Global Cooperation & US Foreign Policy

This limited enrollment research seminar will examine the tools, legal justifications, and theoretical underpinnings of global cooperation, with a particular focus on U.S. foreign policy in response to threats to peace and security. Topics will include institutional tools for unilateral and multilateral cooperation (peacekeeping, humanitarian aid, human rights, sanctions, human rights law and the role of international courts, lawfare, and soft power); international negotiations and agreements (negotiations to facilitate cooperation, treaties, executive agreements); the role of regional organizations, particularly in the use of force and in responding to conflicts (role of the UN, reforming the UN, responsibility to protect, domestic and international legal justifications for the use of force, human rights and humanitarian failures, refugees); and the impact of a changing world order on U.S. national security and global cooperation (changing liberal world order, great power competition, the impact of technological competition, the role of nongovernmental actors and corporations). Case studies include the Paris Climate Agreement, the Syrian war, Russian aggression in Ukraine, cyber-norm negotiations, and U.S. attempts to "de-couple" from China. A basic understanding of the advent and structure of the current world order will be assumed, as this is an advanced, limited enrollment course.