In preparing your presentations and composing your papers, the required readings from September 24 through October 3 should cover each of the perspectives you have been assigned. Here are some issues you ought to take into consideration.

For those assigned the realist side of the debate, you should address issues, such as whether the intervention serves the national interest (and how you would define it) and why you agree or disagree with Morgenthau’s realist critique of the role of ideology in foreign policy and Tucker’s application of that argument to the Reagan Doctrine. Or does the defense of ideology presented by Kirkpatrick& Gerson and by Krauthammer better serve US national interests.

For those looking at the legality of the interventions, you should support or oppose Henkin’s traditionalist interpretation of international law or the more expansive view championed by Kirkpatrick and Gerson (on Nicaragua) or D’Amato (on Panama).

For those looking at the morality of intervention, the key question is the legitimacy of intervention in the internal affairs of a sovereign state in order to bring about regime change. How do Walzer and Krauthammer differ on this issue? You also ought to look at how a cosmopolitan like Beitz assesses this issue from a perspective different from Walzer’s?