Gov 1790: American Foreign Policy

Explores America’s role in global politics as explained by the major theoretical perspectives in international relations. Topics covered include American grand strategy, bureaucratic politics, the role of public opinion in foreign policy, and contemporary challenges such as anti-Americanism, the rise and fall of great powers, terrorism, and nuclear weapons. Professor: Joshua D. Kertzer.

Class Materials:

Section 12

Drones

Additional Resources

• Kahoot! individual practice: https://kahoot.it/challenge/?quiz-id=4a95666f-b50b-4903-9e36-885f384bde5f&single-player=true
• Just Security Podcast: The Biden Administration's Secret Drone Policy (11/5/2022), https://www.justsecurity.org/83987/just-security-podcast-the-biden-administrations-secret-drone-policy-pilot-episode/
• Quinta Jurecic, Moral Theory and Drone Warfare: A Literature Review, Lawfare (8/17/2015), https://www.lawfareblog.com/moral-theory-and-drone-warfare-literature-review 

Section 11

Asymmetric conflict & nuclear weapons

Additional resources

• Substack post, https://musicxirtheory.substack.com/p/treat-people-with-kindness-x-coun….
• Aaron Steckelberg et al., "Why Russia gave up on urban war in Kyiv and turned to big battles in the east," Washington Post (4/19/2022).
• Fareed Zakaria, "Kabul fell one year ago. Here are the lessons we should learn." Washington Post (8/12/2022).
• Andrew Krepinevich, Jr., "Is Putin a Rational Actor?" Foreign Affairs (11/22/2022).
• Michael Morell and Markus Garlauskas, "The threat posed by North Korea's nuclear weapons," Intelligence Matters (Podcast 11/16/2022). 

Section 10

Terrorism 

Additional resources

• Jacob Olidort, "Why the words we use about terrorism matter," The Washington Post (March 30, 2017). 
• Robert O'Harrow Jr., Andrew Ba Tran, and Derek Hawkings, "The rise of domestic extremism in America," Washington Post (April 12, 2021).
• Brian Finucane, "Assessing Biden's new policy framework for counterterrorism direct action," Just Security (Oct. 11, 2022). 

Section 9

Anti-Americanism and Alliances

Additional resources

• Anti-hero x Anti-Americanism, Music x IR Theory, Substack post.
• NATO's New Momentum, Foreign Affairs Podcast (2022)

Section 8

Rise of China

Additional resources

• Jessica Chen Weiss, "America and China Don’t Need to Knock Each Other Out to Win," New York Times (10/19/22)
• The Daily, "Xi Jinping Opens a New Chapter for China," New York Times (10/31/22)

Section 7

Hegemony and liberal international order

Additional resources

• The Greatest x Hegemonic Stability Theory, Substack post, https://musicxirtheory.substack.com/p/the-greatest-x-hegemonic-stability
• "Russia, Ukraine, and the Return of Territorial Conquest" - a conversation with Tanisha Fazal, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxAIQoLIOt8 

Section 6

Media & interest groups

Additional resources

• Reyko Huang, Armed rebel groups lobby in D.C., just like governments. How does that influence U.S. policy? Washington Post (2/6/2020)
• Matthew Baum and Yuri Zhukov, News coverage of civil conflict is biased in both democracies and autocracies, Washington Post (2/26/2015)

Section 5

Public Opinion

Additional resources

• Ian Ward, How Elites Misread Public Opinion, Politico (06/17/2022)
• Chicago Council on Global Affairs, 2022 Survey of Public Opinion on US Foreign Policy, (9/28/22)

Section 4

Bureaucratic politics and foreign policy

Additional resources

• Materials from last year's section: https://scholar.harvard.edu/kirajpanah/classes/government-1790-american…
• Daniel Drezner, "Biden's team of non-rivals," 9/1/2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/09/01/joe-bidens-team-non-r…
• Civ-mil relations open letter, 9/6/2022, https://warontherocks.com/2022/09/to-support-and-defend-principles-of-c…;

Section 3

The President and Congress

Additional resources

• Charlie Savage, "U.S. Discloses Decades of Justice Dept. Memos on Presidential War Powers," 9/16/22 (NYT)
• War Powers Resolution Reporting Project, Reiss Center on Law and Security (NYU Law)
• James Goldgeier and Elizabeth Saunders, "The Unconstrained Presidency," Foreign Affairs (Sept./Oct. 2018)

Section 2

Grand Strategy

Additional resources

• Nina Silove, "Beyond the Buzzword: The Three Meanings of 'Grand Strategy'" Security Studies (2018), https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09636412.2017.1360073
• Paul C. Avey et al., "Disentangling Grand Strategy: International Relations Theory and US Grand Strategy" Texas National Security Review (2018), https://dornsife.usc.edu/assets/sites/922/docs/3_TNSR_Journal_Vol_2_Iss…;

Section 1

IR Theories

Additional resources

• Slides from Fall 2021, https://scholar.harvard.edu/kirajpanah/classes/government-1790-american…
• Zachariah Mampilly, The Du Bois Doctrine, Foreign Affairs, https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/web-du-bois-doctrine-race-america-century
• Paul Poast, War in Ukraine "Thread of Threads," https://twitter.com/ProfPaulPoast/status/1519311958918537216