Course: POL388
Instructor: Bass
F 2015
Description of Course Goals and Curriculum
This class is organized in terms of the common explanations for war: international anarchy, economic, domestic politics, terrorism, nationalism, technology. Each cause is accompanied with a historical case study: a war for which this one explanation is most appropriate or evident. Lectures explain in detail the historical events and situations that lead to the beginning of the war (the period of the war itself is not explained in so much detail). The lectures also include some theoretical background for the cause of war under examination. Although each war is explained in the light of one cause, the bigger aim of the class is to be able to evaluate how well all of these different causes explain all of the wars under examination. The "hidden" goal for examining these historical cases and their causes is to be able to project what is learnt to present/future cases of conflict and think of solutions that avoid starting another war. Some of the case studies of the class are: The Peloponnesian War, World War I & II, Cuban Missile Crisis, 6 day war, Gulf War, ex-Yugoslavia Wars.
Learning From Classroom Instruction
- Lecture
Note-taking is essential for this class. Lectures provide the most crucial information for the class and they are a shortened/summarized version for a lot of the assigned reading. They also provide about 80% of what you need to know for the exams. Professor Bass talks fast and there is a lot of detail in his explanations, so a good note-taking strategy is crucial (some McGraw workshop about note-taking maybe?). Make sure to put down all the historical facts and dates and bullet-point versions of the theoretical parts of the lecture. Professor Bass writes some key-words on the board before the lecture so arrive to class about 2 minutes early to write them down - you will have to explain a lot of these key-words on the exams. You can also compare notes with some classmate after lecture to enrich your notes.
- Precept
There is no model of how precepts look like because many times they are left to the hands of the students. Discussions about current affairs are common. Sometimes some important reading are discussed, like Kant and 'Guns of August'. Other times material from the lecture is reinforced when Prof. Bass thinks it is necessary. Hence to prepare for precept you need to complete the readings and read the New York Times.
Learning For and From Assignments
This class includes a midterm exam, a final exam, a 12-15 page paper and a 2-3 page reflection after reading a book about a war experience. It has about 200 pages of reading per week and you are also required to read the International section of the New York Times.
- Midterm (during Precept)
Both the midterm and the exam involve key-word questions, where you explain what you know about a term. The key-words come from lectures, current affairs i.e. the New York Times and the readings, but the latter less so. To prepare for this part of the exam go through each key-word that Prof. Bass wrote on the board and make sure you know how to explain it in 3-4 sentences. As for the current affairs questions, do not worry, the questions will be about the main foreign affairs of the semester and if you have read the New York times regularly you will have seen at least five to ten articles about these events. From the readings the key terms come from the more theoretical readings (not the historical ones). You are always asked about important terms related to the theory, never about obscure ones. The midterm also involves short questions, again from the readings, the lectures and New York Times, whose answer is a little less factual then the key-terms ones and more evaluative. To prepare for these ones, go through the more evaluative parts of the lectures and make your own short analysis about how all of the theories and the wars you have learnt about in the class fit together. Finally, we were asked for some names of presidents and prime ministers of countries important to the state of international affairs - this caught a lot of us of guard!
- Final Exam
The final exam involves the same types of questions as the midterm, but this time from only the second half of the course. In the final exam you also have to write two long essays. The essay questions were more theoretical and we were asked to argue pro/against the essay prompt using 3 of the wars we had learned about in lecture. For the essay a good mastery of the historical facts related to the wars was needed. Afterwards what helped to prepare was to think about all the big war-related questions that we encountered in the class and think about the arguments one could make to answer each question, the wars we studied that were most appropriate to answer the question and some current conflicts that were appropriate to the question.
- Essay
This essay was due a week after fall break and I did use fall break to write it. To write the paper you choose a war that is not on the syllabi and argue what you consider to be the main cause(s) for this war. The paper requires a lot of historical background and historical analysis (about 70 % of the paper) and the rest is more theoretical. It does require extensive research but it is also a very rewarding experience.
- Readings
The class has about 200 pages of reading. There is always a historical source which describes the war under study in much more detail than the lecture. There is also always a source that describes the main theory under study for the week. The rest are sources that combine both theoretical and historical analysis. It might be frustrating to notice that the precepts do not focus solely on the readings. Sometimes in precept you are only discussing about current affairs and sometimes the information from the lecture is enough for the discussion. Moreover a big part of the exam focuses on information from the lecture and NY Times. However, the readings compliment a lot the knowledge you gain from lecture. The more historical facts you read about the more complicated the picture of the war becomes and the more nuanced the explanations for the causes become. Many students form study groups for this course and it is fairly easy to create one since everyone is on the lookout for reading buddies.
- New York Times
The New York Times is an important component of this class, both for exams and precepts. I created the habit of reading it weekly for three hours in a row the day before precept. Reading daily for 20 minutes could have been more beneficial, but this is a component of the course that you absolutely cannot cramp for the night before the exam.
- 2-3 page reflection
This part is very relaxed and open-ended. It is due on Dean's Date. The type of writing required is similar to a diary entry. You can choose any book that is related to an experience of war and then put down the impressions you were left with. This part is meant to bring in some emotional reflections after all the "cold-blooded" discussions of war during the semester.
External Resources
Every major news-source constitutes a good external resource for the class although Prof. Bass recommends the New York Times. Wikipedia and Encyclopedia Britannica can also help to lookup historical facts.
What Students Should Know About This Course For Purposes Of Course Selection
Although this class has a high number it is taken by a lot of by non-politics, non social-sciences students as an SA. It provides you with an immense knowledge about 20th century history and about 21st century state of international affairs. It can put you in the habit of periodically reading the news and teach you how to make more sense of the news you are reading.
