Out of the Ruins: Rebuilding US Foreign Policy After Bush’s War on Terror

J298 Monday 3-6 pm

North Gate Hall B-1

Mark Danner with Peter Tarnoff

This seminar will offer an intensive study of US foreign policy as a new administration sets out to rebuild American power and reputation in the wake of the Iraq War and the War on Terror, with special attention to the role played by the press. We will investigate the roots of US foreign policy and its evolution during the early twentieth century, during the Cold War and during the run-up and aftermath of the Persian Gulf War. We will explore in depth the theory and practice of the War on Terror as it was fought both abroad and at home, and the successes and failures of the press in covering both. And we will examine closely, in real time, the ongoing attempts of the incoming Administration to construct a new, post-Bush American purpose and role in the world.

Mark Danner has written about international affairs, human rights and foreign wars for two decades, covering Central America, Haiti, the Balkans and Iraq, among stories. A longtime New Yorker staff writer, Danner is the author of The Massacre at El Mozote; The Road to Illegitimacy; Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib and the War on Terror, and The Secret Way to War.

Peter Tarnoff is a longtime diplomat and foreign policy professional who has held many senior government positions, including, from 1993 to 1997, Undersecretary of State. He is a former president of the Council on Foreign Relations and the World Affairs Council.

Syllabus
Requirements: This course is a discussion seminar, meeting every Monday afternoon to examine the development of the new administration’s foreign policy against the background of the history of US power. Faithful attendance is critical, as is thorough preparation, which means keeping up with the reading and following closely the coverage of foreign affairs in the daily press. There will also be periodic short written assignments.

Grading: The grade is based on attendance, class participation and the quality of the written work.

Reading: Books assigned for the course will be available for purchase at the Analog Bookstore, on Euclid Avenue just north of campus.

Newspapers and Magazines: Classes will often begin with a discussion of current developments in world affairs. Students are required to keep up faithfully with coverage in the major daily newspapers, beginning with the New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times. We would urge you also to watch CNN and the BBC. The major newsweeklies, especially The Economist, are also strongly recommended.

Required Reading (Books)

Robert Baer, Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude (Three Rivers, 2004)

Mark Danner, Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib and the War on Terror (New York Review Books, 2004)

Mark Danner, The Secret War to War: The Downing Street Memo and the Iraq War’s Buried History (New York Review Books, 2005).

David Frum and Richard Perle, An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror (Ballantine, 2004)

Leslie H. Gelb, Power Rules: How Common Sense Can Rescue US Foreign Policy (Harper, 2009)

Barton Gellman, Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency (Penguin, 2008)

George F. Kennan, American Diplomacy (Chicago, 1985)

Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy (Touchstone, 1995)

Leffler and Legro, To Lead the World: American Strategy After the Bush Doctrine (Oxford, 2008)

Jane Mayer, The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals (Doubleday, 2008)

David Ross, Statecraft: And How to Restore America’s Standing in the World (Farrar Straus, 2008)

David Rothkopf, Running the World : The Inside Story of the National Security Council and the Architects of American Power (Public Affairs, 2006)

Ron Suskind, The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America’s Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11 (Simon and Schuster, 2007)

Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Vintage, 2007)

SYLLABUS

January 26

Out of the Ruins: An Introduction. A Trip Through Postwar History: From the Cold War to George W. Bush. Terror, Ambition and Collapse. Politics and Diplomacy. Constructing A New Foreign Policy. Mutual Introductions.

February 2

How To Make US Foreign Policy. (with Peter Tarnoff) The Institutional Frame of American Policymaking. Its History and Roots: Realism and Idealism. The National Security Act of 1947. The National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency. The Job of the National Security Adviser and Its History. Where Policy is Made.

