Fall 2006 Course Description
Politics and Process
| Section Title: |
Defense Policy and Politics |
| Instructor(s): |
Eugene Gholz |
| Course: |
P A 383C - Politics and Process
(previously Policy Development) |
| Unique Number: |
65230 |
| Day & Time: |
Thursdays, 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM |
| Room: |
SRH 3.108 |
| Waitlist Information: | For LBJ Students: UT Waitlist Information
For Non LBJ Students: LBJ School Waitlist Instructions |
This course fulfills requirements for the following specialization(s):
Description: This course examines the politics and processes affecting U.S. defense policies. Because no other military can directly challenge the American military, much of the politics that drives its use, size, and composition is domestic: the particular characteristics of American military organizations, institutions, and strategic goals and the underlying political and bureaucratic choices that influence them. The course focuses on the role of the president, Congress, political partisans, the defense industries, and interest groups, including the military itself, in shaping policies. It examines U.S. grand strategy, who joins America's military, how and why weapons are bought, the management of defense, public attitudes toward the military and casualties, the roles of the president and the Congress in controlling the military, the effects of 9/11 on security policy, homeland security, government reorganizations, and intra- and inter-service relations. At the end of the course, students should understand the range of domestic pressures that constrain and inform U.S. strategic choices and should see links between day-to-day defense policy debates and the classic public policy debates about the desirability of centralization, privatization, and delegation of decision-making to technical experts.
Return to Fall 2006 Course Schedule
