American Grand Strategy
What should be the grand strategy of the United States for the 21st century? To answer this question, we first track the evolution of American grand strategy since 1900. Which areas of the world did leaders consider to be relevant to U.S. security? And when did they deem it necessary to fight in those strategically important areas? Thereafter, we turn to the current debate on what America’s role in the world should be going forward. We will explore various contending grand strategic proposals—including deep engagement, offshore balancing, and restraint—and critically assess their theoretical underpinnings. Finally, we will weigh their relative appeal by exploring a series of contentiously debated foreign policy issues, including the value of alliances, the future of the transatlantic relationship, and what is at stake for the United States in Ukraine and Taiwan.
U.S. Foreign Relations
This course provides students with an overview of the tools and sources of U.S. foreign policy. It then traces the United States’ relationship with the rest of the world from its founding to the unipolar era. Finally, students will explore some of the most pressing foreign policy challenges confronting the United States today and debate what America’s role in the world should be.
Global Security
This course examines when, why, and how international actors use military threats and force to achieve political objectives. We will survey some of the most important substantive debates in the field of international security studies, including those surrounding alliances, coercive diplomacy, nuclear weapons, military effectiveness, and civil-military relations. We will also discuss emerging security challenges such as failed states, environmental crises, cyber warfare, and pandemics. Finally, we will turn to the challenges posed by a rising China and resurgent Russia and seek to answer the question of what the future holds for great power politics in Asia, Europe, and beyond.
The Causes of War
What causes interstate war? This course surveys a wide array of possible causes—ranging from the structure of the international system to domestic politics and the role of individual leaders—to then test the competing explanations against a variety of case studies, including World War I, World War II, and the Russo-Ukrainian War. We will also discuss the question of whether China’s rise is likely to lead to great power war with the United States.
Great Power Politics
Are great powers—the most powerful states in the world—doomed to relentlessly compete for security? If so, what causes this grim, dog-eat-dog world? If not, what allows them to foster cooperative relations with one another? This class examines the most important theories addressing these questions and employs them to make sense of the past, present, and future of great power politics, paying particular attention to current policy issues such as Russian revisionism in Eastern Europe and the rise of China.
Moritz S. Graefrath 