home > by publication type > academic modules > Academic Module: Special Providence: American Foreign Policy and How It Changed the World
Email
December 2001
| 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 attributes this unprecedented success (as well as recurring problems) to a vigorous interplay among four powerful political traditions that have shaped foreign policy since the Revolution. The tension among these competing forces guides American foreign policy toward prudent action. 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.
What is a CFR Academic Module?
Academic Modules—featuring teaching notes by the authors of CFR publications—are designed to assist educators in creating or supplementing a course syllabus. The modules are customized packages built around a primary CFR text, such as a book or report, and include teaching notes; additional readings; video, audio, and transcripts of CFR meetings; Foreign Affairs articles; and other online resources. Use of these modules is free of charge. They may be used in part or in their entirety.
December 2001
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.
By Walter Russell Mead
Special Providence offers an insightful and unique framework for understanding America’s role in the world. This book is equally appropriate for:
Special Providence will provide undergraduates in introductory courses with a typology of American approaches to foreign affairs that is deeply rooted in U.S. history. The four worldviews described in Special Providence will enable these students to better understand the present and envision the future of American foreign policy.
Advanced students in upper-division courses will be able to grapple with the ideological underpinnings that inform America’s encounter with the world. Special Providence will also illuminate how America’s historical experience continues to influence the course of its relations with the world.
General Courses in American Foreign Policy
Discussion Questions
Advanced Courses in American Foreign Policy
Discussion Questions
Debate Topics
Op-Eds
Assign your students to write an op-ed succinctly arguing a position on a particular policy of the Bush administration. The standard to meet is importance of the topic, clarity in presenting a specific point of view, and brevity (650–750 words). Because the op-ed is short, it requires different writing skills from a conventional term paper—the point must be made within the first or second paragraph, the writing style is usually more argumentative than in term papers, and the writing must be simple even as the ideas advanced are sophisticated. Students will need help in focusing the argument—which is best done before writing—because most students choose arguments that are either too sprawling or esoteric for good op-eds. Circulate half a dozen examples of good op-eds to give students a template to emulate.
October 27, 2005
July 1, 2005
An open question as George Bush took the oath of office on January 20, 2005, was how different American foreign policy would be in his second term in office. During his first term, he had challenged traditional approaches to foreign policy. Even before the September 11 attacks, his administration made clear that it refused to accept constraints on American freedom of action, doubted the value of international institutions, and was prepared to alienate even close allies in pursuing what it saw as American interests. Those instincts intensified in the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. The president announced the Bush Doctrine, which held that the United States would “make no distinction between the terrorists who committed these attacks and those who harbor them.” The application of this doctrine led to the Afghanistan War, which had the support of much of the rest of the world, and then the Iraq War, which did not. The administration dismissed complaints that it had invaded Iraq without the express authorization of the United Nations Security Council, even as poll after poll showed that America’s image was plunging around the world.
September 2003
Task Force Report No. 48
The world’s opinion of the United States and of U.S. policy has plummeted in the wake of the war in Iraq. The resulting widespread anger, fear, and mistrust, warns this timely report of the independent Task Force on Public Diplomacy, are creating immediate and long-term problems for the United States that must be addressed.
November 2002
At a time when American primacy appears to be stronger than ever, Council Fellow and Georgetown Professor Charles Kupchan argues that the end of Pax Americana is near. What will replace American supremacy, and how American leaders should prepare for this new era, are the central questions of this provocative new book.
November 17, 2005
February 22, 2006
George Weigel discusses what he sees as the increasing secularization of Europe and how it affects U.S.-Europe relations and Europe’s role in the world.
March 7, 2006
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.
March 13, 2006
The authors argue that although often justified as reflecting shared strategic interests or compelling moral imperatives, the U.S. commitment to Israel is due primarily to the activities of the “Israel Lobby."
In Termites in the Trading System, Jagdish Bhagwati reveals how the rapid spread of preferential trade agreements endangers the world trading system.
America Between the Wars explores how the decisions and debates of the years between the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Twin Towers shaped the events, arguments, and politics of the world we live in today.
In The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State, Noah Feldman tells the story behind the increasingly popular call for the establishment of the sharia—the law of the traditional Islamic state—in the modern Muslim world.
Complete list of CFR Books.
This report argues that the United States must lead with domestic action on climate change and proposes a U.S. negotiating strategy for a global UN climate agreement that includes commitments from all major economies, while also promoting a less formal Partnership for Climate Cooperation that would focus the world's largest emitters on implementing aggressive emissions reductions.
This Task Force report examines changes in Latin America and in U.S. influence there, while taking account of the region's enduring importance to the United States. The Task Force offers an agenda for U.S. policy toward Latin America and identifies four critical areas that should provide the basis of a new U.S. approach.
About Independent Task Forces at CFR.
In this report, CFR Fellow Brad W. Setser recommends addressing the U.S. current account deficit in order to strengthen the United States’ position abroad.
This report, written by CFR Senior Fellow Daniel Markey, outlines the nature of the challenges in Pakistan's tribal areas, formulates strategies for addressing those challenges, and distills the strategies into realistic policy proposals worthy of consideration by the incoming administration.
Complete list of Council Special Reports.
“The Next President:” Richard Holbrooke says the next U.S. president will inherit a more difficult set of international challenges than any predecessor since World War II.
To order Task Force reports, Council Special Reports, and Critical Policy Choices, please call, fax, or order online from our distributor, the Brookings Institution Press: phone +1.800.537.5487, fax +1.410.516.6998.
For information on other reports that are not for sale, or for general publications information, please call +1-212-434-9516 or email publications@cfr.org.
To request permission to reuse Council materials, please email publications@cfr.org or fax +1.212.434.9859.
Please include the complete information of the requested work—author, title, sections/pages to be copied or reprinted, and number of copies to be made—along with a brief description of where and how you would like to reuse the work.
You may also request permission for Council material through Copyright Clearance Center. For more information, please click on the link below.
Copyright 2008 by the Council on Foreign Relations. All Rights Reserved.
