From isolationism to globalism: US foreign policy,

Transcription

1 From isolationism to globalism: US foreign policy, Start date 28 February 2014 End date 2 March 2014 Venue Madingley Hall Madingley Cambridge Tutor Dr. John A. Thompson Course code 1314NRX186 Director of Programmes Dr Tim London For further information on this course, please contact Linda Fisher, Academic Programme Manager on Liz Williams, Programme Administrator on To book See: or telephone Tutor biography Dr Thompson is Reader Emeritus in American History, University of Cambridge and a Fellow of St Catharine s College, Cambridge. He has held visiting positions at various American Universities and Fellowships at the Wilson Centre in Washington, D.C. and the National Humanities Centre in North Carolina. His research interest is the history of United States foreign policy. Among his publications are Reformers and War: American Progressive Publicists and the First World War (Cambridge, 1987) and Woodrow Wilson (Longman 2002). He is currently completing an interpretative history of U.S. foreign policy from the late nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth. Entitled A Sense of Power: The Roots of America s World Role, the book is due to appear with Cornell University Press. University of Cambridge Institute of Continuing Education, Madingley Hall, Cambridge, CB23 8AQ

2 Course Programme: Friday 28 February 2014 Please plan to arrive between 16:30 and 18:30. You can meet other course members in the bar which opens at 18:15. Tea and Coffee making facilities are available in the study bedrooms. 19:00 Dinner 20:30 22:00 Introductory: the questions and the prelude 22:00 Terrace bar open for informal discussion Saturday 1 March :00 Breakfast 09:00 10:30 The decline of internationalism, :30 Coffee 11:00 12:30 Isolationism in the 1930s: its rise and decline 13:00 Lunch 14:00 Free 16:00 Tea 16:30 18:00 Intervention short of war, : the great debate 19:00 Dinner 20:30 22:00 The repudiation of isolationism, :00 Terrace bar open for informal discussion Sunday 2 March :00 Breakfast 09:00 10:30 The commitment to western Europe, :30 Coffee 11:00 12:30 Assuming a global role and its burdens, :45 Lunch The course will disperse after lunch

3 Course syllabus Aims: 1. To examine the course of American foreign policy and the internal debates about it during a crucial period, and to acquaint students with the various ways in which this has been interpreted and explained. 2. To enable students to form their own views as to why the United States acted as it did in these years. 3. To give students a better understanding of the way foreign policy is made in the United States and the way that this evolved during this period. Content: An introductory session will consider the very different general explanations that have been advanced for the extensive and active role that the United States has come to play in international affairs. Has this been forced on the country by external threats, or has it been the product of some internally-generated dynamic? How important have been economic factors, strategic concerns, or the nation s ideological commitments? Such questions will be addressed by an examination of the period , from the Senate s rejection of the League of Nations to the decision to intervene in the Korean War. During these years, U.S. foreign policy followed an oscillating course and was also the subject of intense internal debate. But by 1950, the United States had not only taken a leading part in establishing the United Nations and other international organizations but had also developed a large, multifaceted capability to intervene in politics across the globe. How should we account for this? And what light does the process by which the United States came to play this role throw upon the character of US foreign policy since1950? Presentation of the course: The sessions will be a mixture of lectures and group discussions. In some of the sessions, we shall examine key documents and discuss what can be learnt from them. Outcomes: As a result of the course, within the constraints of the time available, students should be able to: 1. Have a better understanding as well as a fuller knowledge of the process by which the United States had come to assume an active and extensive role in world politics by Have understood and evaluated different historical interpretations and explanations of that process and of the crucial stages in it.

4 3. Have gained a better understanding of the way foreign policy is made in the United States and of the ways in which this changed during this period. 4. Have studied certain key documents from the period and discussed their historical significance.

5 Reading and resources list Listed below are a number of texts that might be of interest for future reference, but do not need to be bought (or consulted) for the course. Author Title Publisher and date Iriye, Akira Cambridge History of American Foreign Relations: Vol 3 The Globalizing of America, Cambridge, 1993, pbk, 1995 ISBN pbk Williams, William A The Tragedy of American Diplomacy Dell, New York, 1972, reprinted Norton, 1988, 1991 ISBN pbk Braeman, John Power and Diplomacy: the 1920s reappraised The Review of Politics, 44 (July 1982) Divine, Robert A Reynolds, David The Reluctant Belligerent: American Entry into World War II From Munich to Pearl Harbor: Roosevelt s America and the Origins of the Second World War John Wiley, New York, 1965, 1979, 2 nd edition ISBN pbk Ivan R Dee, Chicago, 2001, 2002 ISBN pbk Doenecke, Justus D The Battle Against Intervention, Krieger, Florida, 1997 ISBN pbk Thompson, John A Gaddis, John L Harper, John L Leffler, Melvyn P Conceptions of National Security and US entry into World War II The United States and the Origins of the Cold War, American Visions of Europe: Franklin D Roosevelt, George F Kennan and Dean G Acheson The American Conception of National Security and the Beginning of the Cold War, Diplomacy and Statecraft, 16 (December 2005) Columbia University Press, New York, 1972, nd ed. ISBN X pbk Cambridge University Press, 1994 pbk 1996 ISBN American Historical Review, 89 (April 1984)

6 Leffler, Melvyn P Hogan, Michael J The Emergence of an American Grand Strategy A Cross of Iron: Harry S Truman and the Origins of the National Security State, In Leffler, Melvyn P and Westad, Arne Odd (eds), The Cold War, volume 1, Cambridge University Press, 2010, pbk 2011 ISBN Cambridge University Press, 1998, 2001 ISBN pbk Note Students of the Institute of Continuing Education are entitled to 20% discount on books published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) which are purchased at the Press bookshop, 1 Trinity Street, Cambridge (Mon-Sat 9am 5:30pm, Sun 11am 5pm). A letter or confirming acceptance on to a current Institute course should be taken as evidence of enrolment. Information correct as of November 2013