America's role in the world has always been controversial, but since September 11, 2001 and the Bush administration's response to the terrorist attacks of that day, US foreign policy has become a focal point for thinking about contemporary international relations. The first half of this module will introduce students to the different schools of thought on American foreign policy. This will provide students with the vocabulary to then interpret and assess US foreign policy since the end of the Cold War. The second half of the module will introduce students to key contemporary issues in American foreign policy.  For instance, we will consider issues such as why President George W. Bush considered it necessary to invade Iraq when his father decided not to and we will examine what impact the Iraq War has had on US perceptions of its role in the world. 

The main aims of this module are to:

•  Provide students with a theoretical vocabulary by introducing them to the principal debates and traditions of American foreign policy;  
• Enable students to describe, analyse and understand contemporary American foreign policy.

By the end of the module, students should be able to:

 Knowledge and understanding       

demonstrate familiarity with the making and conduct of contemporary foreign policy including the central ideological, theoretical and historical concepts, as well as relevant institutions and personalities;

 ·         demonstrate familiarity with and critical engagement of central texts on foreign policy and be able to distinguish authors, locate their opinions on ideological spectrums and critically assess the validity of their views;

 ·         have the fundamental knowledge necessary to progress further into the field of American foreign policy.

 Cognitive skills

•  gather, organise and deploy evidence, data and information from a variety of secondary and some primary sources;  
• develop a reasoned argument, synthesise relevant information, and exercise critical judgement;
•  manage, and self-critically reflect on, their own learning and make use of constructive feedback;
• apply theoretical frameworks to policy/empirical analysis.

Practical skills

•  make appropriate use of information and communications technology  
• form effective arguments;
• organise workload to meet deadlines.

Transferable skills

•  communicate effectively and fluently in speech and writing;
• work independently and in groups, show initiative, self-organisation and time-management;
•  use information and communication technology for the retrieval and presentation of information including, where appropriate, statistical or numerical information.

·         Introduction. American power and American exceptionalism.

 ·         Theories of American foreign policy and American foreign policy traditions.  Realism, Liberalism and Neoconservatism, and how they relate to Jeffersonianism, Wilsonianism, Hamilitonianism and Jacksonianism.

 ·         Revisionism.  America’s imperial foreign policy and questions of Empire.

 ·         The end of the Cold War and the New World Order.  The foreign policies of Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush.

 ·         The Unipolar Moment.  The foreign policy of President William Clinton and the geo-political context of the 1990s.

 ·         The impact of September 11^th 2001.  The foreign policy of George W. Bush before 9-11, the shock that 9-11 induced in American society and the framing of 9-11 as an ‘act of war’.

 ·         The War on Terror.   Interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq, counter-terrorism policy at home and the establishment of the Guantanamo Bay detention facility.

 Beyond the War on Terror.  The module will conclude by considering the foreign policy of President Barack Obama.

There is no general text book for this course.  However, one text is especially useful for understanding American foreign policy traditions: