Current as of 2/2/12
Course: “Ethics in International Relations”
MSFS-600-02
Thursday 9:30am-12:00pm
Master of Science in Foreign Service
Georgetown University Main Campus
New South M34B
Professor: Amb. Mark P. Lagon, Ph.D.
· Email:
· Phone: 202-687-8417 (office), 202-689-4492 (cell)
Office Hours: ICC 805, Wednesdays 10:00-11:30am and
Thursdays 3:00-4:30pm
Scope and Purpose: This course is designed and required for students in the MSFS International Relations and Security Concentration to take at some time before they receive their degree. It addresses ethical dilemmas arising careers in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. More than focusing primarily on abstract morality or philosophy, its premise is that in these sectors there are every-day ethics involved in decision-making, choosing between values, and weighing priorities and tradeoffs. Decision-making on both ends (such as peace, profit, or pluralism) and means to achieve them (such as coercion, cooperation, conciliation, and commerce) involve ethical reasoning. The course will offer frameworks as decision-making tools, including those drawn from natural, national, and international law, yet will emphasize discussion of specific issues and cases. It will focus on key problems as mass atrocities, dealing with illiberal governments, forms of slavery, gender justice and opportunity, poverty and hunger, corporate responsibility, and public health. It will explore choice of means, such as military force, counterterrorism measures, economic sanctions, use of contractors rather than public institutions, compromise, and constructive partisanship, as well as dissent and resignation in professional settings.
Course Objectives & Skill Acquisition: In a flagship graduate program devoted to preparing for leadership and service in the world, this course will heighten skills in critical and normative thinking. Distinct from description, explanation, and prediction as modes of analysis, normative thinking is prescriptive analysis about desirable outcomes, and ways professional decisions can advance or hinder them. The course will seek to hone decision-making judgment – something which will endure through the morphing of world affairs and landscape of careers in a student’s lifetime. The course will build skills of concise, effective written and oral argumentation based on ethical reasoning through (1) a largely Socratic-method style of class sessions, (2) students critically commenting on readings in class when questioned and volunteering views, and (3) concise papers applying readings to scenarios, available for classmates to see on Blackboard.
Course Requirements/Grading: This course involves a variety of ways to be evaluated – in order to improve in different forms of communication, and to offer some fairness by accounting for those who excel in one form of communication rather than another.
In-Class Participation – 30%. This is a small class permitting rich discussion. Also, the course has a substantial amount of reading on which the instructor will engage students with questions by Socratic method, with the expectation they have read it on time and with thought. Advice: try to enjoy the exercise, designed to sharpen oral argumentation. Be assured, humiliation will not be applied for flubbing.
5 Short Papers – each 8%. In several sessions, half the students in the class on an alternating basis will write 2-3 page memos (500-750 words maximum) -- double-spaced in 12-point font. They must apply a Required Reading or a Recommended Reading of their choice to address 1 of 2 very brief scenarios posted on Blackboard at least 5 days before the pertinent session. Memos should weigh competing values in a decision. How well rather than what position one argues will be the basis of grades. Students are required to post their papers by 8:00pm the day before the class session on the course’s Blackboard Discussion Board, for others to see. You are also required to bring a hardcopy of the paper to class to hand in. Students are required to at least once choose to write about 1 of the Recommended Readings which intrigues them.
To ease into this exercise, the whole class will write the first paper, and it will be due 6 days after Class #2. Thereafter, papers will be due before a session (4 more for each student).
Final Examination – 30%. There will be a take-home exam with a limited time period to complete it, to assess what you have absorbed from the whole course and can integrate. On given scenarios you can select from, you will write 3 memos to a fictitional boss of no more than 500 words each (requiring you to be even more succinct than on the 5 papers).
During the semester I will give grades with numbers out of 100. (For instance, 80 will be low B-, 82 a high B-, 83 a low B, 86 a high B, 87 a low B+, 89 a high B+, and so on.) The MSFS has agreed upon a general standard for distribution of final course grades to establish expectations and fairness, as follows:
20% A
30% A-
30% B+
20% B and below
In any class of 18 or fewer students, final grades cannot precisely break down this way, but they will approximately reflect this distribution.
Required Readings: The following 8 books are among Required Readings, and are available for purchase at the Georgetown University Bookstore, and on reserve at Lauinger Library:
Jack L. Goldsmith, The Terror Presidency: Law and Judgment Inside the Bush Administration
Stefan A. Halper, The Beijing Consensus: How China's Authoritarian Model Will Dominate the Twenty-First Century
Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide
Terry Nardin and David R. Mapel (eds.), Traditions of International Ethics
Samantha Power, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide
John Rawls, The Law of Peoples
Allison Stanger, One Nation Under Contract: The Outsourcing of American Power and the Future of Foreign Policy
Michael Walzer, Just And Unjust Wars: A Moral Argument With Historical Illustrations
Reading assignments for each session are listed in the Course Schedule below. (Note that there is reading for the very first session.) There are additional readings beyond the books above, as indicated below -- all available on-line or on Blackboard. Absorbing the main themes (not minutiae) of all readings by the class session is a basic expectation.