Reading: George F. Kennan, American Diplomacy

David Rothkopf, Running the World, pages ix-60

Daalder & Destler, “In the Shadow of the Oval Office,” Foreign Affairs, January-February 2009 (To Be Distributed)

Daalder to Destler, “Memorandum to the National Security Adviser” (To Be Distributed)

Karen DeYoung, “Obama’s NSC Will Get New Power: Directive Expands Makeup and Role Of Security Body”. Washington Post; Sunday, February 8, 2009; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/07/AR2009020702076_pf.html

Sandy Tolan, “Mitchell’s Challenge After Gaza, Five Questions about Palestinian and Israeli Realities”
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175026

National Security Council History
http://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/eop/nsc/history/

February 9

From Cold War to the War on Terror: Understanding US Internationalism. The Roots of US Foreign Policy. Manifest Destiny and the Early History. The British Relationship: From Master to Ally. Expansion, Acquisition and Imperial Power. The “Shining Face of Our Example.” The Two World Wars and the Rise to Permanent World Power. Realism and Idealism. The Truman Doctrine and the Ideology of Freedom. Cold War and the Struggle on the Periphery. From Cold War to Post-Cold War World: Bosnia, Rwanda, Haiti. The War on Terror: A New Ideological Foreign Policy.

Reading: Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy (Touchstone, 1995), pages 29-55; 218-244; 394-472; 762-836

Foreign Policy and the President’s Irrelevance
February 5, 2008 By George Friedman
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/foreign_policy_and_presidents_irrelevance/?utm_source=GWeekly&utm_campaign=none&utm_medium=email

A Visit to a U.S. Ally, but an Increasingly Wary One
February 8, 2009 By JANE PERLEZ

The Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate report:
“Chain Reaction:Avoiding A Nuclear Arms Race in the Middle East”
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2008_rpt/chain.pdf

Political Realism
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/pol116/realism.htm

February 23

Managing Crisis I: A Coup on the Arabia Peninsula. (with Peter Tarnoff) The steps by which a US administration copes with an attempt to seize power in one of the country’s closest allies, managing military and political assets and the coping with the demands of the press, domestic and international.

Reading: Robert Baer, Sleeping with the Devil: How Washington Sold Our Soul for Saudi Crude (Three Rivers, 2004)

Jeffrey Fleishman, “Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah appoints moderates to key posts”. Los Angeles Times; February 15, 2009
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/mideastemail/la-fg-saudi-shuffle15-2009feb15,0,3572131.story

“In today’s intelligence hierarchy, who really runs the show?
By Pam Benson, Thu February 12, 2009
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/12/cia.dni/index.html

“The Emerging Obama Foreign Policy”
By Rodger Baker, February 16, 2009, Stratfor.com
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20090216_emerging_obama_foreign_policy…

“Related Special Topic Page: Obama’s Foreign Policy Landscape”
http://www.stratfor.com/theme/obama_influence/?utm_source=GWeekly&utm…

“BAE: secret papers reveal threats from Saudi prince”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/15/bae.armstrade

“Prince of Darkness Denies Own Existence”
By Dana Milbank, February 20, 2009, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/20/AR200…

March 2

Managing Crisis II: A Coup on the Arabia Peninsula. (with Peter Tarnoff) The coup complicates itself. Doubts about the players. The press gets wind.

Reading: Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower: Al Qaeda and the Road to 9/11 (Vintage, 2007)

“POLITICS: Obama’s New Iran Envoy Met With Skepticism”
By Omid Memarian
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45902

“Is Dennis Ross Iran’s Real Envoy?” By Omid Memarian
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/omid-memarian/is-dennis-ross-irans-real…

IR theory for lovers: a valentine’s guide
Fri, 02/13/2009
http://walt.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/02/13/ir_theory_for_lovers_a_valentines_guide

“US: ‘Inescapable’ movement to Palestinian state”
By Matti Friedman, Associated Press Writer, Tue Mar 3, 2009 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090303/ap_on_re_eu/ml_mideast_clinton

March 9

Understanding 9/11 and the Iraq War: The Bush Era and What It’s Left Us. The Background: Egypt, the Saudi connection and the birth of Al Qaeda. The Place of Birth: Afghanistan and the Late Cold War. Building Terror into foreign policy: Making networks and making bureaucracy. Constructing Al Qaeda and the US Response. Early attacks: Riyadh, Kenya, and Tanzania, Yemen. The Transition: From Clinton to Bush and the Downgrading of Terror. The summer of 2001 and the Presidential Daily Breifing The day and its aftermath. Constructing an danti-terror Ideology of Freedom vs. Islamofacism.

Reading: Michael Scott Doran, “Someone Else’s Civil War,” Foreign Affairs, Jan/Feb 2002.

Mark Danner, “Is He Winning? Taking Stock of the Terror War,” The New York Times Magazine, September 11, 2005.

Ron Suskind, The One Percent Doctrine: Deep Inside America’s Pursuit of Its Enemies Since 9/11 (Simon & Schuster, 2007)

David Frum and Richard Perle, An End to Evil: How to Win the War on Terror (Ballantine, 2004)

Michael Scott Doran, “Someone Else’s Civil War,” Foreign Affairs, Jan/Feb 2002.

Mark Danner, “Is He Winning? Taking Stock of the Terror War,” The New York Times Magazine, September 11, 2005.

March 16

The War on Terror and the New Cold War. The construction of the “war presidency.” Organizing the bureaucracies to fight terror. Terror as Nazism and Communism The “unitary executive” and the use of extra-constitutional power. Torture, rendition and its diplomatic consequences. Anti-terror and “soft power.” The run up to Iraq. Iraq, the insurgency and the fall of the Bush Administration. The Iranian paradox: the rise of the Shia-Sunni split and the fear of Shia hegemony. Iranian nukes and the search for the Grand Bargain. (w/Peter Tarnoff)

Reading: David Ross, Statecraft: And How to Restore America’s Standing in the World (Farrar Straus, 2008).

Barton Gellman, Angler: The Cheney Vice Presidency (Penguin, 2008).

State of the Union with John King; Interview With Dick Cheney
Aired March 15, 2009 – 09:00 a.m ET
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0903/15/sotu.01.html

“US Torture: Voices from the Black Sites”
By Mark Danner, The New York Review of Books, April 9, 2009
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22530

“How to Leave Afghanistan”
By Leslie H. Gelb: March 12, 2009

March 30

Covering Iraq, Covering the War on Terror: The Fall of American Journalism. (with Peter Tarnoff)

Reading: Mark Danner, The Secret War to War: The Downing Street Memo and the Iraq War’s Buried History (New York Review Books, 2005).

Leslie H. Gelb, Power Rules: How Common Sense Can rescue US Foreign Policy (Harper, 2009) Final Chapter Only!

Leffler and Legro, To Lead the World: American Strategy After the Bush Doctrine (Oxford, 2008)

“It’s Time to ‘Go to Strength’ on Foreign Policy”
By Leslie H. Gelb OPINION Wall Street Journal March 21, 2009
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123759973674301593.html

“Common Sense to the Rescue of Policy”
By Michael Ignatieff, Published: March 22, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/23/books/23igna.html?scp=1&sq=leslie gelb&st=cse

“Neither a Hedgehog Nor a Fox: The unbearable lightness of Obama’s administration”
By Peggy Noonan, MARCH 20, 2009
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123750000839989123.html

*Assignment: Op/Ed Essay—
Transition to Bush League to Obama Nation
About the transformation; can be critical, interpretive, you should know enough about what has been going on that you can write a short essay (750-1,000 words, due March 30)

April 6

The Rules of Power: How Policy Practitioners Really Work. [click for audio] A discussion with Leslie H. Gelb, former assistant secretary of defense (and director of the Pentagon Papers project,) former national security correspondent and columnist with the New York Times, on the strange rules of power within Washington’s foreign policy bureaucracies. Where decisions are and are not made. What meetings are worth. Whom to telephone and whom to believe. The “revolving door” between national security and journalism. And more. (with Peter Tarnoff).

Reading: Leslie H. Gelb biography
http://www.cfr.org/bios/3325/

“Remarks by the President on a New Strategy for Afghanistan and Pakistan,” Barack Obama, March 27, 2009
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-by-the-President-o…

“It’s Time to ‘Go to Strength’ on Foreign Policy,”
By Leslie H. Gelb, Wall Street Journal, March 21, 2009;
http://www.cfr.org/publication/18901

“How to Leave Afghanistan,”
By Leslie H. Gelb, New York Times, March 13, 2009;
http://www.cfr.org/publication/18761

“Our Manic White House,”
By Leslie H. Gelb, Daily Beast, March 4, 2009;
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-03-04/our-manic-p…

“Machiavelli Revisited,”
By Daniel W. Drezner, National Interest, March 2, 2009;
http://www.nationalinterest.org/Article.aspx?id=20956

“Remarks of President Barack Obama—Responsibly Ending the War in Iraq,”
Barack Obama, February 27, 2009
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/Remarks-of-President-Barac…

“Remarks by Vice President Biden at 45th Munich Security Conference,”
By Joseph Biden, February 7, 2009.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/RemarksbyVicePresidentBide..

