Policymaking for a Global Era

(3 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Policymaking for a Global Era provides students with the intellectual foundations necessary to understand the dilemmas and opportunities faced by decision-makers during the policymaking process. The course has three modules. The first investigates how policymakers' world views and choices are shaped by experimental, cultural, normative and decision making structures. It also examines how regime type and country size constrain policymakers' options. The second module examines the numerous domestic and international actors and factors that influence the foreign policymaking process in the U.S. - including the presidency, intelligence services, the Congress, media, NGOs, international institutions, and foreign governments. In the third module we study policymaking in three Asian countries - China, India, and Vietnam. This comparative approach illustrates how elements such as culture, country size, and regime type, which were introduced in the first module, affect these countries foreign policymakers' decisions. The course concludes with a policymaking crisis simulation that employs the lessons learned throughout the course. The course assignments are three 5-page policy memoranda and robust class participation.