This course explores the role of the U.S. Supreme Court in political struggles over the distribution and uses of power in the American constitutional system. Issues include the division of powers between state and national governments, and the branches of the federal government; economic powers of private actors and governmental regulators; the authority of governments to enforce or transform racial and gender hierarchies; and the powers of individuals to make basic choices, such as a woman's power to have an abortion. We will pay special attention to how the tasks of justifying the Supreme Court's own power, and constitutionalism more broadly, contribute to logically debatable, but politically powerful constitutional arguments. Readings include Supreme Court decisions and background materials on their historical and political context.

This course explores the role of the U.S. Supreme Court in political struggles over the distribution and uses of power in the American constitutional system. Issues include the division of powers between state and national governments, and the branches of the federal government; economic powers of private actors and governmental regulators; the authority of governments to enforce or transform racial and gender hierarchies; and the powers of individuals to make basic choices, such as a woman's power to have an abortion. We will pay special attention to how the tasks of justifying the Supreme Court's own power, and constitutionalism more broadly, contribute to logically debatable, but politically powerful constitutional arguments. Readings include Supreme Court decisions and background materials on their historical and political context.

This course explores the role of the U.S. Supreme Court in political struggles over the distribution and uses of power in the American constitutional system. Issues include the division of powers between state and national governments, and the branches of the federal government; economic powers of private actors and governmental regulators; the authority of governments to enforce or transform racial and gender hierarchies; and the powers of individuals to make basic choices, such as a woman's power to have an abortion. We will pay special attention to how the tasks of justifying the Supreme Court's own power, and constitutionalism more broadly, contribute to logically debatable, but politically powerful constitutional arguments. Readings include Supreme Court decisions and background materials on their historical and political context.

This course explores the role of the U.S. Supreme Court in political struggles over the distribution and uses of power in the American constitutional system. Issues include the division of powers between state and national governments, and the branches of the federal government; economic powers of private actors and governmental regulators; the authority of governments to enforce or transform racial and gender hierarchies; and the powers of individuals to make basic choices, such as a woman's power to have an abortion. We will pay special attention to how the tasks of justifying the Supreme Court's own power, and constitutionalism more broadly, contribute to logically debatable, but politically powerful constitutional arguments. Readings include Supreme Court decisions and background materials on their historical and political context.

This course explores the role of the U.S. Supreme Court in political struggles over the distribution and uses of power in the American constitutional system. Issues include the division of powers between state and national governments, and the branches of the federal government; economic powers of private actors and governmental regulators; the authority of governments to enforce or transform racial and gender hierarchies; and the powers of individuals to make basic choices, such as a woman's power to have an abortion. We will pay special attention to how the tasks of justifying the Supreme Court's own power, and constitutionalism more broadly, contribute to logically debatable, but politically powerful constitutional arguments. Readings include Supreme Court decisions and background materials on their historical and political context.

One of the great accidents of history is the Partition of the subcontinent into the two states of India and Pakistan, and the onset of the cold war as a global struggle between the United States and the Soviet Union. The major focus of the course is on the interaction between regional conflicts, the most enduring symbolized by the unresolved dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, and the global strategies of rival great powers which sought to tip the balance of power in their favor by military and ideological influence over the "third world." These conflicts were exacerbated by the Indian leadership's commitment to an independent foreign policy of non-alignment, and its aspirations to leadership of newly independent states in Asia and Middle East, ranged against Pakistan's inability to establish a viable state without exernal support. The resulting alignments and alliances drew the subcontinent into the center of cold war rivalries. The last part of the course focuses on the changing security environment after the cold war, the rise of India and China as competitors for influence; and problems posed by persisting mutual resentment and distrust in India and the United States, despite recognition on both sides of the need to cooperate and avoid China's domination of Asia.

This course is one of the first arising out of scholarship on cold war international history. It draws on declassified government documents and other archival records to provide a window into the world-view of decision-makers who need to make national security policy based on incomplete information about ambiguous threats. The materials reveal a great deal about the importance of divergent historical perspectives and strategic cultures in the foreign policy-making process. The main focus of the course is on the intersection of the cold war and the rise of Asian nationalism. At the core of the analysis is the clash between America's global strategy of military containment against the Soviet Union and the assertion of Indian, and Chinese nationalism, concerned with preventing the United States from succeeding to Great Britain's imperial rule. The course examines new patterns of power after the Cold War, especially the emergence of two major powers in Asia - China and India - and the issues raised by the U.S. unilateralist use of military power to preserve its predominant position.

The existence and endurance of war provides one of the most important puzzles of politics: why is it that people keep making use of such a destructive and painful way of resolving their disputes? This course addresses this question and the related question of what factors contribute to peace, focusing on both academic and popular explanations for conflict, including among others anarchy, over-optimism, shifting power, diversionary war, the malevolent influence of war profiteers, and a variety of explanations grounded in culture, religion and other ideational variables. In this discussion, we will focus on both interstate and civil wars, and on both the onset and the eventual termination of war. At various points in the course we will discuss a wide range of historical and contemporary cases, including the World Wars, Vietnam, the Gulf War, the Iraq War, the various Arab-Israeli wars, the India-Pakistan rivalry, and a number of recent civil conflicts such as the wars in Yugoslavia, Congo, and Sudan. The course concludes with a discussion of strategies for managing ongoing conflicts and for securing peace in post war settings.

The existence and endurance of war provides one of the most important puzzles of politics: why is it that people keep making use of such a destructive and painful way of resolving their disputes? This course addresses this question and the related question of what factors contribute to peace, focusing on both academic and popular explanations for conflict, including among others anarchy, over-optimism, shifting power, diversionary war, the malevolent influence of war profiteers, and a variety of explanations grounded in culture, religion and other ideational variables. In this discussion, we will focus on both interstate and civil wars, and on both the onset and the eventual termination of war. At various points in the course we will discuss a wide range of historical and contemporary cases, including the World Wars, Vietnam, the Gulf War, the Iraq War, the various Arab-Israeli wars, the India-Pakistan rivalry, and a number of recent civil conflicts such as the wars in Yugoslavia, Congo, and Sudan. The course concludes with a discussion of strategies for managing ongoing conflicts and for securing peace in post war settings.

The existence and endurance of war provides one of the most important puzzles of politics: why is it that people keep making use of such a destructive and painful way of resolving their disputes? This course addresses this question and the related question of what factors contribute to peace, focusing on both academic and popular explanations for conflict, including among others anarchy, over-optimism, shifting power, diversionary war, the malevolent influence of war profiteers, and a variety of explanations grounded in culture, religion and other ideational variables. In this discussion, we will focus on both interstate and civil wars, and on both the onset and the eventual termination of war. At various points in the course we will discuss a wide range of historical and contemporary cases, including the World Wars, Vietnam, the Gulf War, the Iraq War, the various Arab-Israeli wars, the India-Pakistan rivalry, and a number of recent civil conflicts such as the wars in Yugoslavia, Congo, and Sudan. The course concludes with a discussion of strategies for managing ongoing conflicts and for securing peace in post war settings.