Ideas and American Foreign Policy

Ideas and American Foreign Policy

Fall 2010

Professor Andrew J. Bacevich

Purpose. The aim of this course is not to consider policy as such but to examine the ideas underpinningUS foreign policy and informing the foreign policy debate. Some (affirming) ideas inspire or explain or justify actually existing policy. Other (dissenting) ideas call into question or challenge government actions and priorities while advancing alternatives. The course takes a chronological approach. It begins with the founding of Anglo-America and concludes with the period since 9/11.

Throughout, we will examine the assigned readings to determine what they can tell us about the following:

• The image and role of America;
• The definition of U. S. national interests;
• The image of the world as viewed by Americans;
• The existing or proposed terms of the relationship between the United States and the rest of the world.

Course Requirements.

• Attendance / oral participation 20%
• Research Paper40%
• Take-home final exam 40%

Essay. Each undergraduate student will write a full-fledged research paper on a topic to be negotiated with the instructor. The essay will be approximately 20 pages long and will use primary sources. It will be due on Lesson 12.

Course Administration.

• Students should bring to class the day’s assigned readings.
• Attendance at all meetings of the course is required. Inform me if circumstances will prevent you from coming to class.
• Students are expected to submit written assignments on time. Late submissions will be subject to penalties.

Required Texts.

Randolph Bourne, War and the Intellectuals

Graham Greene, The Quiet American

George Kennan, American Diplomacy, 1900-1950

C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite

Reinhold Niebuhr, The Irony of American History

Lesson 1. The Founding Tradition

John Winthrop, “A Model of Christian Charity” (1630),

Ezra Stiles, “The United States Elevated to Glory and Honor,” (1783),

Alexander Hamilton, “The Federalist No. 11” (1787),

George Washington, “Farewell Address” (1797),

Lesson 2. The YoungRepublic

John Quincy Adams, “Speech of July 4, 1821,”

James Monroe, “The Monroe Doctrine” (1823),

William Wirt, “The Triumph of Liberty in France,” (1830),

Alexis de Tocqueville, “Conduct of Foreign Affairs by the American Democracy,” Democracy in America, volume I, section XIII (1835),

John L. O’Sullivan, “The Great Nation of Futurity” (1839),

John L. O’Sullivan, “Annexation” (1845),

Walt Whitman, “A Broadway Pageant” (1860),

Abraham Lincoln, “Gettysburg Address” and “Second Inaugural”

Lesson 3. Expansionists

John Fiske, “Manifest Destiny,” (1880/1885),

Josiah Strong, Our Country (1885), selections,

Alfred Thayer Mahan, “The United States Looking Outward,”

Atlantic Monthly (December 1890),

Albert Beveridge, “The March of the Flag” (1898),

Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden” (1899)

Albert Beveridge, “In Support of an American Empire (1900),

Frederick Jackson Turner, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” (1893),

Lesson 4. Anti-Imperialism and Its Aftermath

Mark Twain, “To the Person Sitting in Darkness” North American Review (February 1901),

William Graham Sumner, “On Empire and the Philippines” (1898),

Andrew Carnegie, “America versus Imperialism” (January 1899),

Jane Addams, “Democracy or Militarism” (April 30, 1899),

Finley Peter Dunne, “Expansion” (1899),

John Hay, “First Open Door Note” (September 6, 1899),

The Platt Amendment (May 22, 1903),

Theodore Roosevelt, “Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine”

(December 6, 1904),

Theodore Roosevelt, “Inaugural Address” (March 4, 1905),

William James, “The Moral Equivalent of War” (1906),

William Howard Taft, “Dollar Diplomacy” (1912),

Lesson 5. Wilson and World War I

Woodrow Wilson, ”Speech in Philadelphia,” (May 10, 1915),

Woodrow Wilson, “The First Lusitania Note” (May 13, 1915),

Woodrow Wilson, “Democracy of Business” (July 10, 1916),

Woodrow Wilson, “Peace Without Victory” (January 22, 1917),

Woodrow Wilson, “War Message” (April 2, 1917),

Randolph Bourne, The War and the Intellectuals, pp. 3-104.

