The aim of the course is to monitor and analyse events in US domestic and foreign policy in real-time. Looking at important issues that shape the public debate in the US, the course will provide insight into issues that are crucial for understanding contemporary US politics. Monitoring the dynamism of contemporary politics requires a thorough reading of real-time sources of information, such as online journals, newspapers and/or speeches of policymakers. To use the expression of Timothy Garton Ash, the course will provide students with a picture of the "history of the present" of the United States while applying analytical tools such as discourse analyses and case studies.
Requirements to the exam
Last update: PhDr. Jan Hornát, Ph.D. (26.01.2016)
The final grade for the course will be based on the following requirements:
Class attendance and participation in discussions - this includes reading assigned texts - 20 %
Newsflash - each student will be required to briefly present (once per semester) a short summary of major headlines from the past week - 10 %
Group presentation - weeks 10 and 11 are reserved for group presentations, which will focus on individual candidates in the presidential race. The number of groups will depend on the number of candidates in the race. The aim of individual presentations will be to describe the (potential) voter base od each candidate, his/her standpoints on various issues of domestic and foreign policy, the number of supporting SuperPACS, previous careers etc. - 35 %
Op-ed - at the end of the semester, each student will submit an op-ed, focused on a current issue pertinent to US domestic or foreign policy - 35 %
In order to pass the course, students will need to gain more than 70 points (out of 100 possible).
Grading:
100 - 91 points: 1, A
90 - 81 points: 2, B
80 - 71 points: 3, C
Class Ethics (A) Any use of quoted texts in the final op-ed must be acknowledged. Such use must meet the following conditions:
the beginning and end of the quoted passage must be shown with quotation marks
when quoting from periodicals or books, the name(s) of author(s), book or article titles, the year of publication, and page from which the passage is quoted must all be stated in footnotes or endnotes;
internet sourcing must include a full web address where the text can be found as well as the date the web page was visited by the author.
Please, use the style of Chincago Manual of Style.
(B) In case the use of any texts other than those written by the author is established without proper acknowledgement as defined in (A), the paper will be deemed plagiarized and handed over to the Disciplinary Commission of the Faculty of Social Sciences.
Syllabus
Last update: Dr. phil. Lucie Kýrová, M.A. (06.04.2017)
Major Issues in Contemporary Public Debates in the U.S. II - JMM338
Bloc I. Foreign policy
1. Course introduction and requirements + Overview of Donald Trump's foreign policy team (20.2.2017)
2. Donald Trump’s Grand Strategy and the four archetypes of US foreign policy schools (27.2.2017)
Mead, Walter Russell, "The Jacksonian Revolt: American Populism and the Liberal Order", Foreign Affairs, March/April, 2017.
3. Transatlantic relations at a crossroads (6.3.2017)
Shapiro, Jeremy, "Serious and Existential: The Clinton and Trump Challenges to Transatlantic Relations", Istituto Affari Internazionali Working Paper, October 2016.
