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SHAFR Opinion

The McChrystal Affair: Pity the Poor Historian

by Michael Hunt

Crossposted from Michael Hunt’s Washington and the World blog.
There is good reason to pity the poor historian, who has been tested especially severely during the recent McChrystal-Obama imbroglio as the eruption of historical parallels and lessons have ranged from the wrong-headed to the off-kilter.
Henry Kissinger is a good example of the wrong-headed. This policy heavyweight, [...]

LGBT Equality and The Limits of Human Rights

by Laura Belmonte

Last October, a bill was introduced in the Ugandan parliament that would make homosexuality punishable by life imprisonment or even death.  The bill also calls for the extradition of Ugandans who engage in homosexual sex in other countries and for criminal penalties for individuals, media, or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that support lesbian, gay, bisexual, and [...]

Thinking about Remembering

by Molly Wood

I grew up in Richmond, Virginia, and even though I have not lived there for many years, I still visit regularly. I often think that my decision to become a historian stems in part from the stories of my family history told to me by grandparents and other relatives. I learned from my grandmother, for [...]

Germany to Greece: Drop Dead

by William Glenn Gray

Germans have chosen to work; Greeks have chosen leisure. For this reason, Germans are furious with Greece for accumulating an unsustainable debt burden and thereby undermining the solidity of the European currency. But the self-righteous anger in Berlin may itself call into question the political basis of the Euro.

Diplomats Among Warriors

by John Prados

In Afghanistan at the moment (February 2010), U.S. Marines, allied troops, and Afghan government soldiers are embarked on an offensive at a town called Marja in Helmand province. American commander-in-chief General Stanley A. McChrystal here makes the first expression of the strategy that underlies the appeal for reinforcements that led to the Obama administration “surge” [...]

Is Wartime a Time to End Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell?

by Mary Dudziak

As the Obama Administration moves (slowly) toward repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, one argument in opposition is that the nation is at war, and significant changes in the military should not take place during wartime. One response to that point is that all hands are needed during heightened military deployments, and it harms American [...]

Beware Presidents’ Use of History

by John Prados

We are told that history plays as tragedy and repeats as farce. But perhaps that is changing. In the summer of 2007 President George W. Bush invoked the Vietnam analogy to justify an equally or more tragic war in Iraq. And in the West Point speech announcing his new strategy for Afghanistan, President Barack Obama [...]

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Funding

Below is a list of funding opportunities for those interested in American foreign relations.  Many of these links were harvested from Nick Sarantakes’s excellent U.S. Diplomatic History Resources Index. SHAFR also generously funds research in the field.  For a list of the Society’s prizes and fellowships, please click here.

Arnold A. Saltzman Institute for War and Peace at Columbia University

Association for Asian Studies

Center for Military History

Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD) Scholarships

Dirksen Congressional Center Research Awards

Dwight Eisenhower Presidential Library Abilene Travel Grants

Ernest May Fellowships, Belfer Center, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University

Fulbright Scholars Program

George Bush Presidential Library Grants and Scholarships

George C. Marshall Foundation, Marshall-Baruch Fellowship

Gerald Ford Presidential Library Research Travel Grants

John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation

John F. Kennedy Library Grants and Fellowships

Princeton University Library Research Grants

White House Fellowships

Woodrow Wilson International Center Fellowships

H.F. Guggenheim Foundation Research Grants

Hoover Presidential Library Travel Grants

Kennedy Presidential Library Research Grants

National Endowment for the Humanities Grants Program

Naval Historical Center Hooper Research Grants

Travel Grants, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming

Travel and Research Grants, Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan

Rockefeller Foundation Grants

Roosevelt Presidential Library Grants

Rose and Sigmund Strochlitz Travel Grants, University of Connecticut Libraries

Truman Presidential Library Grants Program

Morris K. Udall Archives Research Travel Grant, University of Arizona

U.S. Institute of Peace Grants

U.S. Institute of Peace Jennings Randolph Senior Fellowship

U.S. Institute of Peace Jennings Randolph Peace Scholar Dissertation Fellowship

Suggestions for funding resources to add?  Please contact us.