ISP-452: The Causes of Great Power War: World War I, World War II, and World War III?

Semester: Fall

Credit: 1.0

Syllabus: Click here for syllabus

Faculty: Richard Rosecrance

Schedule

Day Time Location
First Day 9/13
Meet Day T/Th 10:10 AM - 11:30 AM L332
Review

Description

Looks at the causes of World Wars I and II (theoretical, economic, social, political, and military) to see if they might apply to war between China (or some other Great Power) and the United States in the 2020s or afterward. Prior to World War I, one Great Power was in the process of passing another, assumptions of warfare permitted offensive strategies, strong economic interdependence existed, and domestic unrest led some leaders to believe they might gain internal support from a successful war. Britain went to great lengths to appease the United States at the very time it was opposing Germany. Will the United States be willing to make similar obeisance to a nondemocratic China a generation from now? Prior to World War II, Hitler and the Japanese militarists took extraordinary risks when they attacked enemies they could not possibly defeat and sought to use more power than they actually possessed. Deterrence did not work then, and it might not work in the future. An expanding China or India might need more reassurance than a possibly declining United States could provide. The key question for the course is to consider future international circumstances that might tempt war and ask: how do we prevent it?