Christopher C. Burkett

POLSC 301/HIST 236: AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY

The purpose of this course is to gain a better understanding of the place of the United States in

today’s world by examining the factors that shaped the formulation of American foreign policy

from the time of the American Revolution through the twentieth century. We will focus on how

American foreign relations were influenced not only by the events and circumstances of world

affairs, but also by political principles, which have guided American statesmen from the

beginning of the nation by pointing out the ends at which our foreign policy and national security

strategies should aim. The principled ends of American foreign policy are contained in the

Declaration of Independence, which tells us that the United States government has the right and

the duty to do all things necessary to secure the natural rights of its citizens and to maintain the

independence and domestic sovereignty of the nation. These principles, rooted in Lockean social

compact theory, provided the ends of American foreign policy until well into the late nineteenth

century. At the beginning of the twentieth century, however, Progressivism, influenced by

German idealism and historicism, brought an additional end to American foreign policy by

emphasizing the idea that the United States has a moral obligation to liberate oppressed peoples

and civilize under-developed societies. The idea that international institutions are the means

most likely to produce lasting peace also gained strength in America between the end of World

War I and the beginning of the Cold War. Through the last half of the twentieth century, faced

with the threat of Soviet expansion and the emergence of terrorism, American statesmen

combined in their foreign policies various ends and means rooted in both Founding principles

and in Progressivism. If we are to understand the role of the United States in the world today, we

must understand how and why these two fundamentally different political philosophies continue

to influence contemporary American foreign policy.

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