“Can Pakistan Be Governed?”
By James Traub, New York Times, Published: March 31, 2009

“Obama Finds That Washington’s Habits of Secrecy Die Hard”
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg, New York Times, Published: April 4, 2009

“Hints of Obama’s Strategy in a Telling 8 Days”
By David E. Sanger, Published: April 7, 2009

April 13

Torture Uncovered: the International Commission on Human Rights and the Red Cross Report (w/Peter Tarnoff) The Red Cross calls it torture, now what? How will the current administration react to the “Torture Memos”?

Reading: Ahmed Rashid, Descent into Chaos: The U.S. and the Disaster in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Central Asia (Penguin, 2009)

Mark Danner, Torture and Truth: America, Abu Ghraib, and the War on Terror (New York Review Books, 2004).

“US Torture: Voices from the Black Sites”
By Mark Danner, New York Times Â· April 9, 2009
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22530

“The Red Cross Torture Report: What It Means”
By Mark Danner, New York Review of Books Â· April 30, 2009
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22614

“Report on the Treatment of Fourteen “High Value Detainees” in CIA Custody.”
http://www.nybooks.com/icrc-report.pdf

“Holbrooke of South Asia: America’s regional envoy says Pakistan’s tribal areas are the problem.”
By Matthew Kaminski, Wall Street Journal April 11, 2009
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123940326797109645.html#mod=djemEditorialPage

April 17

Confronting the Nightmare I: The Struggle Over Pakistan’s Nukes. Convergence: the War on Terror meets Rogue States in a nuclear crisis in South Asia.

Reading: “Watching the Warheads: The risks to Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal.”
by Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker, November 5, 2001
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2001/11/05/011105fa_FACT

“On the Nuclear Edge”
by Seymour M. Hersh, The New Yorker March 29, 1993
http://www.newyorker.com/archive/1993/03/29/1993_03_29_056_TNY_CARDS_…

April 20

Confronting the Nightmare II: The Struggle Over Pakistan’s Nukes (with Peter Tarnoff) Follow up: How does Washington react to the press? Various strategies from members of the National Security Council

“Statement by the Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair upon the release of the Office of Legal Counsel memos”
Published: April 16, 2009

April 27

How to Finish a War the Bush Administration Started. The Obama strategy for dealing with the Iraq War, the Torture Memos, and diverting attention and resources to Afghanistan and the Taliban’s control over Pakistan

“In Obama’s Inner Circle, Debate Over Memos’ Release Was Intense; Some Feared That a Partisan Outcry Could Obstruct Larger Agenda”
By R. Jeffrey Smith, Michael D. Shear and Walter Pincus, The Washington Post, April 24, 2009
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-yn/content/article/2009/04/23/AR200…

“Iraq Resists Pleas by U.S. to Placate Baath Party”
By Sam Dagher, The New York Times, April 25, 2009,

“Taliban begin enforcing Islamic law in Bajaur”
http://t.love.com/203215836

“Security Before Politics”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/24/AR200…

“Petraeus Calls On Pakistan To Redirect Military Focus”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/24/AR200…

“Taliban militants edge closer to Pakistan capital”
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-pakistan-fighting…

“Extremist Tide Rises in Pakistan”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/19/AR200…

“Pakistan on course to become Islamist state, U.S. experts say”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/mcclatchy/20090416/wl_mcclatchy/3214054

“Insurgents Make Inroads in Key Pakistan Province”

“U.S.-Asia Relations: Indispensable to Our Future”
By Hillary Rodham Clinton Secretary of State Remarks at the Asia Society
New York, New York February 13, 2009
http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2009a/02/117333.htm

High crimes-Ron Suskind interview
(Maddow discusses “disambiguation” first, the Suskind interview begins
at 6 mins 30 sec)
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#30356488

“Alarm Grows Over Pakistan’s Failure to Halt Militant Gains”
By Carlotta Gall and Eric Schmitt, New York Times, April 23, 2009

“Pakistan’s extremists: The slide downhill”
Apr 8th 2009 From The Economist print edition
http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displayStory.cfm?story_id=1344686..

