Course Description
A survey of American foreign relations since 1914.
Athena Title
US Foreign Relation Since 1914
Semester Course Offered
Offered every year.
Grading System
A - F (Traditional)
Course Objectives
This course is designed to enhance student understanding of U.S. interaction with the world during the 20th and early 21st centuries. The principal objective of the course is to teach students to think critically for themselves about the relationships between the past and the present, to learn to ask questions of the past that enable them to understand the present and mold the future, and to become attuned to both the limitations and possibilities of change. The course seeks to acquaint students with the ways in which past societies and peoples have defined the relationships between community and individual needs and goals, and between ethical norms and decision-making. In general students will be expected to: 1. read a wide range of primary and secondary sources critically. 2. polish skills in critical thinking, including the ability to recognize the difference between opinion and evidence, and the ability to evaluate--and support or refute--arguments effectively. 3. write stylistically appropriate and mature papers and essays using processes that include discovering ideas and evidence, organizing that material, and revising, editing, and polishing the finished papers.
Topical Outline
The U.S. and the World in 1914 The U.S. and World War I Woodrow Wilson and World War I The U.S. and the Great Powers in the Interwar Period U.S. Entry into World War II War and Diplomacy Preparing for the Postwar World The Origins of the Cold War The Rise of East Asia The Korean War & International Politics The Korean War & the Red Scare The Cold War & the Third World Ike, Khrushchev & Nuclear Weapons JFK, the Third World, & Berlin The Cuban Missile Crisis Vietnam Détente & Rapprochement Ford, Carter & the Illusion of US Decline US & the Middle East Reagan, Gorbachev & Bush #1 Politics & Economics Clinton and Defining America's Role in the Post-Cold War World Bush 2 and Preemption Historical Analogy, Iraq & Vietnam