Recommended readings are listed for each session. One can be used in a paper if it appears intriguing, yet otherwise these are only suggestions for additional reading, most likely after the course.
Course Schedule:
Note: We will schedule an evening screening over pizza in April of the film “Invictus.”
Class 1 – Thurs. Jan. 12
Topic: Introduction and Frameworks for Decision-Making
1. Course Overview and Requirements; Syllabus Walk-Through
2. Ethics of Ends and of Means
3. Illustrative Discussion of South Africa: Violent Resistance, Business
Engagement, Sanctions, Accountability, Reconciliation, HIV/AIDS, Zimbabwe
4. Philosophical Traditions: Skepticism and Hope about Perfection of Humankind
Readings:
Required (come prepared to discuss):
· Nardin/Mapel, Chapter 1, 4, 5, 9, 12-14
· Sohail Hashmi, “The Islamic View of International Ethics,” David R. Mapel and Terry Nardin (eds.), International Society: Diverse Ethical Perspectives [Posted on Blackboard.]
· Cho-yun Hsu, “Applying Confucian Ethics to International Relations,” Ethics and International Affairs Volume 5 (1991) (find on-line at www.nyu.edu/classes/gmoran/CONFUCIAN.pdf).
Reference/Recommended:
· Strongly recommended as a reference: Thomas L. Pangle and Peter J. Ahrensdorf, Justice Among Nations, all but Chapters 4 and 6 [On reserve at Lauinger Library]
· Charles Beitz, Political Theory and International Relations
· Hedley Bull, The Anarchical Society.
· Richard W. Miller, Globalizing Justice: The Ethics of Poverty and Power
Class 2 – Thurs. Jan. 19
Topic: Poverty and International Assistance
1. Legal Traditions: Natural, National, and International
2. Utilitarian and Rawlsian “Original Position” Visions, and Options in Between
3. Poverty and Hunger Alleviation as an End
4. How Poverty Links to Rights and Rule of Law
5. Foreign Aid as a Means
6. The Role of NGOs and UN agencies
Readings:
Required:
· 2 short scenarios posted on Blackboard by 1 day in advance of class (as a paper is not due until Jan. 25, given the abnormally heavy reading).
· John Rawls, The Law of Peoples, Sections 1-4, 6-12, 15-18
· Nardin/Mapel, Chapters 2, 3, 6, 8, and 11
· Gary Haugen and Victor Boutros, “And Justice for All” in Foreign Affairs, May-June 2010 [Posted on Blackboard.]
· Skim: Irene Khan, The Unheard Truth, Chapters 1 (pp. 1-17 only), 4, 5, and 9 [Posted on Blackboard.]
· Jagdish Bhagwati, “Banned Aid: Why International Assistance Does Not Alleviate Poverty,” Foreign Affairs Vol. 89, No. 1 (January/February 2010) (read on-line at www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/65905/jagdish-bhagwati/banned-aid)
· Leif Wenar, “Accountability in International Development Aid,” Ethics and International Affairs 20:1 (Spring 2006) [Posted on Blackboard.]
Reference/Recommended:
· Strongly recommended: Robert George, “Natural Law,” in David R. Mapel and Terry Nardin (eds.), International Society: Diverse Ethical Perspectives [Posted on Blackboard.]
· Hedley Bull, “Natural Law and International Relations,” British Journal of International Studies (1979) 171-181 (find on-line at http://www.jstor.org/pss/20096861).
· As a reference: Chris Brown, Terry Nardin and Nicholas Rengger (eds.), International Relations in Political Thought: Texts from the Ancient Greeks to the First World War
· Myres S. McDougal, W. Michael Reisman, and Burns H. Weston, Toward World Order and Human Dignity
· Martti Koskenniemi, “Miserable Comforters: International Relations as New Natural Law,” European Journal of International Relations Vol. 15, No. 3 (2009).
· John Ruggie, “What Makes the World Hang Together: Neo-Utilitarianism and the Social Constructivist Challenge,” International Organization (Autumn 1998) (find on-line at www.jstor.org/stable/pdfplus/2601360.pdf?acceptTC=true)
· Strongly recommended: Thomas Pogge, “World Poverty and Human Rights” Ethics and International Affairs 19:1 (Spring 2005) [Posted on Blackboard.]
· Strongly recommended: Mathias Risse, “Do We Owe the Global Poor Assistance or Rectification?,” Ethics and International Affairs 19:1 (Spring 2005) [Posted on Blackboard.]
