Hist. 251, Spring 2005 The Uses (and Misuses) of History in International Affairs The George Washington University
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- Apr. 28-May 5 Lessons of History and the Occupation of Iraq
| Hist. 251, Spring 2005
The Uses (and Misuses) of History in International Affairs The George Washington University Professor Hope M. Harrison Off. Hrs: 1957 E. St., N.W., Suite 412L Thurs. 5:10-7 p.m. Wed. 3-5, Thurs., 2:30-5 and after class 1957 E. St., N.W., Room 503W and by appointment e-mail: hopeharr@gwu.edu Phone: 994-5439 Course description: This course is for M.A. students at the Elliott School. It examines some of the ways that history affects international affairs, including how policymakers in the US and elsewhere "learn" from the past to inform their current policy decisions and how they and others politicize the past for current goals. What is history? How is it portrayed? How can we learn from it? How does it affect international affairs? What are the kinds of lessons policymakers tend to learn from history and why? What are some of the ways alleged "lessons of history" can mislead us? What are methods of learning from history in more useful ways? Do historical analogies help or hinder policymaking? How do political leaders deal with difficult parts of their country's history? These are some of the core issues we will study in this course. We will examine the interconnections between history, collective memory, and identity looking at cases from Armenia, Germany, the U.S., and elsewhere. We will also study different ways countries handle their "criminal" past and in particular how new regimes deal with officials who served in overthrown regimes (cases include France, Germany, the former Yugoslavia, South Africa, Chile, Iraq and others). History and politics come together in complicated ways in war crimes tribunals and in truth and reconciliation commissions. One of the most common ways people "learn" from history is by making analogies, such as: "Slobodan Milosevic or Saddam Hussein or Al Qaeda terrorists are like Adolph Hitler, so we should follow the same hard-line strategy against them as we did against Hitler." We shall see that sometimes the historical analogies we make are correct and useful, but sometimes they can be very misleading, such as when there aren't as many parallels between a historical case and a current case as we think. Thus, following the strategy that worked for the historical case may not work with the current case. We will examine the analogies policymakers have drawn to Versailles, Munich, and Vietnam. In doing so, we will examine the origins of the cold war, the origins of US involvement in the Korean War, the escalation of US involvement in the Vietnam War, the Vietnam "syndrome," Afghanistan, and the war on terrorism. Requirements and Grading: 20% participation (meaning attendance AND participation in class discussion) 40% for four 3-page papers 40% 15-page research paper due Fri. May 13 at 12 p.m. (must include notes and bibliography) Academic Integrity: All work that you hand in for this class must be the product of your own labors for this class. If you are confused about how to properly cite your sources or anything else relevant to academic integrity, please come talk to me or consult the Code of Academic Integrity (available in the Student Planner and Handbook and elsewhere). 8 books, Required Reading for Purchase: Edward T. Linenthal and Tom Engelhardt, eds., History Wars: The Enola Gay and Other Battles for the American past. Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company, 1996. E.H. Carr, What is History? Random House, 1967. Richard E. Neustadt and Ernest R. May, Thinking in Time. Free Press, 1988. Yuen Foong Khong, Analogies at War. Princeton Univ. Press, 1991. Philip Zelikow and Condoleeza Rice, Germany Unified and Europe Transformed: A Study in Statecraft. Harvard Univ. Press, 1997. Priscilla B. Hayner, Unspeakable Truths: Confronting State Terror and Atrocity. Routledge, 2001/2. Gary Jonathan Bass, Stay the Hand of Vengeance: The Politics of War Crimes Tribunals. Princeton University Press, 2000. A. James McAdams, Judging the Past in Unified Germany. Cambridge Univ. Press, 2001.
Norman M. Naimark, Fires of Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 2001. Robert D. Kaplan, Eastward to Tatary: Travels in the Balkans, the Middle East, and the Caucasus. NY: Random House, 2000. Mim Öke, The Armenian Question, 1914-1923. K. Rustem & Brother, 1998. Ernest R. May, "Lessons" of the Past: The Use and Misuse of History in American Foreign Policy. NY: Oxford Univ. Press, 1973. (Chapter 2) Robert Jervis, Perception and Misperception in International Politics. Princeton Univ. Press, 1976. Arnold R. Isaacs, Vietnam Shadows: The War, Its Ghosts and Its Legacy. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1997. Jeffrey Record, Making War, Thinking History: Munich, Vietnam and Presidential uses of Force from Korea to Kosovo. Naval Institute Press, 2002. Robert I. Rotberg and Dennis Thompson, Truth v. Justice: The Morality of Truth Commissions. Princeton Univ. Press, 2000.
"Hiroshima: Why the Bomb Was Dropped" Viewing of this ABC News documentary, narrated by Peter Jennings and aired on July 25, 1995, the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II. Hand-out of questions to be answered on the documentary. Feb. 3 Hiroshima and the Enola Gay: The History and the Planned Smithsonian Exhibit Gar Alperovitz, "Hiroshima: Historians Reassess," Foreign Policy, No. 99 (Summer 1995), pp. 15-34. Barton J. Bernstein, "Hiroshima, Rewritten," New York Times, January 31, 1995. (hand-out) Karen de Witt, "Smithsonian Scales Back Exhibit Of Plane in Atomic Bomb Attack," New York Times, January 31, 1995. (hand-out) Edward T. Linenthal and Tom Engelhardt, eds., History Wars: The Enola Gay and other Battles for the American Past, Ch’s 1, 4, pp. 150-141, 167-70 of Ch. 5, ch. 6, ch. 7
Eric Hobsbawm, "The New Threat to History," New York Review of Books (Dec. 16, 1993), pp. 62-64. Norman Davies, "The Misunderstood Victory in Europe," New York Review of Books (May 25, 1995), pp. 7-11. E.H. Carr, What is History? Chapters 1-4 at least. Feb. 17 Turkey and Armenia and the Events of 1915: Genocide or Not? Norman M. Naimark, Fires of Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press, 2001. Ch. 1, "The Armenians and Greeks of Anatolia," pp. 17-42. Robert D. Kaplan, Eastward to Tatary: Travels in the Balkans, the Middle East, and the Caucasus. NY: Random House, 2000, pp. 311-320.(the Armenian view) Mim Öke, The Armenian Question, 1914-1923 (K. Rustem & Brother, 1998), pp. 127-51, 178-93, 208-216. (the Turkish view) (and excerpts from Justin McCarthy, Death and Exile: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ottoman Muslims, 1821-1922 and from Kamuran Gueruen, The Armenian File: The Myth of Innocence Exposed) to be distributed in class: U.S. Presidential Statements annually on Armenian Day of Remembrance, April 24: 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004. Douglas Frantz, "Enemies Armenia and Turkey Softly Try to Broach Detente," New York Times, Feb. 5, 2001. Paul Glastris, "Armenia's History, Turkey's Dilemma," Washington Post, March 11, 2001. Lori Montgomery, "Maryland Drawn Into A Distant Dispute," Washington Post, March 26, 2001. Douglas Frantz, "Unofficial Commission Acts to Ease Turkish-Armenian Enmity," New York Times, July 10, 2001. Editorial, "Meet the Past," The Globe and Mail, July 12, 2001. Stephen Kinzer, "Plans for Museum Buoy Armenians and Dismay Turks," New York Times, April 24, 2002. Materials from discussions in the House of Representatives in the fall of 2000 on a Congressional resolution on the Armenian genocide, including "Defeat of House Resolution on 'Armenian Genocide'," American Journal of International Law, Vol. 95, Issue 2 (Apr. 2001), pp. 396-97. 2nd 3-page paper. And exercise in class with students representing the Armenians, the Turks, the Congress, the White House, the State Department, and the Pentagon. Part 2: History and Analogy Feb. 24 Analogical Reasoning Cases: Munich, Hitler, the Cold War, Stalin, and Korea Neustadt and May, Thinking in Time, Ch's 1-4. Yuen Foong Khong, Analogies at War, Ch's 1-2. Ernest R. May, "Lessons" of the Past, Ch. 2. "The Cold War: Preventing World War II," pp. 19-51. (book on reserve at Gelman) Jeffrey Record, Making War, Thinking History: Munich, Vietnam, and Presidential Uses of Force from Korea to Kosovo, pp. 11-18. Analogies and wars (speeches to be distributed): Speeches by President Bush making an analogy between Al Qaeda and fascism on Dec. 7, 2001, "President Bush's remarks to the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise in honor of the 60th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor." President Bush, NSA Rice, and Senator Kennedy on how much the Cuban Missile Crisis is a relevant analogy to a war against Iraq. Bush's Oct. 7, 2002 speech on Iraq. March 3 Vietnam. TOPIC DUE FOR RESEARCH PAPER Yuen Foong Khong, Analogies at War, Ch's 3-9. Neustadt and May, Thinking in Time, Ch. 5.
