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home > by publication type > academic modules > Academic Module: The Opportunity: America's Moment to Alter History's Course
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June 2005
| Author: | Richard N. Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations |
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The Opportunity: America’s Moment to Alter History’s Course offers a concise and engaging analysis of international relations and American Foreign policy in the post-Cold War era. A veteran of several presidential administrations, author Richard Haass argues that the United States sits at a unique juncture in world history, one in which much of what it seeks to achieve in the world has the potential to be broadly acceptable to other major powers. To make the most of this moment, and to help prevent a return to a world of great power rivalry, the United States should rely on the concept of integration as the guiding doctrine for its foreign policy.
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June 2005
| Author: | Richard N. Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations |
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This is a book that describes an unprecedented moment in which the United States has a chance to bring about a world where most people are safe, free, and can enjoy a decent standard of living.
The Opportunity describes an unprecedented moment in which the United States has a chance to bring about a world where most people are safe, free, and can enjoy a decent standard of living. The book is suitable for:
The Opportunity will help students in an introductory undergraduate course understand the major issues and challenges in international relations and American foreign policy today. It identifies the trade-offs and dilemmas that American policymakers will confront as they decide how the United States should engage the world.
The Opportunity will enable students in upper-division courses to explore the nature of international relations and to assess the merits of contending strategies for guiding American foreign policy. It also provides students with the chance to evaluate contending theories of international relations.
A. General International Relations or American Foreign Policy Courses
Discussion Questions
Debate
Mock National Security Council Meeting
Assign the various positions on the President’s National Security Council team. Discuss the merits of various possible approaches the United States could pursue in response to the nuclear challenges posed by Iran and North Korea.
B. Advanced Courses in the Theory and Practice of International Relations
Discussion Questions
Debate
Exercises
Assign students one of two roles. Group A will be assigned the role of National Security Council staffer and will have the responsibility of drafting the foreign policy aspect of the president’s State of the Union address presenting to Congress, the American people, and the world the new U.S. policy of integration. Group B will be assigned the role of a Congressional foreign policy staffer responsible for drafting a response for their respective representative or senator presenting the argument against integration and making a case for an alternative. Students present their arguments in class, opening with the State of the Union and followed by Congressional rebuttal, after which students can discuss the strengths and weaknesses of each position.
September/October 2005
| Author: | Stephen M. Walt |
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Summary
U.S. policymakers debate how to wield American power; foreigners debate how to deal with it. Some make their peace with Washington and try to manipulate it; others try to oppose and undercut U.S. interests. The challenge for the United States is how to turn its material dominance into legitimate authority.
July/August 2005
| Author: | Richard N. Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations |
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Summary
Updated April 4, 2006
| Author: | Robert McMahon, Deputy Editor |
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The UN Security Council is debating how to restrict Iran's nuclear program. Western states seek a firm statement and the threat of eventual sanctions if Iran does not suspend its uranium enrichment work. But Russia and China oppose sanctions, leading to talk about economic penalties outside the United Nations' authority.
March 17, 2006
| Author: | Alexandra Silver |
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The U.S. government has several channels for promoting democracy, but a plethora of independent U.S. organizations with that same mandate also exist, with varying degrees of financial dependency on the government.
Updated: October 31, 2006
| Author: | Eben Kaplan, Associate Editor |
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Foreign policy is dominating U.S. political discourse for the first time in years. This backgrounder looks at the leading schools of foreign-policy thought on both sides of the political aisle.
December 9, 2005
| Authors: | Eben Kaplan, Associate Editor Claire Calzonetti |
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February 6, 2006
| Speakers: | Chris Patten, Chancellor, Universities of Oxford and Newcastle; former European Commissioner for External Relations; Author, Cousins and Strangers: America, Britain, and Europe in a New Century Rockwell Schnabel, Chairman and Co-founder, Trident Capital; former U.S. Ambassador to the European Union; Author, The Next Superpower? The Rise of Europe and Its Challenge to the United States |
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| Presider: | Richard R. Burt, Chairman, Diligence, Inc. |
October 26, 2005
| Speakers: | Robert W. Merry, President and Publisher, Congressional Quarterly, Inc.; Author, Sands of Empire: Missionary Zeal, American Foreign Policy, and the Hazards of Global Ambition Nancy E. Soderberg, Vice President for Multilateral Affairs, International Crisis Group-New York; Author, The Superpower Myth: The Use and Misuse of American Might Stephen M. Walt, Robert and Renee Belfer Professor of International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University; Author, Taming American Power: The Global Response to U.S. Primacy |
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| Presider: | Paul Kennedy, Director, International Security Studies and Dilworth Professor of History, Yale University |
February 10, 2005
| Speaker: | C. Fred Bergsten, Director, Institute for International Economics; Editor, The United States and the World Economy: Foreign Economic Policy for the Next Decade |
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January 13, 2005
| Speaker: | Sergey Ivanov, Minister of Defense, Russian Federation |
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| Presider: | Richard N. Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations |
May 14, 2004
| Speaker: | Mohamed ElBaradei, Director General, International Atomic Energy Agency |
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| Presider: | Graham T. Allison, Director, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University |
March 24, 2004
| Speaker: | Zbigniew Brzezinski, Author, The Choice: Global Domination or Global Leadership; Counselor, Center for Strategic and International Studies; National Security Adviser, 1977 - 1981 |
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March 16, 2004
| Speaker: | Kofi Annan, Secretary-General, United Nations |
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| Presider: | Richard N. Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations |
March 10, 2006
| Speakers: | Peter Hooper, Managing Director and Chief U.S. Economist, Deutsche Bank Securities Stephen S. Roach, Chief Economist and Managing Director, Morgan Stanley John P. Lipsky, Vice Chairman, JPMorgan Investment Bank |
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| Presider: | Daniel K. Tarullo, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center |
Listen to Economists Stephen Roach, Peter Hooper, and John P. Lipsky discuss the vulnerabilities to the U.S. economy as part of CFR's regular World Economic Update series.
December 5, 2005
| Speakers: | Jagdish N. Bhagwati, Senior Fellow, International Economics, Council on Foreign Relations Lael Brainard, Vice President and Director, Global Economy and Development Center; New Century Chair in International Economics, The Brookings Institution |
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| Presider: | James F. Hoge, Peter G. Peterson Chair & Editor, Foreign Affairs |
May 31, 2005
| Speaker: | Richard N. Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations, and Author, The Opportunity |
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| Presider: | Fareed Zakaria, Editor, Newsweek International |
March 13, 2006
| Speaker: | Jane Harman, U.S. Congress (D-CA), Ranking Member, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence |
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| Presider: | Richard M. Cohen, Columnist, Washington Post |
Congresswoman Jane Harman (D-CA) discusses the eroding rule of law with which the United States government operates regarding intelligence-gathering, torture, and surveillance. By establishing a fair and clear legal framework, all branches of government may work together through bipartisanship in fighting terrorism and apprehending suspected terrorists.
March 7, 2006
| Speaker: | Michael Mandelbaum, Christian A. Herter Professor of American Foreign Policy, Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University; author, "The Case for Goliath: How America Acts as the World’s Government in the 21st Century" |
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| Presider: | Leslie H. Gelb, President Emeritus, Council on Foreign Relations |
Professor Michael Mandelbaum discusses his book, The Case for Goliath, in which he explains how the United States uses its enormous power to provide the world with the services of a government. The U.S. plays this role with the tacit consent of many of its critics, he says.
May 31, 2005
| Speaker: | Richard N. Haass, president, Council on Foreign Relations |
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| Presider: | Fareed Zakaria, editor, Newsweek International |
March 10, 2005
| Speakers: | Fareed Zakaria, editor, Newsweek International Richard N. Haass, president, Council on Foreign Relations |
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| Presider: | Alan Murray, assistant managing editor and columnist, Wall Street Journal |
January 13, 2005
| Speaker: | Sergey Ivanov, minister of defense, Russian Federation |
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| Welcoming Remarks: | Mikhail Fridman, chairman of the board of directors, Alfa Bank |
| Presider: | Richard N. Haass, president, Council on Foreign Relations |
December 16, 2004
| Speaker: | Kofi Annan, secretary general, United Nations |
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| Presider: | Richard N. Haass, president, Council on Foreign Relations |
June 1, 2004
| Speaker: | Richard N. Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations |
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March 16, 2004
| Speaker: | Kofi Annan, secretary-general, United Nations |
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March 27, 2006
Julia E. Sweig, Nelson and David Rockefeller Senior Fellow for Latin America Studies and Director for Latin America Studies interviewed by Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor
Julia Sweig, Council on Foreign Relations Senior Fellow for Latin American Studies, is author of a new book on what she calls "the Anti-American Century." She says there are many ways the United States can begin to turn around the strong anti-American sentiment sweeping the world. Forcing high-level officials like Secretary of Defense Donald M. Rumsfeld to resign because of detainee abuses is one of them. Reviving Cold War-era cultural diplomacy programs is another.
March 14, 2006
Richard N. Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations interviewed by Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor
Richard N. Haass, president of CFR and head of policy planning at the State Department during the outbreak of the Iraq war three years ago, says that in hindsight, while history's judgment will depend on how things turn out in Iraq, the impact on U.S. foreign policy at this point is "clearly negative."
May 24, 2005
Richard N. Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations interviewed by Bernard Gwertzman, Consulting Editor
Fall 2005
| Author: | Richard N. Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations |
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December 20, 2004
| Author: | Richard N. Haass, President, Council on Foreign Relations |
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March 14, 2006
| Authors: | Ronald D. Asmus Richard C. Holbrooke, Vice Chairman, Perseus LLC |
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NATO must decide whether to begin what we would call the third phase of its history, and must answer a fundamental question: Should it play a role in dealing with problems outside its historical "space"?
March 2006
| Author: | Sandra Polaski |
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What would it take to produce a global trade agreement that addresses the interests of both developed and developing countries?
February 26, 2006
| Author: | Robert Cooper |
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This essay argues that there are strict limits on what outsiders can do to help poor countries—the internal development of functioning legal systems and states must take a leading role.
February 2006
| Authors: | Guillermo E. Perry Omar S. Arias J. Humberto López William F. Maloney Luis Servén |
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January 2006
| Author: | Pierre Goldschmidt |
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January 18, 2006
| Author: | Condoleezza Rice |
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Complete list of Council Special Reports.
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