· Ethan Kapstein, “Models of Economic Justice,” Ethics and International Affairs 18:2 (Fall 2004) [Posted on Blackboard.]
· Paul Collier, The Bottom Billion: Why the Poorest Countries are Failing and What Can Be Done About It, Chapters 1-6 [Posted on Blackboard.]
· Dambisa Moyo, Dead Aid: Why Aid Is Not Working and How There Is a Better Way for Africa
· Nancy Birdsall, “Do No Harm: Aid, Weak Institutions and the Missing Middle in Africa,” Development Policy Review, Vol. 25, Issue 5 (Sep. 2007), pp. 575-98.
· Jagdish Bhagwati, In Defense of Globalization
· Amartya Sen, Development as Freedom
· Robert Packenham, Liberal America and the Third World: Political Development Ideas in Foreign Aid and Social Science
· David Halloran Lumsdaine, Moral Vision in International Politics: The Foreign Aid Regime, 1949-1989
· Roger C. Riddell, Does Foreign Aid Really Work?, Chapters 8, 9, and 20.
· Hernando de Soto, The Other Path: The Economic Answer to Terrorism
· Franz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth
· William Twining (ed.), Human Rights, Southern Voices
Assignment:
· Due by 5pm Jan. 25, posted on Blackboard and slipped under my door in ICC 805, the whole class will: write a 500-750 word maximum double-spaced memo on 1 of the given scenarios, applying a reading (Required or Recommended).
Thurs. Jan. 26 – No class due to New York trip for First Year MSFS students
Class 3 – Thurs. Feb. 2
Topic: Gender Justice and Opportunity
1. Empowering Women and Girls
2. Violence Against Women
3. Sexual Violence as a Political Weapon
4. Sex Trafficking
[Pick in class from which region you will read 5 countries’ profile in 2011 Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report for the next session.]
Readings:
Required:
· Kristof/WuDunn book
· Skim: Catharine A. MacKinnon, “Trafficking, Prostitution, and Inequality,” Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, Volume 46, pp. 271-309 (find on-line at http://www.prostitutionresearch.com/laws/000316.html).
· “Electing to Rape: Sexual Terror in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe,” Paper of AIDS-Free World (find on-line at www.dlapiper.com/files/upload/Zim_Report_Final.pdf)
Reference/Recommended:
· Aristophanes, Lysistrata (ancient Greek play)
· Catharine A. MacKinnon, Are Women Human? And Other International Dialogues
· Isobel Coleman, Paradise Beneath Her Feet
· Nicholas Eberstadt, “Global War Against Baby Girls,” The New Atlantis, Fall 2011, pp.3-18 (find on-line at http://www.thenewatlantis.com/docLib/20111214_TNA33Eberstadt.pdf
· Lydia Cacho, Esclavas Del Poder: Un Viaje Al Corazon De La Trata Sexual De Mujeres Y Ninas En El Mundo [Slaves of Power: A Journey into Sex Trafficking of Women and Girls Around the World] (available only in Spanish).
· Siddharth Kara, Sex Trafficking.
Assignment:
· No paper due, given New York trip and recent paper.
Class 4 – Thurs. Feb. 9
Topic: Slavery Then and Now
1. Slavery of the Past: Lessons from the British—Legal and Military Means
2. Supply and Demand in Human and Drug Trafficking
3. Human Trafficking: For Sexual and Labor Exploitation
4. Ethics of International Migration
Readings:
Required:
• 2 short scenarios posted on Blackboard by 5 days in advance of class.
· Annual Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report (read on-line at http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2011/index.htm) – Choosing 1 region of the world you indicate during Class 3, read 5 country narratives from the region; and also closely read the “Introductory Material” and “Relevant International Conventions and Closing Material” before and after the country-by-country narratives.
· Mark P. Lagon “Trafficking and Human Dignity” in Policy Review [Posted on Blackboard, or read on-line at www.hoover.org/publications/policyreview/35561684.html]
· Khalid Koser, "Why Migration Matters,” Current History (April 2009). [Posted on Blackboard.]
· Joseph H. Carens, “The Rights of Irregular Migrants,” Ethics and International Affairs 22:2 (Summer 2008) [Posted on Blackboard.]
Reference/Recommended:
· Hugh Thomas, The Slave Trade
· Bernard Edwards, Royal Navy Versus The Slave Traders: Enforcing Abolition at Sea 1808-1898
· Eric Metaxas, Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery
· Isabel Allende, Island Beneath the Sea (novel about slavery in Haiti)
· Kevin Bales, Ending Slavery: How We Free Today's Slaves
· Lydia Cacho, Esclavas Del Poder: Un Viaje Al Corazon De La Trata Sexual De Mujeres Y Ninas En El Mundo [Slaves of Power: A Journey into Sex Trafficking of Women and Girls Around the World] (available only in Spanish).