• Study Group on the History of U.S. Foreign Policy

  Staff:	Walter Russell Mead, Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy

  June 1, 1999 - June 1, 2002

  The goal of this project is to support the completion of a book on understanding the American foreign policy tradition. The book will explain how foreign policy has played a major role in domestic American politics throughout the country’s history; how foreign policy and domestic politics are much more deeply connected than the conventional wisdom acknowledges; how interest in international relations has long been a major concern of non-elite, non-mercantile elements of the American polity; and how there are persistent schools of thought about American foreign policy that have shaped and continue to shape public debates and government policy.

  The result of this project was the book, Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World.

  
  

   

  • Publications  
  • Meetings  

   

  Publications

  

  December 2001

  Special Providence

  Author:	Walter Russell Mead, Henry A. Kissinger Senior Fellow for U.S. Foreign Policy

  The United States has had a more successful foreign policy than any other great power in history. Council Senior Fellow Walter Russell Mead argues that the United States is successful because its strategy is rooted in Americans’ concrete interests, which value trade and commerce as much as military security.  

   

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  Meetings

  With God on Our Side (Santa Monica)

  National Program Meeting

  
  April 22, 2002

  Related Project: Study Group on the History of U.S. Foreign Policy

  Panelist:	Robert J. Abernethy, Chairman, American Standard Development Co.
  Speaker:	Walter Russell Mead, Senior Fellow, U.S. Foreign Policy, Council on Foreign Relations

   

  The Walrus and the Carpenter

  Study Group Meeting

  
  March 7, 2002

  Related Project: Study Group on the History of U.S. Foreign Policy

  Speaker:	Walter Russell Mead

  Contact: Derek Lundy at 212-434-9549 or dlundy@cfr.org

   

  The History of U.S. Foreign Policy—Session Four

  Study Group Meeting

  
  April 12, 2000

  Related Project: Study Group on the History of U.S. Foreign Policy

  Presider:	David G. Victor, Robert W. Johnson, Jr., Senior Fellow in Science and Technology, Council on Foreign Relations
  Speaker:	Walter Russell Mead, Senior Fellow, U.S. Foreign Policy, Council on Foreign Relations

  Chapter Seven: The Rise and Retreat of the New World Order

  Chapter Eight: The Future of American Foreign POlicy

   

  Session 3—Lucid Stars Chapters 5 & 6

  Study Group Meeting

  
  October 12, 1999

  Related Project: Study Group on the History of U.S. Foreign Policy

  Speaker:	Walter Russell Mead

   

  Study Group on the History of U.S. Foreign Policy—Chapters 3 + 4

  Study Group Meeting

  
  September 21, 1999

  Related Project: Study Group on the History of U.S. Foreign Policy

  Speaker:	Walter Russell Mead, Senior Fellow, U.S. Foreign Policy, Council on Foreign Relations

   

  Session I: Study Group on the History of U.S. Foreign Policy

  Study Group Meeting

  
  July 20, 1999

  Related Project: Study Group on the History of U.S. Foreign Policy

  Speaker:	Walter Russell Mead

   

  Study Group on the History of U.S. Foreign Policy—Session I

  Study Group Meeting

  
  June 16, 1999

  Related Project: Study Group on the History of U.S. Foreign Policy

  Presider:	Walter Russell Mead, Senior Fellow, U.S. Foreign Policy, Council on Foreign Relations
  Speaker:	Walter Russell Mead, Senior Fellow, U.S. Foreign Policy, Council on Foreign Relations

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• The Global Finance Regime

  

  Explore the international finance regime with a new interactive from CFR's program on International Institutions and Global Governance.

  New Council Special Reports

  
  

  Enhancing U.S. Preventive Action

  Identifying international threats and acting on them may be the most difficult job for U.S. policymakers. This report provides an actionable road map for managing international threats before they erupt into crises and makes a strong case that preventive action is not a luxury but a necessity.

  The United States in the New Asia

  For more than a decade, the United States has mostly watched from the sidelines as Asian countries organize themselves into an alphabet soup of new multilateral groups. In this report, the authors review the relationship between pan-Asian and trans-Pacific institutions and suggest policy guidelines for a new U.S. approach to this new Asian landscape.

  Complete list of Council Special Reports

  New Books

  Start-Up Nation addresses the trillion-dollar question: How is it that Israel—a country of 7.1 million, only sixty years old, surrounded by enemies— produces more start-up companies than large, peaceful, and stable nations like Japan, China, India, Korea, Canada, and the UK? With the insights of geopolitical experts and investors, the authors examine this nation’s adversity-driven culture to answer this question and offer prescriptions for a global economy on the rebound.

  

  In Forces of Fortune, Vali Nasr presents a paradigm-changing revelation that will transform the understanding of the Muslim world at large. He reveals that there is a vital but unseen rising force in the Islamic world—a new business-minded middle class—that is building a vibrant new Muslim world economy and that holds the key to winning the cold war against Iran and extremists.

  In Cuba: What Everyone Needs to Know, Julia E. Sweig presents a remarkably accessible portrait of Cuba's unique place on the world stage over the past fifty years, including its internal politics, its often fraught relationship with the United States, and its shifting relationship with the global community.

  Complete list of CFR Books

  David Rockefeller Studies Program Contacts

  For more information on the David Rockefeller Studies Program, contact:

  James M. Lindsay
  Senior Vice President, Director of Studies, and Maurice R. Greenberg Chair
  +1.212.434.9626 (NY); +1.202.509.8405 (DC)
  jlindsay@cfr.org

  Janine Hill
  Deputy Director of Studies Administration
  +1.212.434.9753
  jhill@cfr.org

   

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