that escalate to war from those that do not; Explain why decision-makers might be drawn into war, even when they did not want it to occur; Describe why decision-makers might prefer war as a means to obtain their foreign policy goals; Evaluate the decision-making process during crises to identify points at which: a) war could have been avoided (and if so, why), b) war could have occurred, but did not (and if not, why not); Appreciate the difficulties of making decisions during crisis scenarios; Develop her/his own perspective on the dynamics of international crises.
Topical Outline
I. Introduction II. Foreign Policy Decision-Making III. Background: Peace, Norms, and the Concert of Europe IV. International Crises a. The Eastern Crisis b. The Crimean War c. Wars of German Unification d. Wars of Italian Unification e. Franco-Prussian War f. Russo-Japanese War g. First & Second Moroccan Crises V. World Wars and Related Crises a. World War I: Background and July 1914 b. World War II: Background, Munich 1938, Outbreak of War c. Crises in the Aftermath of World War II VI. Identifying Patterns in Crises a. War through Alliances b. War through Domestic Politics c. What Have We Learned?
Syllabus