What's Wrong with U.S. Foreign Policy?

This module offers a critical examination of U.S. foreign policy since the end of the Cold War.  It will consider: 1) the nature of the U.S. foreign policy establishment, 2) why the U.S. decision to pursue a grand strategy of “liberal hegemony” during the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations was a failure, 3) why the first Trump administration’s efforts to alter this policy were unsuccessful; 4) why the Biden administration’s attempt to return to the basic outlines of liberal hegemony foundered, and 5) why the the radical departures begun during the second Trump administration are also likely to fail.  The central aim of the course is to broaden students’ understanding of recent U.S. foreign policy and encourage independent thinking about key foreign policy choices.