Undergraduate Module Descriptor

POL2052: Foreign Policy: Leadership, Power and Responsibility

This module descriptor refers to the 2019/0 academic year.

Module Aims

This module will introduce you to a broad range of scholarship that addresses the field of foreign policy. This area of study has traditionally been separate from other branches of international relations. This module will encourage you to consider the more theoretical texts in light of recent foreign policy crises

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

This module's assessment will evaluate your achievement of the ILOs listed here – you will see reference to these ILO numbers in the details of the assessment for this module.
On successfully completing the programme you will be able to:
Module-Specific Skills1. demonstrate substantive knowledge of the main theories of foreign policy and be able to adopt critical positions adopted towards them.
2. show an ability to identify and discuss the key concepts in relation to decision-making,
3. identify clearly the contention made by the different theories of leadership, power and responsibility and engage in reasoned criticism of such theories.
Discipline-Specific Skills4. criticise and construct arguments with regard both to their logical rigour and political plausibility
5. exercise informed judgement concerning the policy implications of abstract political principles.
Personal and Key Skills6. present complex arguments with clarity and concision.
7. show an empathetic understanding of the role played by leaders under crisis conditions.

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

Steve Smith, Amelia Hadfield, Tim Dunne eds., Foreign Policy: Theories, Actors, Cases Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.


Graham Allison and Philip Zelikow, Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis 2nd edn., New York: Longman, 1999.


Walter Carlsnaes, International Relations and Foreign Policy, London: Sage, 2008.

Christopher Hill, The Changing Context of Foreign Policy, London: Palgrave, 2003.

Valerie Hudson, Foreign Policy Analysis: Classic and Contemporary Theory, New York: Rowman & Littlefied, 2007.

Chris Alden and Amnon Aran, Foreign Policy Analysis: New Approaches, Routledge 2012.

 

Michael Cox and Doug Stokes eds., US Foreign Policy, Oxford University Press, 2012.

 

Amelia Hadfield, British Foreign Policy, National Identity, and Neoclasical Realism, Roman & Littlefield 2010.

 

Steven W. Hook and Christopher M. Jones, eds., Routledge Handbook of American Foreign Policy, Routledge, 2011.

 

Michael Mandelbaum, ‘Foreign Policy as Social Work’, Foreign Affairs January/February 1996.

 

Alex Mintz and Karl DeRouen Jr. Understanding Foreign Policy Decision Making, Cambridge University Press, 2010.

 

I. L. Janis, Groupthink, 2nd ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1982.

 

P. Keal, Ethics and Foreign Policy, Allen & Unwin, 1992.

 

Richard C. Snyder, et al., Foreign Policy Decision-Making (Revisited), Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.