ClassInfo

This course will examine the theory, practice and profession of twenty-first century diplomacy in bilateral and multilateral environments. While the successful negotiation in 2015 of the Iran nuclear deal and the Paris climate agreement drew more attention to how nations large and small use diplomacy to advance their interests, political shifts ranging from the 2016 U.S. elections to Brexit to Russian actions have raised questions about how nations and non-state actors engage one another to achieve their goals in a complex world. In addition, while international organizations, including the United Nations, and regional organizations, such as the European Union, the Organization of American States, and the African Union, have become not just venues for multilateral diplomacy, but also diplomatic players in their own right, seeking to negotiate resolutions to regional problems, their functioning is being challenged by resurgent nationalism.

During the course of the semester, we will examine the history of diplomacy, and its norms and practices, including its international legal bases, and how modern technology and changing cultural norms have impacted the way that diplomats operate. Through readings, classroom discussions and simulations, students will come to understand the ways in which major powers, and medium and small states use bilateral and multilateral diplomacy to achieve their own goals and work with friends and allies to achieve regional and global objectives. Students will also examine the way in which nations come together in formal and informal blocs to advance regional goals, and look at how non-state actors operate in the diplomatic sphere to achieve their objectives, and at how governments and non-governmental organizations seek to resolve conflicts through Track II processes.

Students will be graded on an A-F basis. Grading will be as follows: