Lehman College
Department of Political Science
Contemporary Political Issues
POL150.F01FY Block 13 Carmen 349
Prof. Marriah Star Fall 2004
Office: Carmen 363 MW 9:30-10:45
Email: marriahstar@yahoo.com
Required Texts:
1. Taking Sides Clashing Views on Controversial Political Issues
By: McKenna, George and Feingold, Stanley
2. Taking Sides Clashing Views on Controversial Issues in World Politics
(Revised) , Eleventh Edition
By John T. Rourke, University of Connecticut--Storrs
Course Overview
The purpose of the course is to teach you how to think about important
issues in the United States and throughout the world. Your thinking
will be reflected in your speaking and your writing. Therefore, this
course consists of daily debates on selected topics that are designed
to engage you.
Papers
You will be required to write two papers. One is a midterm paper of
5 pages that will give you a chance to explain how American politics
works in your own words, based on the material we have covered up to
that point. This paper will count as 10% of your grade. The second paper
will be a final paper of 10 pages that will serve as your opinion/editorial
piece for the class. This paper will count as 50% of your grade.
In Class Debates
Everyone must participate in at least four class debates which will
be worth 40% of your grade. The debates consist of two teams of two
people (four participants each class period) in which 1 team will be
arguing in favor of an issue and the other against it. prior to the
debates, each team will be required to hand in a 1-page summary of their
points and perspectives (in class or via e-mail). Individually, each
person will also be required to submit a 1 page discussion of what they
learned from their preparation on the topic. Finally, each person in
class who is not participating in the debate will be required to turn
in 1 page discussing who they thought won the debate and why.
Class schedule
1. 8/30 (Monday)
Introduction:
2. 9/1 (Wednesday)
Was the Invasion of Iraq Justified?
YES: Robert Kagan and William Kristol, from "The Right War for
the Right Reasons," The Weekly Standard (February 23, 2004)
NO: Michael Ignatieff, from "Why Are We in Iraq?" New York
Times Magazine (September 7, 2003)
9/6 (Monday) No Class: Labor Day
3. 9/8 (Wednesday)
Are Military Means the Best Way to Defeat Terrorism?
YES: Benjamin Netanyahu, from Statement Before the Committee on Government
Reform, U.S. House of Representatives (September 20, 2001)
NO: Bill Christison, from "Why the 'War on Terror' Won't Work,"
CounterPunch (March 4, 2002)
4. 9/13 (Monday)
Should the United Nations Be Given Stronger Peacekeeping Capabilities?
YES: Lionel Rosenblatt and Larry Thompson, from "The Door of Opportunity:
Creating a Permanent Peacekeeping Force," World Policy Journal
(Spring 1998)
NO: John Hillen, from Statement Before the Subcommittee on International
Operations, Committee on Foreign Relations, U.S. Senate (April 5,2000)
9/15 (Wednesday) No Class
5. 9/20 (Monday)
Does the Bush Administration Have a Sound National Security Strategy?
YES: Donald H. Rumsfeld, from Testimony before the Committee on Armed
Services, U.S. House of Representatives (February 4, 2004)
NO: Task Force on a Unified Security Budget for the United States, from
"A Unified Security Budget for the United States" (March 2004)
6. 9/22 (Wednesday)
Is Current U.S. Trade Policy Harming the American Economy?
YES: Byron Dorgan, from "Free Trade Imbalances," Remarks in
the United States Senate
Congressional Record (July 28, 2003)
NO: Robert B. Zoellick, from Testimony Before the Committee on Ways
and Means, U.S. House of Representatives (March 11, 2004)
7. 9/27 (Monday)
Is There Too Much Democracy in the World?
YES: Fareed Zakaria, from The Future of Freedom (W.W Norton & Company,
2003)
NO: Robert Kagan, from "The Ungreat Washed," The New Republic
(July 7 & 14, 2001)
8. 9/29 (Wednesday)
Do Political Campaigns Promote Good Government?
YES: Samuel L. Popkin, from The Reasoning Voter: Communication and Persuasion
in Presidential Campaigns (University of Chicago Press, 1991)
NO: Anthony King, from "Running Scared," The Atlantic Monthly
(January 1997)
9. 10/4 (Monday)
Should There Be a Constitutional Amendment Banning Gay Marriage?
YES: Katherine Shaw Spaht, from Testimony before Committee on the Judiciary,
U.S. Senate (March 23, 2004)
NO: Cass Sunstein, from Testimony before Committee on the Judiciary,
U.S. Senate (March 23, 2004)
10. 10/6 (Wednesday)
Should Abortion Be Restricted?
YES: Robert P. George, from The Clash of Orthodoxies: Law, Religion,
and Morality in Crisis (ISI Books, 2001)
NO: Mary Gordon, from "A Moral Choice," The Atlantic Monthly
(March 1990)
10/11 (Monday) - No Class: Columbus Day
11. 10/13 (Wednesday)
Are Tax Cuts Good for America?
YES: Amity Shlaes, from The Greedy Hand: How Taxes Drive Americans Crazy
and What to Do About It (Random House, 1999)
NO: Paul Krugman, from "The Tax-Cut Con," New York Times Magazine
(September 14, 2003)
12. 10/18 (Monday)
Does the Patriot Act Abridge Essential Freedom?
YES: Nat Hentoff, from The War on the Bill of Rights and the Gathering
Resistance (Seven Stories Press, 2003)
NO: Heather Mac Donald, from "Straight Talk on Homeland Security,"
City Journal (Summer 2003)
13. 10/20 (Wednesday)
Should America Restrict Immigration?
