This is an archived course. A more recent version may be available at ocw.mit.edu.

Calendar

Lecture Schedule

Class # Topics Readings Assignments
1 Introduction to Course    
2 Concepts of National Security Policy (PDF)

Van Tassel, "Introduction," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp.3-7.

Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, "What is American Defense Policy?," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 8-17.

Robert Art, "To What Ends Military Power?," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 17-25.

Donald Snow, "National Security in a World of Tiers," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 44-53.

Peter Peterson and James Sebenius, "The Primacy of the Domestic Agenda," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 54-62.

John Gerard Ruggie, "The Past as Prologue? Interests, Identity, and American Foreign Policy, "International Security 21.4 (Spring), pp. 89-125.

Ernest May, "National Security in American History," Chapter 3 in Graham Allison and Gregory Treverton, Rethinking America’s Security.

 
3 Special Sessions: The Attacks of September 11th & American National Security (PDF)

National Commission on Terrorism, Countering the Changing Threat, 2000. (online)

U.S. State Department, Patterns of Global Terrorism 2001, 2002. (online)

Boston Globe article on the CIA. (online)

 
4 Analyzing National Security Policy (PDF)

William Clinton, "Advancing Our Interests through Engagement & Enlargement," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 284-297.

John Shalikashvili, "The National Military Strategy of the USA," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 298-310.

Charles Nelson, "Keeping the Edge," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 206-212.

National Security Policy of the United States, 2002. (PDF)

 
5 Analyzing National Security Policy (PDF)

Peter Hays, "Introduction to Part II," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 63-71.

Graham Allison, and Halperin, Morton, "Bureaucratic Politics: A Paradigm," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 25-32.

Robert Art, "A Critique of Bureaucratic Politics," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 33-42.

Ole Holsti, "Crisis, Stress, and Decision Making," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 248-257.

Iriving Janis, "The Groupthink Syndrome," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 262-276.

Robert Jervis, "Hypotheses on Misperception," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 262-276.

 
6 The President & Congress in National Security Policymaking (PDF)

Richard Neustadt, "The President's Power to Pursuade," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 73-80.

James Lindsay, "Congress & Defense Policy," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 81-92.

Linda Jamison, "Executive-Legislative Relations After the Cold War," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 93-100.

John Tower, Brent Scowcroft, & Edmund Muskie, "Organizing for National Security," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 185-188.

The War Powers Resolution 1973. (PDF)

 
7 The National Security Bureaucracy (PDF)

James Schlesenger, "The Office of the Secretary of Defense," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 101-108.

Carl Builder, "Service Identities & Behavior," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 108-121.

Vincent Davis, "Defense Reorganization and National Security," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 122-130.

Paula Scalingi, "U.S. Intelligence in and Age of Uncertainty," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 131-137.

Dave McCurdy, "Glasnost for the CIA," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 138-142.

Commission on the Roles and Capabilities of the U.S. Intelligence Community, "Preparing for the 21st Century," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 143-150.

 
8 Interest Groups, the Media, and the Public in National Security Policy (PDF)

Gordon Adams, "The Business of Defense," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 151-159.

Richard Halloran, "Soldiers and Scribblers: A Common Mission," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 160-169.

Catherine Kelleher, "Presidents, Polls, and the Use of Force," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 170-180.

First Paper Due in Class. (PDF)
National Secutiry Policy as History
9 The Beginning of the Cold War: 1945-1952(1) (PDF)

Gaddis, Chapters 1-3, Strategies of Containment.

Winston Churchill, "Iron Curtain Speech," The Times of London, March 6, 1946, 4.
X, "Sources of Soviet Conduct", in Foreign Affairs, July 1947, pp. 566-582.

Thomas J. Christensen, "Moderate Strategies and Crusading Rhetoric: Truman Mobilizes for a Bipolar World", Useful Adversaries: Grand Strategy, Domestic Mobilization, and Sino-American Conflict, 1947-1958, Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Press, pp. 32-76.

