93339 - Peace And War In American Politics

Learning outcomes

The course aims to provide advanced, interdisciplinary knowledge of the U.S. political, constitutional, and intellectual debate on the problems of peace and war. Emphasis will be also put on the decisional processes concerning the decision to declare war or the use of military force to solve some specific International crisis. The course will, therefore, focus on the analysis of some relevant case studies. At the end of the course, the student knows the main aspects of the American political, constitutional, and intellectual debate on the war and peace dilemma. He/she will be able to identify the main social and political actors involved in decisional political processes and to contextualize those decisions in the American political and intellectual foreign policy traditions.

Course contents

The course focuses on the political processes which legitimize American government decisions to declare war or to pursue peace. Adopting an interdisciplinary approach, the course will concentrate 1) on the constitutional relationship between Presidency and Congress in terms of war powers and the deployment of US armed forces abroad; 2) on the creation and development of the National Security State and the relationship between civil and military powers; 3) on the political and intellectual debate concerning the war and peace dilemma.

Emphasis will also be put on some of the most critical conflicts and wars engaged by the United States during its history, with particular reference to the XX and XXI centuries conflicts.
Please, check Virtuale to download the file concerning the course description and the seminar for attending students.

The course is organized in lectures and seminars, as detailed in the program available on Virtuale.

Students must read in advance the essays assigned for each seminar.

Readings/Bibliography

Students who attend at least 80 percent of the lectures will be eligible to take the oral exam based on the lecture notes and essays discussed in class. It i salso recommended that they consult Mario Del Pero's volume, Libertà e impero, 1776-2017, Bari-Rome, Laterza, 2017, particularly for the sections related to the foreign policy cases covered.

Non-attending students are required to read three books as follows:

a) Mario Del Pero, Libertà e impero 1776-2016, Bari-Roma, Laterza 2017

b) Two books to be chosen in the following list:

Clair Apodaca, Understanding U.S. Human Rights Policy. A Paradoxical Legacy, New York-London, Routledge, 2006

Sarah Burns, Politics of war powers : the theory & history of Presidential unilateralism, Lawrence, University Press of Kansas, 2019

Danny Cooper, Neoconservatism and American Foreign Policy: A Critical Analysis, Taylor & Francis Group, 2010

John Gans, White House Warriors: How the National Security Council Transformed the American Way of War, New York : Liveright Publishing Corporation, 2019

Michael A. Genovese, War power in an age of terrorism : debating presidential power, New York, Palgrave Macmillan, 2017.

David Kieran, ed., The War of My Generation: Youth Culture and the War on Terror, Rutgers University Press, 2015

Thomas Lynch, In the Shadow of the Cold War. American Foreign Policy from George W. Bush Sr to Donald Trump, Cambridge University Press, 2019

Frank Ninkovich, The Global Republic. America’s Inadvertent Rise to World Power, The University of Chicago Press, 2014

Thomas Preston, The President and His Inner Circle: Leadership Style and the Advisory Process in Foreign Policy Making, Columbia University Press, 2001

David C. Unger, The Emergency State. America’s Pursuit of Absolute Security at All Costs, Penguin Books, 2012

Marilyn Young with Lloyd Gardner, Iraq and the Lessons of Vietnam, New York, The New Press, 2007.

Teaching methods

Lectures and seminars. Students are expected to actively partecipate in class

Assessment methods

The final assessment for attending students will be carried out through an oral examination. This assessment will cover the topics discussed in general lectures and seminars, along with the texts reviewed in class. Evaluation criteria will include a student's mastery of fundamental concepts, critical reasoning skills, and their ability to develop coherent logical and analytical connections. Furthermore, active participation and contributions made during class sessions will also be factored into the overall evaluation.

Students who do not attend will be required to complete an oral examination covering three volumes following the guidelines outlined in the aforementioned bibliography. A comprehensive understanding of all selected texts is essential, along with the capability to identify logical and theoretical connections. Additionally, students should be able to place the analyses presented in the texts within the historical context of the various pivotal developments that have shaped U.S. foreign policy, particularly from the late 1800s to the present day.

Teaching tools

power point presentations

Office hours

See the website of Raffaella Baritono