YES: Patrick J. Buchanan, from The Death of the West: How Dying Populations
and Immigrant Invasions Imperil Our Country and Civilization (Thomas
Dunne Books, 2002)
NO: Daniel T. Griswold, from "Immigrants Have Enriched American
Culture and Enhanced Our Influence in the World," Insight on the
News (March 11, 2002)
14. 10/25 (Monday)
Is Free Trade Fair Trade?
YES: Douglas A. Irwin, from Free Trade Under Fire (Princeton University
Press, 2002)
NO: David Morris, from "Free Trade: The Great Destroyer,"
in Jerry Mander and Edward Goldsmith, eds., The Case Against the Global
Economy: And for a Return to the Local (Sierra Club Books, 1996)
15. 10/27 (Wednesday)
Must America Exercise World Leadership?
YES: Charles Krauthammer, from "The Unipolar Moment Revisted,"
The National Interest (Winter 2002/2003)
NO: Niall Ferguson, from "An Empire in Denial," Harvard International
Review (Fall 2003)
16. 11/1 (Monday)
Will the "Bush Doctrine" Promote a More Secure World?
YES: George W. Bush, from "The National Security Strategy of the
United States of America" (September 2002)
NO: John Steinbruner, from "Confusing Ends and Means: The Doctrine
of Coercive Pre-emption," Arms Control Today (January/February
2003)
17. 11/3 (Wednesday)
Debate on Electoral College
18. 11/8 (Monday)
Is Globalization Likely to Create a Better World?
YES: Thomas Friedman, from "States of Discord," Foreign Policy
(March/April 2002)
NO: Robert Kaplan, from "States of Discord," Foreign Policy
(March/April 2002)
19. 11/10 (Wednesday)
Will State Sovereignty Survive Globalism?
YES: Stephen D. Krasner, from "Sovereignty," Foreign Policy
(January/February 2001)
NO: Kimberly Weir, from "The Waning State of Sovereignty,"
An Original Essay Written for This Volume (2002)
20. 11/15 (Monday)
Should the United States Continue to Encourage a United Europe?
YES: A. Elizabeth Jones, from Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Europe,
Committee on International Relations, U.S. House of Representatives
(March 13, 2002)
NO: John C. Hulsman, from "European Arrogance and Weakness Dictate
Coalitions of the Willing," Heritage Lecture No. 777 (February
10,2003)
21. 11/17 (Wednesday)
Do China's Armaments and Intentions Pose a Long-Term Threat?
YES: Richard D. Fisher, Jr., from Statement Before the Committee on
Armed Services, U.S. House of Representatives (July 19, 2000)
NO: Ivan Eland, from "Is Chinese Military Modernization a Threat
to the United States?" Policy Analysis No. 465 (January 23, 2003)
22. 11/22 (Monday)
Would It Be an Error to Establish a Palestinian State?
YES: P. J. Berlyn, from "Twelve Bad Arguments for a State of Palestine,"
A Time to Speak, (December 2002)
NO: Rosemary E. Shinko, from "Why a Palestinian State," An
Original Essay Written for This Volume (2004)
11/24 (Wednesday) No Class
23. 11/29 (Monday)
Should North Korea's Arms Program Evoke a Hard-Line Response?
YES: William Norman Grigg, from "Aiding and Abetting the 'Axis,'"
The New American (February 24, 2003)
NO: Fred Kaplan, from "Appeasement, Please: The Case for Paying
North Korea's Nuclear Blackmail," Slate, (December 31, 2002)
24. 12/1 (Wednesday)
Is Free Economic Interchange Beneficial?
YES: Anne O. Krueger, from Remarks at the 2002 Eisenhower National Security
Conference on "National Security for the Twenty-First Century:Anticipating
Challenges, Seizing Opportunities, Building Capabilities" (September
26, 2002)
NO: José Bové, from "Globalisation's Misguided Assumptions,"
OECD Observer (September 2001)
25. 12/6 (Monday)
Should the Rich Countries Forgive All the Debt Owed by the Poor Countries?
YES: Romilly Greenhill, from "The Unbreakable Link-Debt Relief
and the Millennium Development
Goals," A Report From Jubilee Research atthe New Economics Foundation
(February 2002)
NO: William Easterly, from "Debt Relief," Foreign Policy (November/December
2001)
26. 12/8 (Wednesday)
Are Patents on HIV/AIDS Drugs Unfair to Poor Countries?
YES: Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières,
from "Equitable Access: Scaling Up HIV/AIDS Treatment in Developing
Countries"(December 2002)
NO: Alan F. Holmer, from "The Case for Innovation: The Role of
Intellectual Property Protection," Statement Before the Economist's
SecondAnnual Pharmaceuticals Roundtable (November 20, 2002)
27. 12/13 (Monday)
Do Environmentalists Overstate Their Case?
YES: Bjørn Lomborg, from "Debating 'The Skeptical Environmentalist,'"
A Debate Held at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York(April
9, 2002)
NO: Fred Krupp, from "Debating 'The Skeptical Environmentalist,'"
A Debate Held at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York
(April 9,2002)
28. 12/14 (Tuesday class on Wednesday Schedule)
Would World Affairs Be More Peaceful If Women Dominated Politics?
YES: Francis Fukuyama, from "Women and the Evolution of World Politics,"
Foreign Affairs
(September/October 1998)
NO: Mary Caprioli, from "The Myth of Women's Pacifism," An
Original Essay Written for This Volume (1999)
12/16-23 (Final exam week)
