17.40  American Foreign Policy

Second Paper

Dear class,

Your second papers are due by midnight on Thursday, December 3. (Disregard the “Tuesday” deadline written on the hand-out.) Please email them to your TA.

As a reminder, you must submit at least one of your two long papers for feedback from your TA. The deadline for email submission of your completed draft to your TA is this Wednesday (November 25) at midnight. If you send them after this date, we will do our best to review them but can’t make any guarantees. Also, we expect everybody to visit the writing center at least once. If you didn’t do a consultation for your first paper, be sure to do so for your second paper. We recommend making an appointment ASAP.

You will receive comments and feedback on your first long paper either by email and/or in class tomorrow.

Thanks and see you in class tomorrow.
Cullen and Andrew

Announced on 23 November 2015  1:46  p.m. by Cullen Gifford Nutt

important announcements and reminders

Dear class,

We have a few important announcements.

First, next week in recitation we will be finishing our discussion of theories of American foreign policy and then transitioning to American interests and grand strategies. To prepare for the latter, the readings by Gaddis (B1 on the syllabus), Lieber and Lieber (S3), and Van Evera (S6) are particularly important.

Second, as noted, we will be showing the movie Thirteen Days on Thursday, October 8 at 7pm in E40-496. Pizza will be provided! See the trailer here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSA7Evcy7iE

Third, as noted in sections this week, your first ungraded paper is due next week. Please email it to your TA (either millera@mit.edu OR cnutt@mit.edu) by 5pm on Friday, October 2. It should be 2 pages in length, or about 500 words. As noted in the syllabus,

“Your response paper should advance an argument about an issue raised by the reading, lectures, or section discussions, or about a foreign policy issue you care about. [. . .] We encourage evaluation of policies or ideas. Are policies wise or unwise? Good or bad? Are policy ideas right or wrong?”

In short, tell us why you agree or disagree with some policy, position, or idea. Be sure to take a stand and make an argument.

Thanks,
Cullen and Andrew

Announced on 25 September 2015  4:15  p.m. by Cullen Gifford Nutt

one reading to skip

Dear class,

As a few of you have discovered, one of the readings on lobbies, "Their Men in Washington," is behind a subscription pay-wall. Please skip that reading.

Thanks,
Cullen and Andrew

Announced on 20 September 2015  7:54  p.m. by Cullen Gifford Nutt

reading assignment change

Dear class,

We’re making a slight modification to next week’s reading assignments (the ones covering September 17, 22, and 24). In lieu of reading Professor Van Evera’s “Offense, Defense, and the Causes of War,” please read a shorter version of his argument entitled “Offense/Defense Theory in a Nutshell.” This should save you some time. The “Nutshell” PDF is available for download on Stellar (the second one under the “Theories of American Foreign Policy” heading).

On the readings more broadly, please have them completed by the time of your recitation for a given week. When the list of readings on the syllabus applies to more than one week, we’ll give you more specific guidance each week on which readings to complete for section.

Thanks,
Cullen and Andrew

Announced on 18 September 2015  12:35  p.m. by Cullen Gifford Nutt