Spring 2013 - 62870 - PA388K - Advanced Topics in Public Policy

Strategy, Ideas, and Statecraft: the American Experience

This seminar examines the sources, implementation, and consequences of American foreign policy strategy.  Drawing on the work of historians and political scientists, we will explore how geopolitics, domestic politics, and strategic ideas have shaped America’s international priorities and policy practice.  To this end, the seminar will focus on several critical junctures in the American experience to consider how new understandings of the nation’s international purposes arise, and the contours of debates over how best to pursue them.  A portion of the course will be set aside to examine contemporary visions of the evolving geopolitical landscape and what these visions mean for U.S. statecraft in the present and near future.
This course is co-taught with Dr. Peter Trubowitz, Professor, Department of Government.
Cross-listed with HIS 381 #39780; Gov 388L #39115; and MES 384 #41973.