Course syllabus The Sit Room: Executing US Strategy

Swedish name: The Sit Room: att omsätta amerikansk strategi

Course code:
2SS074
Valid from semester:
Spring Term 2022
Education cycle:
Second cycle
Scope:
7.5 credits
Progression:
A1N
Grading scale:
Three-grade scale
Main field of study:
Political Science: Security Studies
Department:
Department of Political Science and Law
Subject:
Political Science
Language of instruction:
The teaching is conducted in English.
Decided by:
Forsknings- och utbildningsnämndens kursplaneutskott (KUS)
Decision date:
2022-01-01

Entry requirements

Accepted to the Master's Programme in Politics and War.

Course content and structure

From the basement of the White House, American diplomats, armed forces and financial resources are directed to meet various challenges and crises across large parts of the world. It is a place where ideas are confronted with reality, intellectual principles meet hard-earned experience and professional expertise, and political ambitions are sometimes limited by strict budget constraints.

The purpose of the course is to study American foreign and defence policy from a practitioner perspective via its most important meeting and decision forum, the Sit Room in the White House. The course begins with the students becoming acquainted with this forum and the officials who, in addition to the President and his closest advisers, exercise influence there. We will then try to familiarise ourselves with two types of crisis situations, where strategic guidelines shall be implemented in relation to a concrete, urgent security issue. Certain themes recur during the course: goal and value conflicts, time aspects, and local and global repercussions of American action and/or of restraint.

Depending on the number of students, the course is held in seminar form, or as a combination of lectures and seminars.

Type of Instruction
Seminars and Lectures

Objectives

After completing the course, the student is expected to be able to:

  •  present the division of roles between different decision-makers and the institutions they represent when American strategy is translated into foreign and defence policy practice
  • familiarise him/herself with and analyse concrete challenges that US decision-makers dealt with in the 1990s and may need to address in the near future
  • critically discuss ethical and theoretical assumptions concerning American foreign and defence policy

decision-making
  • identify and problematise value conflicts, principled and practical considerations that guide the representatives of superpowers in foreign and defence policy

Examination formats

Assessment takes place through a combination of verbal and individual written seminar assignments as well as a final course paper dedicated to an subject agreed with the teacher. After announcement of the supplemental task, the student has ten working days for supplementation, unless special circumstances exist that are acceptable to the examiner.

Active attendance at the seminars is mandatory. The examiner may decide to allow submission of a supplementary assignment to make up for an absence or shortcomings in active and constructive participation in mandatory components of the course.

A student who fails to attend more than one mandatory component cannot pass the module and must instead participate the next time the course is offered. One (1) occasion of absence shall be made up by a (written or oral) assignment.

The examiner may decide to allow supplementation in order to achieve a passing grade. Course papers submitted after the deadline will not be graded unless special circumstances exist that are acceptable to the examiner.

Grading
Grades are set according to a three-grade scale: Pass with Distinction (VG), Pass (G) and Fail (U). Grading criteria are specified in the course description.

A grade of Pass or Fail is given for the seminars.

A grade of Pass with Distinction, Pass or Fail is given for the written assignment.

To earn the grade Pass (G) for the course, the student must earn a G for the assignment and a G for other assessed components.

To earn the grade Pass with Distinction (VG) for the course, the student must earn a VG for the written assignment and a G for other assessed components.

There is no limit on the total number of examination opportunities.

Transitional provisions

When a course is no longer provided or when the content of a course has been significantly altered, the student has the right to be examined in accordance with this course syllabus twice per academic year over a period of two years.

Other regulations

The course cannot be included in a degree with another course whose content fully or partially corresponds to the content of this course.

  • If a student has a decision from the Swedish Defence University regarding special educational support due to a disability, the examiner may decide on alternative forms of examination for the student.
  • On completion of the course, an evaluation will be conducted under the auspices of the course director and will serve as the basis for any changes to the course.
  • The course is given as an elective course within the Master's Programme in Politics and War.

The course is given in English.

This is an edited version of the syllabus, created to transfer the original to the education database Ladok education planning. For originals, refer to the archive.
Reading list decided date: 2024-12-18
Books
Deveron, Derek R, Nikolas K. Gvozdev and Mackubin Thomas Owens, US Foreign and Defense Strategy: The Evolution of an Incidental Superpower. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press, 2015, pp. 1-262.
Scheffer, David, The Sit Room: In the Theatre of War and Peace. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019, pp. 1-322.
Articles
Beasley, Ryan K., “People and Processes in Foreign Policymaking: Insights from Comparative Case Studies,” International Studies Review 3:2 (2001), pp. 217-250.
Burke, John P., “Struggling with Standard order: Challenges and Performance of the Trump National Security Council System,”Presidential Studies Quarterly 48:4 (2018), pp. 640-666.
Davidson, Janine, “Civil-Military Friction and Presidential Decision-making: Explaining the Broken Dialogue,” Presidential Studies Quarterly 43:1 (2013), pp. 129-145.
Hermann, Margaret G., “How Decision Units Shape foreign Policy: A Theoretical Framework,” International Studies Review 3:2 (2001), pp.47-82.
Mauk, John A., “Managing Vital US National Interests: Improving the Security Policy-Making Process,” Orbis 68:4 (2024), pp. 568-588

Mintz, Alex, “Applied Decision Analysis: Utilizing Poliheuristic Theory to Explain and Predict Foreign Policy and National Security Decisions,” International Studies Perspectives 6:1 (2005), pp. 94-98.
Wanis-St. John, Anthony, “The National Security Council: Tools of Presidential Crisis Management,” Journal of Public and International Affairs 9:1 (1998), pp. 102-127.
Book chapters
Johnson, David E., “The Theory of Coercion,” pp. 7-34 in Hal P. Mueller and William H. Pfaff, eds., Conventional Coercion Across the Spectrum of Operations: The Utility of US Military Forces in the Emerging Security Environment. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2002.
A few additional, topical articles/documents will be added to the list.