Sections offered FALL 2019:
#13134 |
DINA SPECHLER |
TuTh 4:00pm-5:15pm |
WH 003 |
CLASS NOTES: COLL (CASE) S&H Breadth of Inquiry credit; meets with POLS-Y 360.
Contrary to once widely held expectations, the end of the Cold War has not eliminated the threat to national and planetary survival posed by nuclear weapons. Both the US and Russia retain huge arsenals, which both sides are working hard to modernize. Russia has begun to deploy some of these in forward positions and has threatened to use them against American allies. A growing number of other states, some of them hostile to the United States, are acquiring significant arsenals of their own. Meanwhile, the process of nuclear proliferation has accelerated and increased the danger of nuclear war from miscalculation, accident or detonation by terrorists. At the same time, the United States, like the other nuclear superpower, is faced with serious environmental damage and substantial risks resulting from the production and storage of nuclear warheads and fuel over many decades.
This course will examine the key decisions over the last 70 years by policy makers in the US that contributed to the creation of this dangerous situation, how the U.S. has employed diplomacy to avoid nuclear war and reduce its likelihood, the contemporary consequences of its past decisions, and the prospects for the future. We will consider the options open to American decision makers at the time, the wisdom of and rationale for the choices they made, and what should be done now.
The course is likely to involve lectures, videos and discussions. Weekly reading will be 50-60 pages in length, including many original source documents (memoirs, letters, and speeches) and news articles from the past and present, as well as analysts’ discussions of the issues. All readings will be available on Canvas. There will be a short paper, a midterm and a final exam.