Major Issues in Contemporary Public Debates in the U.S. II - JMM338

Bloc I. Foreign policy

1. Course introduction and requirements + Overview of Donald Trump's foreign policy team (20.2.2017)

2. Donald Trump’s Grand Strategy and the four archetypes of US foreign policy schools (27.2.2017)

Brands, Hal and Colin Kahl, "Trump’s Grand Strategic Train Wreck", Foreign Policy, January 31, 2017, http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/01/31/trumps-grand-strategic-train-wreck/
Mead, Walter Russell, "The Jacksonian Revolt: American Populism and the Liberal Order", Foreign Affairs, March/April, 2017.

3. Transatlantic relations at a crossroads (6.3.2017)

4. Whither relations with Russia? A "cool war"? (13.3.2017)

Andrej Krickovic and Yuval Weber, "Why a new Cold War with Russia is inevitable", Brookings, http://www.brookings.edu/blogs/order-from-chaos/posts/2015/09/30-new-cold-war-with-russia-krickovic-weber
Ben Nimmo, "Propaganda in a New Orbit", Center for European Policy Analysis, http://www.cepa.org/sites/default/files/Info%20War%20Two.pdf
David Rothkopf, "The Cool War", Foreign Policy, http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/02/20/the-cool-war/

5. The US stuck between Iran and Saudi Arabia (20.3.2017)

Carol E. B. Choksy and Jamsheed K. Choksy, "The Saudi Connection: Wahhabism and Global Jihad", World Affairs, May/June, 2015, http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/article/saudi-connection-wahhabism-and-global-jihad
Stephen Kinzer, "The United States Shouldn’t Choose Saudi Arabia Over Iran", POLITICO, January 4, 2016, http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/01/saudi-arabia-iran-213504

Bloc II. Domestic policy

6. Why Trump? (27.3.2017)

Kieryn Darkwater, “I Was Trained for the Culture Wars in Home School, Awaiting Someone Like Mike Pence as a Messiah,” Autostraddle, January 26, 2017, https://www.autostraddle.com/i-was-trained-for-the-culture-wars-in-home-school-awaiting-someone-like-mike-pence-as-a-messiah-367057/
“The Intolerance of the left: Trump’s win as seen from Walt Disney’s hometown,” The Guardian, January 27, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/27/why-donald-trump-win-walt-disney
Tom McCarthy, “The Promise: Can Trump really make America great again?” The Guardian, January 18, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/17/donald-trump-america-great-again-northampton-county-pennsylvania
Michael Kruse, “What Do You Do if a Red State Moves to You?” Politico, January/February 2017, http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/01/blue-red-state-democrats-trump-country-214647
Rick Perlstein, “Peter’s Choice,” Mother Jones, January/February 2017, http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/01/donald-trump-2016-election-oklahoma-working-class

7. "Grab them by ...": Women's rights and rape culture (3.4.)

8. Eager administration or the birth of a dictatorship? (10.4.2017)

Betina Palma, “FACT CHECK: Lawmakers Criminalize Peaceful Protests?” Snopes.com, January 23, 2017, http://www.snopes.com/lawmakers-criminalize-peaceful-protest/
“Bill Across The Country Could Increase Penalties For Protesters,” NPR: All Things Considered, January 31, 2017, http://www.npr.org/2017/01/31/512636448/bills-across-the-country-could-increase-penalties-for-protesters
Jamiles Lartey, “Trump bans agencies from ‘providing updates on social media or to reporters,” The Guardian, January 25, 2017, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/jan/24/epa-department-agriculture-social-media-gag-order-trump
Nick Cohen, “Trump’s lies are not the problem. It’s the millions who swallow them who really matter,” The Guardian: Opinion, February 5^th, 2017 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/05/donald-trump-lies-belief-totalitarianism
Steven Rosenfelt, “If We Don’t Act Now, Fascism Will Be on Our Doorstep, Says Yale Historian,” an interview with Timothy Snyder, AlterNet, March 13^th, 2017, http://www.alternet.org/activism/if-we-dont-act-now-fascism-will-be-our-doorstep-says-yale-historian

9. Eater Break (17.4.2017)

10. Fake News, "Alternative Facts," and the role of Media (24.4.2017)

Celilia Kanc and Adam Goldman, “In Washington Pizzeria Attack, Fake News Brought Real Guns,” The New York Times, December 5, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/05/business/media/comet-ping-pong-pizza-shooting-fake-news-consequences.html
John Swaine, “Donald Trump’s team defends ‘alternative facts’ after widespread protests,” The Guardian, January 23, 2017,