This class was interesting and I appreciated how straightforward it was. It was a good introduction to US Foreign Policy. Grade breakdown was 30% midterm, 40% final, and 30% weekly discussion posts. Discussion posts were a free 30% of your grade, as they were pretty much based on completion. Midterm and final format was the same: short ID terms (choose 8 out of 11 options), one short essay, and one long essay. Pike was against giving out study guides and didn’t provide a potential list of terms or questions like other professors do, however I thought this was reasonable and the exams were not difficult. He would also hint at what concepts might be on exams during lecture, and it was pretty easy to discern which concepts were important. Pike assigned 4 readings per week, though they were not necessary for the exams. However because his lectures are essentially summaries of the readings, I found it helpful to skim through some of them to clarify anything from the lectures. If you study for the exams you will do well. Though there is a lot of information, none of the concepts are complex. For the final he allowed us the full 3 hours despite it being the same format as the 1 hour 15 minute midterm, and also let us have a cheat sheet for the final. If you put in some effort to study for the midterm and final, it’s an easy A.

BRO is the GOAT!!! I swear the non-tenured professors in the poli sci department are the only reason I still love the major! Although the lectures may appear monotoned, he does sneak in some dry humor and I can confirm that I think it's funny. The concepts seem confusing sometimes but he dumbs it down perfectly where it is easy to apply to the international playbook of today. There's super relevant examples, and good readings (if you opt into reading lol), that really help facilitate a deeper understanding when the tests come around. There were two exams, the midterm was all multiple choice (30ish questions) and the final was multiple choice and free response (32 and 3). Overall, it was a great class and I am glad to have taken it in my final quarter, it tied my poli sci degree with a bow.