Politics and Government

Political History and Theory

  • Germany
    How Are Green Parties Shaping Global Politics?
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    As the focus on environmental and social justice issues has increased, green parties have grown in influence across many countries. Here’s how they’re reshaping today’s political landscape.
  • United States
    TWE Remembers: The Trent Affair
    A diplomatic crisis between the United States and Great Britain over two captured Confederate envoys nearly sparked war one hundred sixty years ago. 
  • United States
    Virtual Roundtable: Was Jimmy Carter a Successful Foreign Policy President?
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    Four decades after he left power, Jimmy Carter’s presidency is being reevaluated by historians. The passage of time and availability of documentary evidence makes such a reassessment possible. Is the popular impression of Carter as a president who could not grasp international realities fair? Kai Bird, author and recent biographer of Jimmy Carter, explores whether Carter was an underrated foreign policy president.  
  • Censorship and Freedom of Expression
    TWE Remembers: The Pentagon Papers
    Sunday is the fiftieth anniversary of the New York Times’ publication of the Pentagon Papers. My colleague Margaret Gach, a research associate for U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relati…
  • United States
    Centennial Speaker Series Session 1: What Are the Lessons of History for Our Era?
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    Please join Margaret MacMillan for a discussion of prominent events in history that can help increase our understanding of current events and guide policymaking.  This meeting will launch CFR’s new speaker series, The 21st Century World: Big Challenges & Big Ideas, which will feature some of today’s leading thinkers and tackle issues ​that will define this century. The series commemorates CFR’s centennial and will be released as a podcast later this year. 
  • Political History and Theory
    The Council on Foreign Relations at 100: The History
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    2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the Council on Foreign Relations. Since its inception in 1921, the Council has been guided by an unwavering set of core principles: independence, nonpartisanship, and a commitment to producing quality, policy-relevant scholarship. The CFR’s mission, to provide the analysis and context necessary to inform America’s foreign policy choices and to increase public understanding of the world and why it matters, remains as urgent today as at any time in the past century.
  • U.S. Foreign Policy
    Isolationism
    In his new book, Isolationism: A History of America’s Efforts to Shield Itself From the World, CFR Senior Fellow Charles A. Kupchan explores the nation's past to uncover the ideological and political roots of U.S. grand strategy, understand the recent return of isolationist sentiment, and examine how the nation can bring its foreign commitments back into line with its means and purposes.
  • U.S. Foreign Policy
    Isolationism—New in Paperback
    Charles A. Kupchan mines the nation’s past to uncover the ideological and political roots of ongoing changes in U.S. foreign policy, including the sources of Donald J. Trump's “America First” doctrine.
  • United States
    TWE Remembers: The Ratification of the Nineteenth Amendment
    This blog post was authored by Anna Shortridge, research associate for U.S. foreign policy at the Council on Foreign Relations.  One hundred years ago today, U.S. Secretary of State Bainbridge Col…