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SHAFR Opinion

Visions of War

by Susan Brewer

On December 15th President Barack Obama welcomed home U.S. troops from a war he once had called “dumb.” His speech avoided the reasons why the Iraq War was fought and focused instead on honoring the American servicemen and women who fought it.  Inspiring words–“extraordinary achievement,” “honor,” “sacrifice,” “finest fighting force,” “unbroken line of heroes,” “progress [...]

Posted in Barack Obama administration: 2009-present, Iraq, Iraq War: 2003-present, Middle East, Post-9/11: 2001-present | No Comments »

Newt Gingrich and the (ab)Uses of History

by Andrew Johnstone

It is an honor to join the SHAFR blogging team for 2011-12.  While SHAFR is (as the name makes perfectly clear) a society that focuses on the history of American foreign relations, there is no doubt that we are as well placed as anyone to make connections between historical events and contemporary issues in American [...]

Posted in Presidency, Public Opinion | No Comments »

Issues for the 2012 Presidential Election

by Nick Sarantakes

The United States of America is about to enter a presidential election year.  Actually, it already has entered the political season.  The election of 2012 will most likely turn on economics, but as Andy Johns pointed out in his blog, foreign policy is always important and next year’s contest will be no different.  In addition, [...]

Posted in Barack Obama administration: 2009-present, China, India, Middle East, North Korea, Pakistan, Policymaking--American | No Comments »

W(h)ither the Bilateral Study?: what of the History of U.S. Foreign Policy can tell us about the Emergent Multilateral World

by James Siekmeier

Back during the Cold War, bilateral studies were common. Indeed the proliferation of bilateral studies seemed to be almost a natural process—it was thought that we humans were seemingly biologically hard-wired to separate things in to this/that, either/or,  good/evil, etc.
Recently, however, the genre of “United States and …[insert country name here] “ studies seem to [...]

Posted in Americas | No Comments »

Rising Isolationism, A Renewed Danger?

by Christopher McKnight Nichols

It is an honor to be kicking off the blog for the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations for the fall of 2011. I thank Andrew Johns, Brian Etheridge, and the officers of SHAFR for the invitation, and I look forward to an excellent year of diverse debates and dynamic discussions.
For this column, which [...]

Posted in Africa, Anti-War Efforts, Barack Obama administration: 2009-present, Dwight Eisenhower administration: 1953-1961, Early Cold War: 1945-1961, Foreign aid, George W. Bush administration: 2001-2008, Gilded Age: 1876-1900, Ideology, Inter-war Diplomacy: 1919-1939, Military affaris, Peace and dissent, Post-9/11: 2001-present, Post-Cold War: 1991-2001, Public Opinion, State Department, Theory and Ideas, United Nations, United States, World War I: 1914-1918, World War II: 1939-1945 | No Comments »

A Note from Europe: The End of the World is Nigh

by Michaela Hoenicke Moore

The mid-July headline of the German newspaper Sueddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) commenting on the two debt crises in Europe and the United States reads “The End of the World Is Near – But Only for You.” The article cleverly illustrates the deepening transatlantic gap when it comes to political and economic frames of reference. Americans are [...]

Posted in Barack Obama administration: 2009-present, Congress, Culture and international relations, Domestic groups and organizations, Domestic politics, Europe, European Union, Financial Policies, Franklin Roosevelt administration: 1933-1945, Harry Truman administration: 1945-1953, Ideology, International Economic Relations, International Trade and Economics, Policymaking--American, Policymaking--International, Post-9/11: 2001-present, Presidency | No Comments »

Moving Beyond (and Before) the Cold War

by David Ekbladh

I’ll take up the point raised by Shane Maddock’s recent post on moving beyond the Cold War.  I share his feeling that the focus on the conflict has imposed its own “interpretive framework” on scholarship in U.S. foreign relations and international history generally and that this scaffolding can limit our understanding of a slew of [...]

Posted in Anti-War Efforts, Domestic groups and organizations, Early Cold War: 1945-1961, Financial Policies, International Organizations, Modernization, Policymaking--International, Post-Cold War: 1991-2001, United Nations, World War II: 1939-1945 | No Comments »

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Classroom Documents

The SHAFR Teaching Committee is busy preparing documents for use in classes on American foreign relations.  Below please find examples.  Check back later for more.

If you have any suggestions or ideas for documents, please contact Matt Loayza at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

Dollar Bill Great Seal, 1782

Documents from the Early American Republic

Alexander Hamilton on the French Revolution

Alexander Hamilton defends Jay’s Treaty, 1795

George Washington, “Farewell Address,” 1796

The Monroe Doctrine, 1823

John L. O’Sullivan and “Manifest Destiny,” 1839

Daniel Webster on Revolutions Abroad, 1850

Treaty between Japan and the United States, 1854

Alfred Thayer Mahan Advocates for a Strong Navy, 1890

Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden,” 1899

Ernest H. Crosby, “The Real ‘White Man’s Burden,’” New York Times February 15, 1899, p. 6.

Lida Calvert Obenchain, “The Philippine War” (June 1899)

Teddy Roosevelt on U.S. Expansion, 1899

The First Open Door Notes, 1899

Woodrow Wilson’s Appeal for American Neutrality, 1914

Woodrow Wilson’s War Message, 1917

Senator LaFollette’s Response to Wilson’s War Message, 1917

Woodrow Wilson’s 14 Points, 1918

Henry Cabot Lodge’s Reservations to the Treaty of Versailles, 1919

Charles Evans Hughes Supports Naval Disarmament, 1919

Ho Chi Minh Documents

FDR, “I Hate War,” 1936

Joseph Grew Opposes Economic Sanctions Against Japan

FDR’s “Four Freedoms” Address, 1941

Henry Wallace, Century of the Common Man, 1942

FDR’s decision to open a second front in World War II

Excerpt from Elliott Roosevelt’s As He Saw It

Franck Committee Predicts International Arms Race

George Kennan (X), “The Sources of Soviet Conduct,” July 1947

Truman’s Inaugural Address, 1949

Barrett to Acheson on Public Relations and NSC-68

Korean War Documents

Congress Backs the Eisenhower Doctrine, 1957

Dulles and Brownell on Little Rock Integration, 1957

National Security Council on the Ramifications of Sputnik, 1957

Kennedy and Rusk on the Soviet Threat, 1962

George Ball to President Johnson on Vietnam, 1965

Henry Kissinger on Salvador Allende, 1970

Conversation between Nixon and Mao, 1972

The Shanghai “Joint Communiqué” (February 27, 1972)

Ronald Reagan Denounces the Soviets, 1982

Reagan and Gorbachev Discuss Nuclear Arms Reductions, 1986

George H. W. Bush State of the Union Address, 1990