Postgraduate Module Descriptor


POLM104: US Foreign Policy

This module descriptor refers to the 2020/1 academic year.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

Whilst the module’s precise content may vary from year to year, it is envisaged that the syllabus will cover some or all of the following topics:

Week 1 Introduction: Main Themes of US Foreign Policy 

Week 2 The Beginning of the Cold War

Week 3 Truman Doctrine and Marshall Aid 

Week 4 Eisenhower’s Strategies of Containment: New Look and massive retaliation

Week 5 Kennedy: the New Frontier and Flexible Response

Week 6 Carter’s Quest for World Order and Reagan’s Cold War II

Week 7 The Post-Cold War and US Unipolarity: American Recommitment to NATO

Week 8 The US Engagement in Kosovo

Week 9  The US and the War on Terror

Week 10 Obama and Libya: ‘The New American Way of War?’

Week 11 From Obama to Trump: A Post-Liberal Multipolar World?

Learning and Teaching

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

Scheduled Learning and Teaching ActivitiesGuided independent studyPlacement / study abroad
22 2780

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

CategoryHours of study timeDescription
Scheduled Learning & Teaching activities2211 x 2 hour per week seminars including small group work, presentations, discussion, reflection and simulations.
Guided independent study278Reading (150 hours), reflection (50 hours), essay writing (78 hours).

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).

The main resource students will need will be my twitter feed currently @drdws but this will change. Search for Doug Stokes.