Arnold R. Isaacs, Vietnam Shadows: The War, Its Ghosts and Its Legacy. Johns Hopkins Univ. Press, 1997. Ch. 4, "The Syndrome," pp. 65-102. March 10 Learning from History Robert Jervis, Perception and Misperception in International Politics. Princeton Univ. Press, 1976. Ch. 6, "How Decisionmakers Learn from History," pp. 217- 282. (Book on reserve at Gelman.) Neustadt and May, Ch's 6-14.
Philip Zelikow and Condoleeza Rice, Germany Unified and Europe Transformed: A Study in Statecraft. What "lessons of history" do you think Rice drew from this experience? Stephen F. Szabo, The Diplomacy of German Unification. St. Martin's Press, 1992, pp. 53-54. (handed out in class) Nicholas Lemann, "Without a Doubt: Has Condoleezza Rice changed George W. Bush, or has he changed her?" The New Yorker, Oct. 14 & 22, 2002. (on-line or forwarded from me) Tues. March 29, 1-2 page outline and preliminary bibliography due in my office by 12:00 Part 3: History, Politics, and Coming to Terms with the Past March 31 How to Deal with the Crimes of Past Regimes: Truth Commissions Priscilla B. Hayner, Unspeakable Truths: Confronting State Terror and Atrocity. NY: Routledge, 2001/2. Chapter by Charles Maier, "Doing History, Doing Justice," in Robert I. Rotberg & Dennis Thompson, Truth v. Justice: The Morality of Truth Commissions (Princeton Univ. Press, 2000). Exercise in class on truth commission. Apr. 7 The Politics of War Crimes Tribunals Gary Jonathan Bass, Stay the Hand of Vengeance: The Politics of War Crimes Tribunals (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000). Bass, "Milosevic and The Hague," Foreign Affairs, May/June 2003.
A. James McAdams, Judging the Past in Unified Germany (NY: Cambridge University Press, 2001). Packet of newspaper articles on Berlin Wall trials (to be distrib. in class).
Shuko Ogawa, “The difficulty of apology: Japan’s Struggle with Memory and Guilt.” Harvard International Review, Fall 2000. (on-line) Steven C. Clemons, “Recovering from Japan’s Wartime Past—and Ours.” New York Times, Sept. 4, 2001. (on-line) Bonnie B. C. Oh, “The Japanese Imperial System and the Korean ‘Comfort Women’ of World War II.” Ch. 1 in Legacies of the Comfort Women of World War II, Margaret Stetz and Bonnie B.C. Oh, eds. NY: M.E. Sharpe, 2001. Chunghee Sarah Soh, “The Korean ‘Comfort Women’: Movement for Redress.” Asian Survey, Vol. 36, no. 12 (Dec. 1996), pp. 1226-1340. (on-line with JSTOR) Christine M. Chinkin, “Women International Tribunal on Japanese Military Sexual Slavery.” American Journal of International Law, Vol. 95, no. 2 (Apr. 2001), pp. 335-341. (on-line with JSTOR) Hun Sook Kim, “History and Memory: The ‘Comfort Women’ Controversy.” Chapter in Positions. East asia cultures critique, Vol. 5, no. 1 (Spring 1997), volume on “the comfort women: colonialism, war and sex,” pp. 73-106.
Apr. 28-May 5 Lessons of History and the Occupation of Iraq4th 4-page paper due in class on Apr. 28. This paper must draw on reading and concepts from the whole course. Part 1, Apr. 28: relevance of previous occupationsRelevance of occupations of Germany and Japan after World War II. Relevance of lessons of Afghanistan CRS report for Congress by Nina M. Serafino, “U.S. Occupation of Iraq? Lessons Raised by Experiences in Japan and Germany,” Jan. 30, 2003. Karen DeYoung and Peter Slevin, “Full U.S. Control Planned for Iraq,” Washington Post, Feb. 20, 2003. Joe Stephens and David B. Ottaway, “Postwar Reconstruction Efforts Have Had Dicey History,” Washington Post, Apr. 28, 2003. Rachel Belton, “Rebuilding Iraq: No Job for a Coalition,” Washington Post, Apr. 28, 2003. Michael R. Gordon, “Baghdad Peace: Made in Kosovo,” New York Times, Apr. 18, 2003. Paul Kennedy, “The Perils of Empire: This Looks Like America’s moment. History Should Give Us Pause,” Washington Post, Apr. 20, 2003. A.G. Hopkins, “Lessons of ‘Civilizing Missions’ Are Mostly Unlearned,” New York Times, March 23, 2003. Wesley K. Clark, “Occupation no Model for This One,” Washington Post, March 23, 2003. Susan Chira, “Invasion is Easy. Occupation is Hard,” New York Times, Apr. 13, 2003. Vernon Loeb, “6 Nations Agree to Role in Policing Postwar Iraq,” Washington Post, May 2, 2003. Part 2, May 5: how to handle the past of Saddam’s Ba’athist regime: Trials in Iraq? International trials? Execute perpetrators? Open up secret police files? Truth commission? Change textbooks? Erect memorials and museums?
