AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY IN THE 20TH CENTURY (1914-2008)

SYLLABUS

(UE3 – LG20EM32)

Monday, 10-12
Room 017H
Institut Le Bel

Tuesday, 9-11
Room #115
Palais Universitaire

Wednesday, 9-11
Room # 1107
Le Patio

Fall term, 2023

Université de Strasbourg

Ghislain Potriquet
potriquet@unistra.fr
office #4220

Political cartoon by Etta Hulme. Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 1981-03-04. Etta Hulme Papers. Special Collections Identifier: AR717-OS812-17.
https://libraries.uta.edu/ettahulme/image/20106398

Description

This course studies the rise of the United States as a global power. From World War I to the 2003 Iraq war
and its aftermath, it examines how the United States positioned itself on the world stage. Paying particular
attention to elements of continuity and change, it is meant to give students a comprehensive understanding
of the many factors – domestic and external – that have shaped the foreign policy of the United States
throughout the twentieth century. Historical documents from a broad range of sources (speeches,
telegrams, declassified memos, etc.) are used as a basis for discussion. Each class begins with a review of
historical events and proceeds with a detailed study of a primary source document. A discussion of the
relevance of past events on present day foreign policy issues ends our classes. This course is intended for
third-year undergraduate students with a keen interest in global history and world affairs.
p. 1/4
Course requirements and evaluation

Students are expected to do all assigned readings and participate actively in class. Latecomers are expected
to catch up with all classes, readings and assignments. Each week, students will give a presentation on a
given text. The final exam consists in a written commentary of an unknown primary source document. It
lasts four hours and is closed-book.

Students are reminded that cheating at an exam is a misdemeanor under French law (Loi du 23 décembre
1901 réprimant les fraudes dans les examens et concours publics). Notably, this implies that the use of
electronic devices is strictly prohibited during exams.

Recommended textbook

History of American Foreign Policy, Volume 2: From 1895 (4th edition) by Jerald A. Combs. M.E. Sharpe, 2012.
(ISBN-10: 0765633493). Previous editions (3rd or 2nd) may be purchased as an alternative.

A reader is available for purchase at the “Imprimerie de la DALI” located at the basement level of “Le
Studium” library.

Course schedule

Week 1 – Course introduction: the first century of American foreign policy (1796-1898)

Week 2 – Isolationism deferred: the US and WW1

Recommended readings: textbook, ch.4, 5 & booklet, pp.19-21 (Woodrow Wilson: “Force to the Utmost”)
Text for class presentation: p.21, l.39-83 (“It has been with this thought” to “peoples of the far East”)

Week 3 – The United States at the outbreak of WW2

Recommended readings: textbook, ch.7 & booklet pp.22-31 (FDR: Fireside Chat, December 29, 1940)
Text for class presentation: pp.23-24, l.57-93 (“One hundred and seventeen years ago” to “telling us the
facts”)

Week 4 – The roots of the Cold War

Recommended readings: textbook, ch.8 and 9 & booklet pp.32-41 (George Kennan: “The Long Telegram”)
Text for class presentation: p.41, l.353-389 (“For those reasons I think” to “with whom we are coping”)

Week 5 – The Cuban Missile Crisis

Recommended readings: textbook, ch.11 & booklet pp.42-59 (Meeting at the White House, October 16,
1962)
Text for class presentation: pp. 48-50, l.236-280 (“Still, about why are the Soviets doing this” to “Right”).

Week 6 – The Vietnam War: objections on the home front

Recommended readings: textbook, ch.12 & booklet pp.60-72 (Martin Luther King: “A Time to Break
Silence”)
Text for class presentation: p.62, l.70-103 (“Perhaps a more tragic recognition” to “America will be!”)

p. 2/4
Week 7 – Crises in the Middle East
Recommended readings: textbook, ch.14 & booklet pp.73-77 (Memorandum of Conversation – Richard
Nixon, Henry Kissinger et al., October 10, 1973)
Text for class presentation: pp.74-75 (“Let me say a word about diplomacy” to “improve the situation to the
general advantage”)

Week 8: The Gulf War

Recommended readings: textbook, ch.16, 17 & booklet pp.78-88 (Address Before a Joint Session of the
Congress on the State of the Union, January 29, 1991, by George Bush).
Text for class presentation: pp. 84-85, l.228-330 (“The war in the Gulf is not a war we wanted” to end of
text).

Week 9: 9/11 and the war on terror

Recommended readings: textbook, ch.18, 19 & booklet pp.89-98 (Remarks by President Bush on Iraq)
Text for class presentation: pp.93-95, l.149-214 (“Some citizens wonder” to “make that choice”)

p. 3/4
Selected bibliography

For references on particular periods or topics, students will refer to the bibliographical information at the
end of each chapter of the textbook.

Ambrose, Stephen and Douglas G. Brinkley. Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy Since 1938. 9th ed.
London: Penguin, 2010.
Black, Jeremy. A History of Diplomacy. London: Reaktion Books, 2011.
Bennett, Andrew and George Shambaugh. Clashing Views in American Foreign Policy. 5th ed. New York:
McGraw Hill, 2010.
Carter, Ralph G. Contemporary Cases in U.S. Foreign Policy: From Terrorism to Trade. 4th ed. Washington D.C.:
CQ Press, 2010.
Cobbs Hoffman, Elisabeth. American Umpire. Harvard : Harvard UP, 2013
David, Charles-Philippe (éd.) Théories de la politique étrangère américaine: auteurs, concepts et approches.
Montréal : Presses universitaires de l’Université de Montréal, 2015.
Herring, George C. From Colony to Superpower: U.S. Foreign Relations since 1776. New York: Oxford UP, 2011.
Hobsbawm, Eric J. The Age of Extremes: a History of the World, 1914-1991. New York: Vintage Books, 1996.
Holsti, Ole R. Making American Foreign Policy. London, Routledge, 2006.
Hunt, Michael H. Crises in U.S. Foreign Policy: An International History Reader. New Haven (CT): Yale
University Press, 1996.
Jentlesson, Brice W. American Foreign Policy: the Dynamics of Choice in the 21st Century. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin, 1998.
Jervis, Robert. American Foreign Policy in a New Era. London: Routledge, 2005.
LaFeber, Walter. The American Age: United States Foreign Policy at Home and Abroad, 1750 to the Present. New
York: Norton, 1994.
Lefflin, Melvyn P. For the Soul of Mankind: The United States, the Soviet Union, and the Cold War. New York :
Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2009.
McDougall, Walter A. Promised Land, Crusader State: the American Encounter with the World since 1776.
Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.
Mélandri, Pierre et al. Les Etats-Unis entre uni- et multilatéralisme: de Woodrow Wilson à George W. Bush. Paris:
l’Harmattan, 2008.
--- et al. La politique extérieure des Etats-Unis au XXe siècle : le poids des déterminants intérieurs. Paris:
l’Harmattan, 2007.
Westad, Odd Arne. The Cold War : a World History. New York : Basic Books, 2017.

Recommended websites

Brookings Institution – Foreign Policy

http://www.brookings.edu/foreign-policy.aspx
Council on Foreign Relations – Foreign Policy History
http://www.cfr.org/issue/foreign-policy-history/ri138
Foreign Affairs
http://www.foreignaffairs.com/
Foreign Policy
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/
The American Presidency Project
http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/
The Avalon Project – Documents in Law, History, Diplomacy
http://avalon.law.yale.edu/
U.S. Department of State – Office of the Historian
http://history.state.gov/

p. 4/4