Ideas and Identity in U.S. Foreign Policy

What are the ideas that animate U.S. Foreign Policy? How has American identity informed international security? In this course, we investigate these questions, looking at how U.S. security policy from the 19th century on has been informed by particular conceptualizations of frameworks including liberalism, teleology, and racism. We will investigate how these frameworks have been mobilized in decisions regarding war and peace, and how they have been conditioned by, and condition U.S. relative power and particular geostrategic events.