POLI2549 · Political Science

United States Foreign Policy 1945 to Present

Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences

This course examines the causes, conduct, and consequences of U.S. foreign policy since 1945. What were the underlying patterns and logics guiding U.S. leaders? How did changes in the structure of the international system influence U.S. foreign policy? What caused America's foreign interventions and wars? Topics covered include: the origins of the Cold War; the strategies of containment, engagement, and rollback; U.S. policy in the Western hemisphere; the evolution of U.S. nuclear doctrine; detente; U.S. interventions in Korea, Iran, Guatemala, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf, Iraq, and Afghanistan; the collapse of the Soviet Union and rise of American unipolarity; as well as current foreign policy issues relating to the Middle East, Russia, and China.