PLIR 4500. American-Russian Relations.

Spring 2017, Tuesdays, 6-8:30 pm

New Cabell Hall 036

Mr. Lynch

Office hours: Tuesdays & Wednesdays, 4:30-5:30 pm & by appointment

 

This course examines various aspects of American-Russian relations from both

historical and contemporary angles. It is in seminar format, requiring regular and informed participation in class discussions. All students are expected to be conversant with each week’s set of readings for the scheduled class. Work will be evaluated as follows:

1. One formal research proposal (20%), due February 21;
2. One take-home analytical essay (20%), due March 14;
3. A research paper (40%), due Tuesday, May 9, 5 pm at my office (397 Gibson);
4. Class participation (20%).

I shall be happy to read one draft of your paper before final submission. You will receive a critique of the paper but no grade. This is optional. Deadline for submission of the draft paper is April 25.

 

Between January 31 and April 11 or so, two students per class will make 10-15 minute presentations on key themes in the readings a way of framing issues for discussion for the class. Between April 4-May 2, inclusive, 3-4 students per class will give 10-minute presentations on their research in progress. The order of presentations is to be determined at the first class.

 

Books Ordered for Purchase:

David Foglesong, America’s Mission and the Evil Empire: the Crusade for a Free Russia      Since 1881

Norman Saul, Friends or Foes? The United States & Soviet Russia, 1921-1941

Melvyn Leffler, For the Soul of Mankind: the United States, the Soviet Union and the       Cold War

Jonathan Haslam, Russia’s Cold War: From the October Revolution to the Fall of the       Wall

James Wilson, The Triumph of Improvisation: Gorbachev’s Adaptability, Reagan’s           Engagement, and the End of the Cold War

Strobe Talbott, The Russia Hand: A Memoir of Presidential Diplomacy

James Goldgeier, Power and Purpose: U.S.Policy Toward Russia After the Cold War

Angela Stent, The Limits of Partnership: U.S.-Russian Relations in the Twenty-first          Century

Robert Legvold, The New Cold War

 

All other readings are available through the course Collab site.

 

Schedule of Classes:

 

January 24. Introduction to the Class.

 

January 31. Historical Legacies in American-Russian Relations, 1775-1914.

Read: David Foglesong, America’s Mission, 7-33; John Lewis Gaddis, Russia, the Soviet Union & the United States, chapters 1-2, pp. 1-56, Collab (hereafter “C”); John Stoessinger, Nations at Dawn, ch. 8-9 (C); N.N. Bolkhovitinov, Rejection of Alliance with England (C).

 

February 7. WWI and the Russian Revolution: Power and Ideologies.

Read: Folglesong, 34-59; Gaddis, ch.3, 57-86 (C); Robert Browder, Origins of Soviet-American Diplomacy, 3-19 (C); Thomas Bailey, America Faces Russia, 228-250 (C); Jon Jacobson, Ideological & Political Foundations (C).

 

February 14. The Interwar Period, 1920-41: Dialogue of the Deaf.

Read: Foglesong, 60-81; Browder, 19-48 (C); Gaddis, ch. 5-6, 87-146 (C); Bailey, 251-61 (C); Norman Saul, Friends or Foes?, 13-22, 44-78, 121-25, 174-81, 209-48.

 

February 21. WWII & the Origins of the Cold War, 1941-1950.

Read: Saul, 357-389; Fogelsong, 83-128; Melvyn Leffler, For the Soul of Mankind, 37-83; Jonathan Haslam, Russia’s Cold War, 1-111; David Holloway, Stalin and the Bomb (C).

Formal research proposal due in class (in paper form).

 

February 28. The Cold War System, 1950-1972.

Read: Foglesong, 129-54; Leffler, 84-233; Haslam, 112-213; Vladislav Zubok, The Nuclear Education of Nikita Khrushchev (C).

Take-home essay to be distributed.

 

 

March 7. SPRING BREAK: NO CLASS.

 

 

March 14. Détente, 1972-79.

Read: Foglesong, 155-173; Leffler, 234-337; Haslam, 214-327; Garthoff, Détente and Confrontation (C).

Take-home essay due in class (in paper form).

 

March 21. Reagan and Gorbachev: Testing the “Victory” Thesis.

Read: James Wilson, Triumph of Improvisation, 1-142; Haslam, 328-63; Foglesong, 174-95; Jack F. Matlock, Jr., A Common Agenda (C).

Take-home assignment due in class.

 

 

March 28. Ending the Cold War, 1987-1991.

Read: Leffler, 338-468; Haslam, 364-400; Wilson, 143-204; Mark Haas, U.S. & End of the Cold War (C); Angela Stent, Limits of Partnership, 1-12; James Goldgeier & Michael McFaul, Power and Purpose, pp.18-86.

 

April 4. The Liberal Experiment: 1992-99.

Read: Foglesong, 196-229; Strobe Talbott, The Russia Hand, 37-216; Goldgeier & McFaul, pp. 87-119, 183-210.

 

April 11. Realism Resurgent? 1999-2004.

Read: Stent, 49-158; Talbott, 298-369; Goldgeier & McFaul, pp.247-286; Thomas Ambrosio, Russo-American Dispute over Iraq (C).

 

April 18. Toward the Russo-Georgian War, August, 2008.

Read: Stent, 159-210; Goldgeier & McFaul, pp. 305-329; Thomas Ambrosio, Insulating Russia from a Color Revolution (C); Andrei P. Tsygankov, ch.6, “’Expansionism by Habit & American Security,” in Andrei P. Tsygankov, Russophobia (2009), pp. 117-135 (C); Dmitri Trenin, Russia Leaves the West (C).

 

April 25. The Obama “Reset,” 2009-2013.

Read: Stent, 211-74; Andrew Kuchins, Obama Administration & Reset (C); Daniel Treisman and Andrei Shleifer, Why Russia Says No (C); Angela Stent, “Putin’s Power Play in Syria,” Foreign Affairs, January-February 2016, pp. 106-113 (C).

Deadline to submit draft paper for “free” reading before final submission. (Optional.)

 

May 2. The Crisis Over Ukraine and Russian-American Relations, 2013-2017.

(Class may have to be rescheduled; we shall discuss in class.)

Read: Robert Legvold, The New Cold War, in its entirety; Stent, 275-306 (also Collab); John Mearsheimer, “Why the Ukraine Crisis is the West’s Fault,” Foreign Affairs, September/October 2014 (C); Alexander Lukin, “What the Kremlin is Thinking,” Foreign Affairs, July/August 2014, at: www.foreignaffais.com/issues/2014/94/4; Emma Ashford, “Not-so Smart Sanctions,” Foreign Affairs, January-February 2016, pp. 114-123 (C).  

May 9 (Tuesday), 5 p.m.—Research paper due at 397 Gibson, in paper form.