 
10 The Beginning of the Cold War: 1945-1952(2) (PDF)

Gaddis, Chapters 1-3, Strategies of Containment.

NSC-68; source1 or source2. (online)

 
11 & 12 American Remilitarizes 1952-1959 (PDF)

Gaddis, Strategies of Containment.

John Foster Dulles, "Massive Retaliation". (online)

Halperin, "Organizational Interests," Chapter 3 in Bureaucratic Politics & Foreign Policy, Brookings Institution.

Re-Write of First Paper Due in Class. (PDF)
13 & 14 America Remilitarizes Again! 1960-1968 (PDF - 1.1 MB)

Gaddis, Chapter 7, Strategies of Containment.

Alain Enthoven and Wayne Smith, "New Concepts and New Tools to Shape the Defense Program," in Richard Head and Ervin Rokke, American Defense Policy, pp. 349-358.

"The ABCs of PPBS," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 228-233.

Robert Kennedy, Thirteen Days.

Graham T. Allison, "Conceptual Models and the Cuban Missile Crisis," American Political Science Review, September 1969, pp. 689-718.

Morton Halperin, "The Decision to Deploy the ABM: Bureaucratic and Domestic Politics in the Johnson Administration," in Richard Head and Ervin Rokke, American Defense Policy, pp. 466-486.

Robert McNamara, "The No-Cities Doctrine," in The Uses of Force, pp. 148-149.

 
15 Vietnam & Strategic Superiority: 1965-1968 (PDF)

Gaddis, Chapter 7, Strategies of Containment.

FBI, Racial Violence Potential in the US this Summer [classified memo], 1967.

James C. Jr. Thompson, "How Could Vietnam Happen? An Autopsy," in The Atlantic Monthly, April 1968, pp. 41-53.

Leslie Gelb and Richard Betts, The Irony of Vietnam: The System Worked.

Lyndon Johnson, "Vietnam," Chapters 6 and 11 in The Vantage Point.

 
16 & 17 The Nixon Years: 1969-1974 (PDF - 1.1 MB)

Gaddis, Chapters 9 & 10, Strategies of Containment.

Sanders Sol and William Henderson, "The Consequences of ‘Vietnam," Orbis 21.1, pp. 61-76.

N-I-E 11-4-78 Soviet Goals and Expectations in the Global Power Arena. (PDF)

Sino-Soviet Conflict (source material). (online)

Raymond Garthoff, "Opening an Era of Negotiation: SALT I, 1969-72," chapter 5 in Détente and Confrontation.

Z. Brzezinski, Power and Principle.

Al Haig, Caveat, 1984.

James Kurth, "A Widening Gyre: The Logic of American Weapons Procurement," Public Policy, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Summer), pp. 373-404.

 
18 The Ford, and Carter Years: 1969-1979 (PDF - 1 MB)

Gaddis, Chapter 11, Strategies of Containment.

Z. Brzezinski, Power and Principle.

Second Paper Due in Class. (PDF)
19 America Remilitarizes Yet Again! (deja vu): 1980-1992 (1) (PDF - 1 MB)

Barry Posen and Steve Van Evera, "Defense Policy and the Reagan Administration: Departure from Containment," International Security, Vol. 8, No.1 (Summer 1983), pp. 3-45.

Reagan SDI Speech, 1982. (PDF)

N-I-E 11-4-82 Soviet Goals and Expectations in the Global Power Arena. (PDF)

Strobe Talbott, "SDI During the Reagan Years," Chapter 2 in Joseph S. Nye, Jr. and James Shear, On the Defensive? The Future of SDI.

Lieut., USN Res. David R. Hall, "The Constitution and Presidential War Making against Libya," in Naval War College Review, vol. XLII, no. 3, Summer 1989, pp. 30-45.

Lars-Erik Nelson, "Fantasia," The New York Review of Books, May 11, 2001. (online)

 
20 Managing the End of the Soviet Union -- The Bush (I) Administration: 1989-1992 (PDF)

Nick Kotz, "Wild Blue Yonder," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 213-226.

