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The Conduct of International Diplomacy: Princeton University Woodrow Wilson School
The Conduct of International Diplomacy: Princeton University Woodrow Wilson School
The Conduct of International Diplomacy: Princeton University Woodrow Wilson School
The Conduct of
International Diplomacy
This course offers a comparative look at the making and implementation of policy in the
international arena. It explores key concepts and theories concerning national interest,
negotiation, strategies of action and influence, crisis management, and conflict resolution,
and it applies those concepts via case studies and simulations in diplomacy, trade policy,
development assistance, and security policy. The course aims to help students learn not
only to analyze but also to implement policy: it employs an action-oriented approach that
obliges students to react as a policy-maker would and thus gain a better appreciation of
how and why states and leaders act as they do. The first part of the course (“Concepts”)
focuses on the acquisition of key theoretical approaches on which we will draw in part
two (“Applications”) as we test these diplomatic concepts. We will employ case studies
throughout, but in the first half of the course they will be used to explicate the concepts,
while in the second half we will use cases to apply concepts already learned.
To cultivate the action-oriented frame of mind of the policy maker, we will follow U.S.
policy toward Iraq as a living laboratory, reviewing developments each week and testing
new concepts on this evolving foreign policy challenge. After fall recess, we will also
focus on the upcoming NATO summit in Prague, November 21-22, for which we will
conduct an in-class simulation on November 19. On December 3, we will engage in a
video simulation called “The Crisis Game,” which will pull together the approaches we
have covered and oblige students to apply them to the unfolding crisis.
Finally, with the help of Jim Shinn, a PhD alumnus of the School and Fellow at the
Council on Foreign Relations, we will explore three case studies in technological
innovation and diplomacy. Each is an ongoing foreign policy challenge in which new
technologies are altering the way diplomacy is conducted in the 21st century.
Assignments
Students will write three policy papers and one longer research paper in the form of a
case study, make one formal oral presentation, and participate in a simulated negotiation.
Grades will be weighted roughly as follows: 40% for the three policy memos, 40% for
the case study, and 20% for the oral presentation and overall contributions to seminar
discussions. There will be no exams.
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Policy Papers (40%) Students will write three brief policy papers of 2-3 pages, single-
spaced, all based on assigned readings (i.e., no additional research is required):
! A briefing memo for the simulated NATO summit (details of the assignment to be
explained in class), due November 19.
! An options paper arising from “The Crisis Game” video simulation. The assignment
will be handed out on December 1, and the paper will be due December 8.
Case Study (40%) Students will write one research paper (of 15-25 pages) in the form
of a case study, along the lines of the Pew studies we will use in class. Your study should
examine a single case. It may be small or large, of short or long duration, recent or
historical, but it must involve a single, discrete foreign policy episode that illuminates a
clear lesson for the conduct of international diplomacy. A brief (2-page) concept paper
previewing the case and the approach you plan to take is due November 26. I will return
that paper with my suggestions by December 11. The case study itself is due January 21.
Oral Contributions (20%) As we will devote at least half of each session to discussion,
the quality of students’ participation will be an important component of the final grade.
Additionally, each student will give a formal oral presentation on a topic arising from the
subject matter under discussion. One might be a briefing to the press on policy toward
Iraq; another might be Congressional testimony on the Administration’s handling of aid
to Russia. The class will act as the relevant audience, with the instructor serving as chair.
On November 19, the class will engage in a simulated negotiation of NATO’s upcoming
Prague summit, with students taking on the role of designated NATO member countries
and addressing the same range of issues that heads of state and government will be
addressing in Prague.
Readings
Required Books:
• G. R. Berridge, Diplomacy: Theory and Practice, 2nd ed. (New York: Palgrave, 2002)
• Roger Fisher et al., Beyond Machiavelli: Tools for Coping with Conflict (New York:
Penguin Books, 1994)
• Alexander L. George, Bridging the Gap: Theory and Practice in Foreign Policy
(Washington, D.C.: U.S. Institute of Peace Press, 1993)
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Course Outline
Date Topic/Assignments
9/17 I. Introduction
(A) Diplomatic Theory and Practice
• Roger Fisher et al., Beyond Machiavelli, Ch. 1
• Alexander George, Bridging the Gap, Part One (pp. 3-29)
• Robert Hutchings, American Diplomacy and the End of the Cold War, Preface
(course packet)
• Berridge, Diplomacy, Chs. 6-8
• Jan Melissen, ed., Innovation in Diplomatic Practice, Chs. 2 and 9 (course packet)
# Video of the Reykjavik Summit: Watershed or Wipeout?
(B) Ethics and Foreign Policy
• Michael Walzer, Just and Unjust Wars, pp. 51-68 (course packet)
• Robert McElroy, Morality and American Foreign Policy, pp. 152-67 (course packet)
• George F. Kennan, “Morality and Foreign Policy” (course packet)
9/24 II. Defining the “National Interest” (Note: readings are many but short)
• Berridge, Diplomacy, Ch. 1
• G.R. Berridge et al., Diplomatic Theory from Machiavelli to Kissinger, pp. 33-44 and
71-82 [chapters on Guicciardini and Richelieu] (course packet)
• Sir Harold Nicolson, Diplomacy, Ch. 6 (course packet)
• Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy, pp. 17-28 (course packet)
• “Report on America’s National Interests,” pp. 1-12 (course packet)
• Michael Mandelbaum, ed., The New Russian Foreign Policy, Ch. 1 (course packet)
• “Principles and Practices of British Foreign Policy,” in Peter Marshall, Positive
Diplomacy, Ch. 7 and Annex 3 (course packet)
• CDU/CSU “White Paper” on Germany’s National Interests (course packet)
• Pew Case Study 228: Austria and the European Union (course packet)
# Charlie Rose video debate on U.S. responses to the incident in the South China Sea
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10/15 V. Negotiation
• Fisher et al., Beyond Machiavelli, Chs. 2-3
• Berridge, Chs. 4-5 and 11
• Fred Charles Iklé, How Nations Negotiate, Chs. 1, 8, and 9 (course packet)
• Janis, “The Cuban Missile Crisis,” Groupthink, Ch. 6 (course packet)
• Michael Hunt, “The Cuban Missile Crisis,” Crises in U.S. Foreign Policy, Ch. 5
# Cuban missile crisis video: “The JFK Tapes”
11/26 X. Mediation
A. Cases in International Mediation
• Thomas Princen, Intermediaries in International Conflict, Chs. 2, 5, 10 (on reserve)
• Pew Case Study 371: Russia’s Withdrawal from the Baltic States (course packet)
B. Technological Innovation Case #3 (Dr. Shinn): North Korea and KEDO
• Carrots, Sticks & Question Marks: Negotiating the North Korean Nuclear Crisis,
KSG# 1297.
• Korean Peninsula Energy Development Corporation, Agreements and Protocols,
http://www.kedo.org/ap_main.asp.
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