Ian Fisher, “As Hussein Faded, Prisoners Were Executed,” New York Times, Apr. 28, 2003. Odai Sirri, “Iraq may need a truth and reconciliation commission,” Al Jazeera.net, Apr. 19, 2003. Scott Wilson, “Army Seizes Massive Files on Iraq’s Secret Prisoners,” Washington Post, Apr. 30, 2003. Robert Darnton, “Burn a Country’s Past and You Torch Its Future,” Washington Post, Apr. 32, 2003. Pauline Jelinek, “Saddam’s Enforcers May Face Prosecution,” Washington Post, Apr. 20, 2003. Philip Kennicott, “For Hate and Anger, a Statute of Limitations, “Washington Post, Apr. 10, 2003. Ian Buruma, “How Iraq Can Get Over Its Past,” Washington Post, May 9, 2003. Solomon Volkov, “Must What Goes Up Also Come Down?” Washington Post, Apr. 10, 2003. Adam Michnik, “Symbols: Be Careful What You Knock Down,” Washington Post, Apr. 13, 2003. Alan Cowell, “A Tyrant Disappears. So Who Feels Safe?” New York Times, Apr. 13, 2003. Peter Finn, “Iraqis Learn Sad Fate of the Missing,” Washington Post, Apr. 20, 2003. Friday May 13 15-Page Research Paper Due by 12pm in my office. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Suggested research paper topics, using the information in the course on learning from history: 1. how having served in Bush senior’s Administration (1989-92) at the end of the cold war may affect the foreign policies of a policymaker in Bush junior’s Administration (2001-5) 2. do a case study of 1 country or a comparative study of 2 or 3 countries in their efforts to come to terms with the "criminal" past of their country and their officials. Among the possible cases are former communist countries such as (East) Germany, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, or other countries such as South Africa, Chile, Argentina, and any of the others in the Hayner or Bass books. You may also examine how Germany and Japan (and Article 9 of its constitution) have dealt with World War II. 3. the effect of the "Vietnam syndrome" on US policies in the Persian Gulf War and/or the wars in Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan or Iraq. 4. what analogies are useful for our policy in Afghanistan? previous attempts at nation-building? British and Russian 19th and 20th century history trying to get control of Afghanistan? 5. a lesson of history you think the Bush Administration is ignoring 6. a case of a foreign policy official in some country learning correctly or incorrectly from history 7. the politicization of history in a country on an issue 8. pick a current policy issue in the US or elsewhere and show how history could contribute to various ways of approaching the policy issue 9. how useful or not useful is the cold war as an analogy to the war on terrorism? 10. discuss how a particular national memorial depicts history--what it "teaches" and what it ignores and why 11. how do Bin Laden and similar thinkers see the history of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East? 12. a case (like the Armenian genocide) of U.S. political involvement in a historical debate 13. another topic approved by the professor A short topic proposal for your research paper topic is due on March 3. An outline and preliminary bibliography is due on March 29 by 12:00. The final paper is due on Fri. May 13 by 12:00 in my office. The paper must have at least 15 sources and these must include scholarly and primary sources and not just journalistic accounts. Your paper should also draw directly on the concepts we discuss and read in the course. Directory: sites -> history.columbian.gwu.edu -> files -> downloads downloads -> Cultural Methods in African American Historiography hist 6301-12, crn 55582 downloads -> Name: Shawn Frederick McHale. Born: April 1, 1960, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Positions downloads -> Leo p. Ribuffo 1750 Irving St. Nw washington, dc 20010 downloads -> Office: room 324 phillips; office phone: 994-6470 downloads -> The nuclear arms race downloads -> Hist 187. 10 (crn 74255) history of modern china downloads -> History 274. 10 Readings Seminar: Nineteenth-Century American History Fall 2010 downloads -> History 297 (14): Reading Seminar in Naval History C. Thomas Long downloads -> History 101(11): Military History Seminar Military History to the 1860s Download 33.55 Kb. Share with your friends:
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