John Tower, Brent Scowcroft, and Edmund Muskie, "The Iran-Contra Affair," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 189-203.

Janice Stein, "Deterrence & Compellence in the Gulf War," in International Security, Vol. 17, Fall 1992, pp. 147-179.

Lawrence Freedman and Efraim Karsh, "How Kuwait was Won: Strategy in the Gulf War," in International Security, Vol. 16, No. 2, Fall 1991, pp. 5-41.

 
Basking in the Post-Cold War Sunshine 1992-2000
21 The Clinton Adminstration: 1993-2000 (PDF)

Vallance, "Introduction," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 503-506.

William Clinton, "Integrated Regional Approaches," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 508-513.

Ronald Montaperto, "Asia Pacific," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 514-522.

James Morrison, "Europe," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 523-533.

James Brustar, "Russia and Neighbors," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 534-542.

Jed Snyder, "Greater Middle East," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 543-554.

Barry Posen and Andrew L. Ross, "Competing Visions for U.S. Grand Strategy," in International Security, Vol. 21, Winter 1996/97, pp. 5-53.

Eugene Gholz, Daryl Press and Harvey Sapolsky, "Come Home, America: The Strategy of Restraint in the Face of Temptation," in International Security, vol. 21, no.4, Spring 1997: pp. 5-48.

Joseph S. Jr. Nye, "The Case for Deep Engagement," in Foreign Affairs 74.4, Jul/Aug 1995: pp. 90-102.

 
22 Terrorism & Technological Threats: Weapons of Mass Destruction

Marc Dean Millot, "Facing the Emerging Reality of Regional Nuclear Adversaries," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 453-470.

Homeland Security Strategy, 2002. (PDF - 2.6 MB)

TIPS Fact Sheet. (online)

"Planned Volunteer Informant Corps Elicits 1984 Fears," in Washington Times, July 16, 2002.

Steven Simon, and Daniel Benjamin, "America & the New Terrorism," in Survival, Vol. 42, No.1, Spring 2000, pp. 59-75.

 
23 & 24 Solutions I -- Nuclear Weapons (PDF)

James Schlesinger, "The Impact of Nuclear Weapons on History," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 312-315.

Roger Molander and Peter Wilson, "On Dealing with the Prospect of Nuclear Chaos," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 316-328.

Charles Allan, "Extended Conventional Deterrence," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 329-348.

John Deutch, "National Missile Defense: Is there another way?", in Foreign Policy Magazine, 2000 [online].

 
25     Third Paper Due (PDF)
26 Solutions II -- Conventional Forces

Donald Rice, "Global Reach -- Global Power," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 350-356.

Sheila Widnall and Ronald Fogelman, "Global Presence, "in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 357-359.

Eliot Cohen, "The Mystique of Airpower," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 360-365.

John Dalton, "Forward...From the Sea," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 366-368.

Jan Breemer, "The End of Naval Strategy," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 369-379.

Ike Skelton, "Joint and Combined Operations," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 380-386.

Carl Stiner, "US Special Operations Forces," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 388-392.

Samuel Huntington, "New Contingencies, Old Roles," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 393-396.

Sam Nunn, "Domestic Missions for the Armed Forces," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 397-400.

William Lewis, "Peacekeeping: The Deepening Debate," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 401-405.

Sarah Seewall, "Peace Operations: A Department of Defense Perspective," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 406-416.

 
27 Arms Control & Diplomacy

Gregory Rattray, "Introduction to Arms Control," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 418-422.

Kerry Kartchner, "The Objectives of Arms Control," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 423-429.

Jeffrey Larsen and Gregory Tattray, "Existing Arms Control Treaties," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 430-441.

Jeffrey Larsen and Gregory Tattray, "Ongoing Arms Control Negotiations," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 442-445.

Heather Wilson, "Missed Opportunities: Washington Politics & Nuclear Proliferation," in Hays, Vallance, & Van Tassel, American Defense Policy, pp. 446-452.