Undergraduates taking the course had a mid-term exam, which counted as 30% toward their final grade.
Midterm Examination
Write short (5-7 page) essays on two of the following questions. Cite sources, not all of which should be the lecturers or from the lecture notes.
- Who will fight America's next war? Discuss the demographics of the American military, the ways in which they are changing, and the constraining effects the demographics have on the use of force.
- Primacy and Preemption - are they new elements in America's military strategy? What has happened that permits the President to express these intentions openly as he did in the recently released national strategy document? What are the limits of primacy and preemption as a strategy?
- Why should one care if the military tends to vote Republican? What concerns have been expressed and by whom? Would they exist if the preference was Democrat rather than Republican? Are the concerns just limited to the military's political affinity? Are these concerns valid? What has happened recently to erode the party bias?