The course will be structured into four distinct sections. The initial section will examine the pivotal foreign policy tenets that have shaped the United States' global role. These include concepts such as isolationism, exceptionalism, imperialism, internationalism, globalism, containment, expansion, democratization, and retrenchment. Additionally, the most notable "sacred texts" of US foreign policy, including the Washington Farewell Address, the Monroe Doctrine, the Roosevelt Corollary, the Wilson Fourteen Points, the Atlantic Charter, the Kennan Long Telegram, the Marshall Plan, and the foreign policy doctrines associated with nearly all contemporary US presidents, will be examined in the initial section.  The second part will provide an in-depth overview of the rise of the United States as a global power, from the isolationism of the nineteenth century to the imperialist turn of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Wilson's internationalism, the neo-isolationist stages of the interwar period, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt's globalism. The third part is dedicated to an examination of US foreign policy within the context of the Cold War system. It will shed light on the military, political, economic, and cultural factors that underpinned US hegemony in the Western world. In particular, this section will examine the establishment of the transatlantic partnership; the main stages of the global confrontation between the USA and the USSR; American power projection in  Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America; the changing pattern of US relations with China; and Washington's role in the crisis and collapse of the Soviet external and internal empires. The fourth and final section will examine the trajectory of US global engagement from the end of the Cold War to the present, with the aim of providing new insights into the  scholarly debate about the US-led globalisation of Western values, models and practices that took place in the 1990s, the so-called "war on terror" and the concomitant narrative of democracy export which dominated the 2000s, and the reduction of US global commitments and recalibration of US strategic priorities in the Asia-Pacific region that characterised the Obama administration. The global competition with China and the rise of Russia's regional revisionism, culminating in its full-scale aggression against Ukraine, will also be examined, seeking to address the theme of the similarities and differences between the Trump and Biden administrations in dealing with new and old challenges to American primacy.

Upon completion of this course, students will have achieved the following learning outcomes:

1) Attain a comprehensive understanding of US foreign and security policy, encompassing historical and analytical perspectives, as well as the pivotal scholarly debates concerning the US role in the global scenario and in the different regional contexts;

2) Develop the capacity to engage critically with the salient current issues regarding US foreign policy, including its decision-making process and its intertwining with the domestic sphere;

3) Gain familiarity with the use of primary and secondary sources on US foreign policy;

4) Consolidate the fundamental skills necessary for conducting scholarly research;

5) Enhance their ability to present topics in a logical and compelling manner, as well as to compose well-structured and coherent essays;

6) Enrich their communication and learning abilities.

ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS AND EXAMINATION POLICY

Regular attendance and active participation in class are considered essential elements of the learning process and are therefore fundamental components of the class participation grade as well as the overall grade.
You cannot make-up a major exam (midterm or final) without the permission of the Dean’s Office. The Dean’s Office will grant such permission only when the absence was caused by a serious impediment, such as a documented illness, hospitalization or death in the immediate family (in which you must attend the funeral) or other situations of similar gravity. Absences due to other meaningful conflicts, such as job interviews, family celebrations, travel difficulties, student misunderstandings or personal convenience, will not be excused. Students who will be absent from a major exam must notify the Dean’s Office prior to that exam. Absences from class due to the observance of a religious holiday will normally be excused. Individual students who will have to miss class to observe a religious holiday should notify the instructor by the end of the Add/Drop period to make prior arrangements for making up any work that will be missed. The final exam period runs until ____________

SCHEDULE

 (The course schedule and the readings may be subject to changes and revisions)

PART 1: BASIC PRINCIPLES

Week 1

Topic: Realism, Idealism, and Identity in U.S. Foreign Policy

Read: John Gerard Ruggie, The Past as Prologue? Interests, Identity, and American Foreign Policy, “International Security”, 21, 4, 1997: 89-125.

Week 2

Topic: Keywords of US Foreign Policy: Isolationism, Internationalism, and Beyond.

Read: Stephen Wertheim, Internationalism/Isolationism: Concepts of American Global Power, in Daniel Bessner, Michael Brenes, Rethinking U.S. World Power. Domestic Histories of U.S. Foreign Relations, New York, Springer Publishing 2024, Chapter 3.

PART 2: RISE TO GLOBAL POWER

Week 3

Topic: The United States from National Isolationism to Continental Isolationism to the Imperial Turn (1776-1898)

Read: Andrew Preston, American Foreign Relations. A Very Short Introduction, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2019: 9-49.

Week 4

Topic: From Theodore Roosevelt's Realism to Woodrow Wilson's Liberalism (1901-1920)

Read: George C. Herring, From Colony to Superpower. U.S. Foreign Relations since 1776, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 2008, Chapters 9-10.

Week 5

Topic: From Interwar Neo-Isolationism to the Making of a New World Order (1920-1945)

Read: Herring, Chapters 11-12-13

Week 6

Review - Midterm Exam

PART 3: THE COLD WAR

Week 7

Topic: The Early US-USSR Confrontation and the Transatlantic Bargain

Read: Harring, Chapter 14

Week 8

Topic: Détente, Decolonization, and the Global Cold War: U.S. Interventions in Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America

Read: Harring, Chapters 15-16-17

Week 9

Topic: From Bipolar to Tripolar to Unipolar: The Evolving Relationship Between the United States and the People's Republic of China, the Crisis and Collapse of the Soviet Empire and the end of the Cold War

Read: Harring, Chapter 18-19

PART 4: FROM TRIUMPH TO CRISIS OF THE INTERNATIONAL LIBERAL ORDER

Week 10

Topic: The Clinton Administration: the Enlargement Paradigm and the Globalization of the Liberal Order

Read:

-       Harring: 917-938;

-       John Dumbrell, Was There a Clinton Doctrine? President Clinton's Foreign Policy Reconsidered, “Diplomacy and Statecraft”, 13, 2, 2002: 43-56.

Week 11

Topic: The Bush Administration: the War on Terror and the Narrative of Exporting Democracy

Read:

-       Harring: 938-964;

-       Melvyn P. Leffler, The Foreign Policies of the George W. Bush Administration: Memoirs, History, Legacy, “Diplomatic History”, 37, 2, 2013: 190–216.

Week 12

Topic: The Obama Administration: retrenchment and pivot to Asia

Read:

-       David Unger, The foreign policy legacy of Barack Obama, “The International Spectator”, 51, 4, 2016: 1-16.

-       Jeffrey Goldberg, The Obama Doctrine. The U.S. president talks through his hardest decisions about America’s role in the world, “The Atlantic”, April 2016.

Week 13

Topic: The Trump and Biden Administrations: the Return of Great Power Competition

Read:

-       Hilde Eliassen Restad, What makes America great? Donald Trump, national identity, and U.S. foreign policy, “Global Affairs”, 6, 1, 2020: 21-36.

-       Anna Dimitrova, Trump’s “America First” Foreign Policy: The Resurgence of the Jacksonian Tradition? “L'Europe en Formation”, 382, 1, 2017: 33-46.

-       Joseph Biden, Why America must lead again, “Foreign Affairs”, 99, 2, 2020: 64-76.

-       Ben Rhodes, A Foreign Policy for the World as It Is: Biden and the Search for a New American Strategy, "Foreign Affairs”, 103, 8, 2024: 8-23

Week 14

Oral Presentation

Final Exam

 Additional non-mandatory readings will be suggested by the instructor during class.