Contending Visions of U.S. Foreign Policy in the Twenty-First Century

This upper division political science program will examine the deeper visions and ideologies that lie behind policy differences over war, peace, global economics and immigration among political parties, candidates and citizens as we enter the early twenty-first century. Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has witnessed diverse official foreign policy visions that range from President H.W. Bush’s conservative “Realism” to Bill Clinton’s “Neoliberal” embrace of capitalist globalization, and from George W. Bush’s militaristic “Neoconservatism” to current President Trump’s more isolationist and ethnonationalist “America First” vision. American citizens also hold other views that range from "Libertarian" to  "Anti-Imperialist" approaches. This program will help students identify these different visions and understand their deeper ideological roots by reading a variety of authors and thinkers who represent these different visions and by writing several comparative papers and engaging in a research project.  Students will conclude the program by mapping the deeper foreign policy visions at stake in the 2020 President elections and engaging with debates about the decline of U.S. power and the emergence of a post-American world.