Monash University Handbook 2010 Undergraduate - Unit

Level	Undergraduate
Faculty	Faculty of Arts
Offered	Clayton First semester 2010 (Day)
Coordinator(s)	Remy Davison

Synopsis

This unit provides an introduction to the practice of foreign policy and the foreign relations of the great and emerging powers. The unit is divided into two modules:

1. an overview of the foundational international relations approaches and theoretical approaches to foreign policy analysis;
2. historical and contemporary case studies of the foreign policies of major global and regional powers from the Americas, Asia, Europe and the Middle-East, including the P5, Japan, India, Iran, Israel and the EU. The unit examines issues integral to the case studies, such as balances of power; threat perceptions and foreign policy; grand strategies; and status quo and revisionist powers.

Objectives

1. Explain different theoretical approaches to national preference formation.
2. Explain the various states' approaches to foreign policy making.
3. Utilize approaches from international relations to explain why and how major and emerging powers bandwagon or balance.
4. Determine how major and emerging powers develop security strategies.
5. Analyse historical and contemporary influences upon foreign policy making, as well as domestic and international constraints upon foreign policy implementation.
6. Critically apply theoretical approaches to individual states' foreign policy behaviour.

Upon successful completion of this unit, students will have attained the following learning outcomes and skills:

7. An understanding of the major theoretical approaches to the study of foreign policy.
8. A comprehension of the major foreign policy objectives of the P5.
9. An awareness of the continuities and disjunctures in foreign policy behaviour.
10. A familiarity with the major strategic concepts espoused by great and emerging powers.
11. An ability to dissect, contextualise and distinguish between declaratory and operational foreign policy, via documentary analysis and empirical case-studies.
12. An appreciation of the complexities of, and multiple inputs into, the foreign policy process.

Assessment

Written work (3500 words): 60%
2 hour Exam: 40%.
PLT3015 students will be expected to demonstrate wider reading in written work and greater understanding of the subject matter by answering at least one exam question of a higher conceptual standard than that required of PLT2015 students.

Chief examiner(s)

Dr Remy Davison

Contact hours

Two 1-hour lecture and one 1-hour tutorial per week

This unit applies to the following area(s) of study

Politics
International studies

Prerequisites

12 points of either PLT or INT units at a first-year level, or permission of the unit coordinator