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National Security Strategy

Readings Schedule

Click on a date to see assigned readings.

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January 4: Introduction / Syllabus

• Class notes: Coercive Diplomacy.
• Snyder, Jack. "One World, Rival Theories."
  Foreign Policy, Nov/Dec 2004, pp. 52-62.

A. Coercive Diplomacy and Military Power

January 6: Modeling Reality

• Class notes: Games and Information.

January 8: Strategies in Games

• Class notes: Strategies in Extensive Form Games.
• Powell, Robert. "Some Introductory Notes on Game Theory."
  From Nuclear Deterrence Theory. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), pp. 187-200.

January 11: Deterministic Rational Behavior

• Class notes: Best Responses and Nash Equilibrium.

January 13: Probabilistic Rational Behavior

• Class notes: Nash Equilibrium in Mixed Strategies.

January 15: Credible Moves with Complete Information

• Class notes: Subgame Perfect Equilibrium.

January 18: Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday

• No class.

January 20: The Escalation Game with Complete Information

• Class notes: Subgame Perfect Equilibrium.

January 22: The Escalation Game with Incomplete Information, 1: Sequential Rationality and Consistent Beliefs

• Class notes: Perfect Bayesian Equilibrium.
• Powell, Robert. "Some Introductory Notes on Game Theory."
  From Nuclear Deterrence Theory. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), pp. 201-220.

January 25: The Escalation Game with Incomplete Information, 2: Equilibrium

• Class notes: Perfect Bayesian Equilibrium.

January 27: The Escalation Signaling Game, 1: Costly Signaling

• Class notes: Revealing and Eliciting Information: Sinking Costs & Tying Hands.

January 29: The Escalation Signaling Game, 2: Commitment with Audience Costs

• Class notes: Revealing and Eliciting Information: Military Moves.

February 1: The Escalation Signaling Game, 3: Military Moves

• Class notes: Revealing and Eliciting Information: Screening and Incentive Schemes.

B. Evolution of U.S. Strategic Doctrine

February 3: Confrontation and Alliance with the Soviets, 1917-45

• Class notes: Nature of the Soviet Union
• Maps
• Europe after World War I: 1919
• Europe under fascism: 1941-45
• Europe after World War II: 1946
• The Far East after World War II: 1946
• The Middle East after World War II: 1946
• Map of the Soviet Union
• Ambrose & Brinkley, Chapters 1-3
• Casablanca Conference, February 12, 1943.
• Cairo Declaration, November (released December 1), 1943.
• Tehran Conference, November 28-December 1, 1943.
• Yalta Conference, February, 1945.
• Potsdam Conference, Protocol of the Proceedings, August 1, 1945.

February 5: MIDTERM EXAMINATION

• Instructions to be given in class.

February 8: Containment as Grand Strategy during the Cold War

• Class notes: The Strategy of Containment, part I.
• Ambrose & Brinkley, Chapter 4
• Churchill, Winston S. "A Shadow Has Fallen on Europe and Asia." (Iron Curtain Speech)
  Speech at Westminster College, Fulton, Missouri, March 5, 1946.
• Stalin, Joseph V. "Stalin's Reply to Churchill."
  The New York Times, March 14, 1946 (interview with Pravda), p. 4.
• Kennan, George. "Telegraphic Message from Moscow." (The Long Telegram)
  02/22/46. Reprinted from Memoirs, 1925-1950. (New York: Pantheon Books, 1967), pp. 547-559.
• Mr. X (George Kennan). "The Sources of Soviet Conduct."
  Foreign Affairs, July, 1947.
• Novikov, Nikolai. "The Novikov Telegram."
  09/27/46. Reprinted from Origins of the Cold War. (Washington, DC: USIP, 2001)
• Zhdanov, Andrei. "Report on the International Situation." (Response to X)
  Speech to Cominform, September 22, 1947.

February 10: Anatomy of Mistrust: Iran and Turkey, 1946-47

• Class notes: The Strategy of Containment, part II.
• Wallace, Henry. "Achieving an Atmosphere of Mutual Trust and Confidence."
  Letter to President Truman, July 1946.
• Frank, Richard B. "No War: No End," in What If? Eminent Historians Imagine What Might Have Been.

February 12: The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan

• Class notes: Sword and Shield, Part I.
• Ambrose & Brinkley, Chapter 5
• Acheson, Dean. "The Requirements of Reconstruction."
  Undersecretary of State Acheson on the European recovery plan, May 8, 1947.
• Marshall, George C. "European Initiative Essential to Economic Recovery."
  Secretary of State Marshall on the European recovery plan, June 5, 1947.
• Truman, Harry S. "Special Message to the Congress on Greece and Turkey." (The Truman Doctrine)
  Speech before a Joint Session of Congress, March 12, 1947.
• Vyshinsky, Andrei. "A Soviet Criticism of the Truman Doctrine and Marshall Plan."
  September 18, 1947

February 15: Presidents' Day Holiday

• No class.

February 17: The Berlin Airlift and NSC-68, 1948-49

• Class notes: Sword and Shield, Part II.
• Ambrose & Brinkley, Chapter 6
• Botting, Douglas. "The Berlin Airlift of 1948."
  From the Ruins of the Reich: Germany 1945-1949, (New York: New American Library, 1985).
• NSC 68: United States Objectives and Programs for National Security.
  Naval War College Review, Vol. 27 (May-June, 1975), pp. 51-108.

February 19: Thermonuclear War and Nuclear Deterrence

• Essay topic distributed in class.
• Class notes: Nuclear Deterrence.
• Primers:
  1. Primer on the US Armed Forces
  2. Primer on Military Technology
  3. Primer on Weapons of Mass Destruction
• Schelling, Thomas. Arms and Influence, Chapters 4-7.
• Wohlstetter, Albert. "The Delicate Balance of Terror."
  RAND, P-1472, November 6, 1958. Foreign Affairs, Vol. 37. (1959), pp. 211-234.
• Powell, Robert. "The Nuclear Revolution and the Problem of Credibility."
  From Nuclear Deterrence Theory. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), pp. 6-32.

February 22: Limited War and Korea, 1950-1953

• Class notes: The Korean War.
• Ambrose & Brinkley, Chapter 7
• Map of the Korean War
• Chinese Foreign Ministry. Why China Intervened in Korea?
  United Nations Document S/ 1902, November 15, 1950, pp. 2-4.
• Weathersby, Kathryn. "Soviet Aims in Korea and the Origins of the Korean War, 1945-1950."
  Cold War International History Project, Working Paper No.8.

February 24: The New Look: Massive Retaliation, 1953-1960

• Class notes: The New Look.
• Ambrose & Brinkley, Chapters 8, 9
• President Eisenhower & Advisers. U.S. Options During the Suez and Hungarian Crises
  Memorandum of Discussion at the 303rd Meeting of the NSC, Washington, November 8, 1956.
• Khrushchev, Nikita S. "On Peaceful Coexistence."
  Foreign Affairs, Vol. 38, No. 1, pp. 1-18.

February 26: Into the Missile Age: Flexible Response, 1961-1969

• Class notes: Flexible Response.
• Ambrose & Brinkley, Chapter 10
• McNamara, Robert. "The No-Cities Doctrine."
  University of Michigan Commencement Speech, June 1962.

March 1: The Cuban Missile Crisis

• Class notes: The Cuban Missile Crisis

March 3: The Vietnam War, 1954-1975

• Class notes: The Vietnam War.
• Ambrose & Brinkley, Chapter 11, 12
• Map of Vietnam
• Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, August 10, 1964.
• War Powers Resolution, November 7, 1973.
• Boot, Max. The Savage Wars of Peace, Chapter 13: Lessons Unlearned

March 5: Détente and the Strategy of Sufficiency, 1970-1980

• Essay due at the end of class.
• Class notes: The Rise and Fall of Détente.
• Ambrose & Brinkley, Chapters 13, 14
• Map of Europe, the Iron Curtain in 1972
• Morgenthau, Hans J. "To Intervene or Not to Intervene."
  Foreign Affairs, (April 1967), pp. 424-436.

March 8: The Reagan Revolution, 1981-1989

• Class notes: Evil Empire, Part I
• Ambrose & Brinkley, Chapter 15

March 10: The Revolutions in Eastern Europe, 1989

• Class notes: Evil Empire, Part II.
• Ambrose & Brinkley, Chapter 16

March 12: The Fall of the Soviet Union, 1989-91

• Class notes: Evil Empire, Part III.
• Ambrose & Brinkley, Chapter 16

D. Final Examination

March 17: 8:00a-11:00a

• Instructions to be given in class.
• Study Aid for the Final