George Norris and Robert LaFollette, Speeches in opposition to US entry into the European war (1917),

Eugene Debs, “Canton, Ohio Anti-War Speech” (June 16, 1918),

Woodrow Wilson, “The Fourteen Points” (January 8, 1918),

Woodrow Wilson, “League of Nations Speech” (1919),

Woodrow Wilson, “Pueblo, Colorado Speech” (September 26, 1919),

Lesson 6. Interwar Critics

Communist Party USA, “Fundamentals of the Party” (July 1935),

Harry Elmer Barnes, “The World War of 1914-1918,”

Twelve Southerners, I’ll Take My Stand (1930), Introduction,

Charles Lindbergh, “Neutrality and War” (1939) and “Our Relationship with Europe” (1940),

Charles Lindbergh, “The Des Moines Speech” (1941),

Charles A. Beard, “Giddy Minds and Foreign Quarrels,” (1939),

Lesson 7. The Summons

Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Chautauqua Speech” (August 14, 1936),

Franklin D. Roosevelt, “Fireside Chat” (December 29, 1940),

Franklin D. Roosevelt, “The Four Freedoms” (January 6, 1941),

Henry Luce, “The American Century”Life (February 17, 1941)

Walter Lippmann, U. S. Foreign Policy: Shield of the Republic(1943)

Lesson 8. Cold War (I)

George Kennan, “The Long Telegram” (February 22, 1946),

X [George F. Kennan], “The Sources of Soviet Conduct,” Foreign Affairs (July 1947)

George Kennan, American Diplomacy, 1900-1950 (1951)

NSC 68: “United States Objectives and Programs for National Security” (April 14, 1950),

“USA: The Permanent Revolution,” Fortune (February 1951),

Lesson 9. Cold War (II)

Reinhold Neibuhr, The Irony of American History

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Vital Center: The Politics of Freedom (1949),

C. Wright Mills, The Power Elite

Dwight D. Eisenhower, “Farewell Address to the Nation” (January 1961)

J. William Fulbright, The Arrogance of Power (1966), excerpt,

Lesson 10 A Third Way?

Graham Greene, The Quiet American

W. W. Rostow, The Stages of Economic Growth: A Non-Communist Manifesto (1960),

“The Port Huron Statement” (1962),

Martin Luther King, “Declaration of Independence from the War in Vietnam,” (April 1967),

Lesson 11. Nuclear Strategy

Albert Wohlstetter, “Delicate Balance of Terror” (1958),

Dr. Strangelove, a film by Stanley Kubrick

The Pulsing Heart of SAC, US Air Force film,

Airborne Alert, 1959 US Air Force film,

US Catholic Bishops statement on nuclear war (1983),

Ronald Reagan, “Star Wars Speech” (March 23, 1983),

Lesson 12. Morning in America

Jimmy Carter, “Malaise Speech” (July 15, 1979),

Ronald Reagan, “Time to Recapture Our Destiny” (July 17, 1980),

Ronald Reagan, “First Inaugural Address” (January 20, 1980),

Ronald Reagan, “Tear Down This Wall” (June 12, 1987),

Francis Fukuyama, “The End of History?” The National Interest

(Summer 1989),

Charles Krauthammer, “The Unipolar Moment,” Foreign Affairs

(America and the World, 1990/1991),

Lesson 13. Post-Cold War Debate

Samuel Huntington, “The Clash of Civilizations?” Foreign Affairs

(Summer 1993),

Robert Kaplan, “The Coming Anarchy,” The Atlantic Monthly

(February 1994),

Thomas L. Friedman, “A Manifesto for the Fast World,” New York Times Magazine (March 28, 1999),

William Kristol and Robert Kagan, ‘Toward a Neo-Reaganite Foreign Policy,” Foreign Affairs (July / August 1996),

William Kristol and Robert Kagan, “The Present Danger,” The National Interest (March 2000),

Lesson 14. Impact of 9/11

George W. Bush, “Address to a Joint Session of Congress,” (September 20, 2001),

George W. Bush, “State of the Union Address” (January 29, 2002),

George W. Bush, “West Point Commencement Speech” (June 1, 2002),

George W. Bush, “Second Inaugural Address” (January 20, 2005),

Norman Podhoretz, “World War IV: How It Started, What It Means, Why We Have To Win,” Commentary (September 2004),

Lesson 15. Dissent after 9/11

Immanuel Wallerstein, “The Eagle Has Crash Landed,” Foreign Policy (July / August 2002),

Andrew J. Bacevich, “Twilight of the Republic?,” Commonweal (December 1, 2006),

Patrick Buchanan, “No End To War,” The American Conservative

(March 1, 2004),

Peter Beinart, “A Fighting Faith,” The New Republic (December 2, 2004),

Tom Englehardt, “When I’m Sixty-Four,” (July 31, 2008), TomDispatch.com,

Wendell Berry, “The Failure of War,” Yes! (Winter 2001-2002),

Wendell Berry, “A Citizen’s Response to the National Security Strategy of the United States of America” (March 2003),

Stanley Hauerwas, “September 11, 2001: A Pacifist Response,”

Version of July 8, 2010

1