“Torture and the U.S. Intelligence Failure”
By George Friedman April 20, 2009
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20090420_torture_and_u_s_intelligence_…

May 4

Latin America: The Overlooked Hemisphere. The importance of the continent and impacts on U.S. domestic policy, the rising violence in Mexico’s drug war and the spillover to the U.S., links between torture in Chile, Argentina and the Black Sites? A sea change in Cuba policy or just shifting tides? Obama compared to Bush at the Summit of the Americas, and dealing with Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez

Reading: Mexico
“Letter from Mexico Days of the Dead: The new narcocultura.”
by Alma Guillermoprieto, The New Yorker, November 10, 2008
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008/11/10/081110fa_fact_guillermo..

Special Topic: Tracking Mexican Drug Cartels
http://www.stratfor.com/theme/tracking_mexicos_drug_cartels

Ecuador
“Correa easily re-elected, faces stiff challenges”
By Jeanneth Valdivieso The Associated Press Monday, April 27, 2009
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/27/AR200…

“In Ecuador, High Stakes in Case Against Chevron”
By Juan Forero Washington Post Foreign Service. April 28, 2009
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/27/AR200…

Colombia
“Suit claims Dole bankrolled Colombia death squads”
By Frank Bajak, The Associated Press, April 28, 2009
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/28/AR200…

“U.S. Firm On Trial in Colombia Slayings: Civil Suit Alleges Coal
Producer Had Union Leaders Shot”
By Juan Forero Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, July 13, 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/12/AR200…

“Chiquita Settles Case on Payments to Rebel Groups”
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: March 15, 2007

“Wider Drug War Threatens Colombian Indians”
By Simon Romero, The New York Times April 21, 2009

“Colombia’s Gains Are America’s, Too”
By Robert M. Gates and Juan Manuel Santos Published: July 23, 2008

“Colombian Soldier Wore Red Cross Logo in Hostage Rescue”
By the Associated Press, The New York Times, July 17, 2008

“Which Way in Afghanistan? Ask Colombia For Directions.”
By Scott Wilson, Washington Post, April 5, 2009
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/03/AR200.

“Colombia Aid Failed to Halve Drug Making, Report Finds”
By the Associated Press, The New York Times, November 5, 2008

“Colombia’s Coca Survives U.S. Plan to Uproot It”
By Juan Forero, The New York Times, August 19, 2006

Cuba
“Fidel’s Farewell”
by Alma Guillermoprieto, The New Yorker, March 3, 2008
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2008/03/03/080303taco_talk_guil…

Mark Danner on Bill Moyers “Now”
http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/blog/

Similarities between torture in Argentina and the Black Sites?
http://latinousa.kut.org/

“Hemisphere’s Leaders Signal Fresh Start With U.S.”
By Alexei Barrionuevo and Sheryl Gay Stolberg, the New York Times, April 19, 2009

the Summit of the Americas “Times Topic”
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/s/summit…

“Bush Links Trade with Democracy at Quebec Talks”
By David E. Sanger Published: Sunday, April 22, 2001
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/22/world/bush-links-trade-with-democra…

“U.S. has a 45-year history of torture”
By A.J. Langguth May 3, 2009
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-langguth3-2009may03,0,42955…

May 11

PART I: The Rising Powers: China and East Asia. Bush, Rumsfeld and the “China Threat.” The roots of an Asian containment. The economic relationship and the fall of the dollar.

PART II: Obama’s New Beginning: A Verdict on the First Hundred Days. A critical look at the Obama Team and what it has accomplished. What’s changed and what hasn’t. A new beginning in the Middle East? Assessing the “Super-Envoy System” in the Middle East and South Asia. Has US “soft power” been rebuilt — and, if so, how has this been done? Has it translated into “tangible” gains — and how can this be determined? Future tasks: What must the new team accomplish? The verdict on the press. How to cover Obama — and how has it been done.

“Washington Diarist: The Well-Wishers”
by Leon Wieseltier, The New Republic, May 20, 2009
http://www.tnr.com/politics/story.html?id=a07df7e1-cd79-4b34-ae12-d57…
c9&k=66115

Mark Danner

Out of the Ruins: Rebuilding US Foreign Policy After Bush’s War on Terror

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