HISTORY OF U.S. FOREIGN RELATIONS
- Anno accademico
- 2024/2025 Programmi anni precedenti
- Titolo corso in inglese
- HISTORY OF U.S. FOREIGN RELATIONS
- Codice insegnamento
- LM5730 (AF:524356 AR:291962)
- Modalità
- In presenza
- Crediti formativi universitari
- 6
- Livello laurea
- Laurea magistrale (DM270)
- Settore scientifico disciplinare
- SPS/05
- Periodo
- I Semestre
- Sede
- VENEZIA
- Spazio Moodle
- Link allo spazio del corso
Inquadramento dell'insegnamento nel percorso del corso di studio
In the first part of the course, these four analytical lenses will be introduced through lectures that draw on specific historiographical works. In the second part of the course, we will use U.S. primary sources to illustrate how culture, development economics, military interventions, and human rights policies were woven into Washington’s foreign policy initiatives aimed to shape and build its global hegemony.
More specifically:
The first lens will focus on the Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF), an organization covertly funded by the CIA by the early 1950s. CCF sought to use culture as a Cold War weapon, subsidizing art exhibits, music concerts, and literary conferences which should promote, in CIA’s intentions, an anti-totalitarian interpretation of Western culture on a global scale.
The second lens will examine U.S.-backed development strategies in the Third World. Specifically, it will analyze both the theory and policies of the Alliance for Progress, the Kennedy administration’s (1961-1963) flagship program to counter the influence of the Cuban Revolution (1959) in Latin America by fostering economic development in the region through U.S. aid.
The third lens will address the use of military power as a tool of interaction with the wider world, employed by the United States in specific cases to impose a political order aligned with Washington’s geopolitical concerns. The case of U.S. military intervention in Vietnam by the mid-1960s will be specifically addressed.
The fourth lens will explore the ambiguity that has marked Washington’s use of the human rights narrative as a tool for its foreign policy. In particular, it will focus on the transition from the Nixon/Ford administrations (1968-1977) to the Carter administration (1977-1981), highlighting the profound differences in how the Republican and Democratic administrations approached human rights agendas in crafting their foreign policies.
Risultati di apprendimento attesi
a) a confident knowledge of the facts, concepts and characters of US foreign policy during the post-1945 decades;
b) a confident knowledge of the main interpretations concerning the drivers, the making and the outcomes of US foreign policy over the decades;
c) a good degree of ability in treating various kinds of primary and secondary sources, to critically interpret them and to elaborate their critical interpretation in both written and oral form;
Prerequisiti
Contenuti
Week 1
Introduction to the course
Week 2
Cultural hegemony
Historiography:
Giles Scott-Smith, The Politics of Apolitical Culture. The Congress for Cultural Freedom, the CIA and Post-war American Hegemony. Chapter 4.
Week 3
Economic interventions
Historiography:
THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF AMERICA AND THE WORLD * VOLUME IV 1945 to the Present: Corinna R. Unger, American Development Aid, Decolonization, and the Cold War, p. 190
Week 4
Military hegemony
Historiography:
THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF AMERICA AND THE WORLD * VOLUME IV 1945 to the Present: Christopher Goscha, Decolonization and US Intervention in Asia, p. 213
Week 5
Human Rights
Historiography:
THE CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF AMERICA AND THE WORLD * VOLUME IV 1945 to the Present: Barbara Keys, Human Rights, p. 328
Week 6
How to work on a primary source
Week 7
Cultural hegemony
Primary source:
Primary source on the Indian Congress for Cultural Freedom first conference, 1951 (posted on moodle)
Week 8
Economic interventions
Primary source:
FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES, 1961–1963, VOLUME XII, AMERICAN REPUBLICS
37. Highlights of the First Meeting of the Working Group on Problems of the Alliance for Progress1, Washington, January 16, 1962. https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v12/d37
Week 9
Military hegemony
Primary sources:
FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES, 1961–1963, VOLUME IX, FOREIGN ECONOMIC POLICY
84. Report Prepared by the Policy Planning Council
Washington, undated. US MILITARY AID POLICY TOWARD NON-NATO COUNTRIES
https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1961-63v09/d84
Week 10
Human Rights
Primary sources:
Subject: Secretary's Meeting with Argentine Foreign Minister Guzzetti, October 7, 1976 https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB104/Doc6%20761007.pdf
FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES, 1977–1980, VOLUME I, FOUNDATIONS OF FOREIGN POLICY
40. Address by President Carter, South Bend, Indiana, May 22, 1977 https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1977-80v01/d40
Week 11
Students’ presentations
Week 12
Students’ presentations
Week 13
Students’ presentations
Week 14
Students’ presentations
Week 15
Final remarks