{"id":4190,"date":"2022-01-21T19:12:53","date_gmt":"2022-01-21T19:12:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-282pinsker\/?page_id=4190"},"modified":"2026-01-20T02:37:46","modified_gmt":"2026-01-20T02:37:46","slug":"mapping-american-diplomacy","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/hist-282pinsker\/course-syllabus\/mapping-american-diplomacy\/","title":{"rendered":"Mapping American Diplomacy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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What are the most important traditions in US diplomatic history?<\/h3>\n

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“This volume recounts the rise of the United States from a loose grouping of small, disparate colonies huddled along the Atlantic coast of North America and surrounded by often hostile Indians and the possessions of unfriendly European powers to a commanding position in world politics and economics.\u00a0 It focuses on U.S. foreign policy and seeks to place it in the context of an ever changing international system.\u00a0 It also examines the deeply shaping role played by foreign relations in the evolution of America’s domestic institutions and values.”<\/p>\n

–George C. Herring,\u00a0From Colony to Superpower:\u00a0 U.S. Foreign Relations Since 1776<\/em> (New York: Oxford University Press, 2008), 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cEver since George Washington\u2019s Administration, Americans have debated the following questions:\u00a0 Should the national government cooperate with business to build the economy through trade and tariffs?\u00a0 Should the extension of democracy, the defense of human rights, and the construction of a world order based on international law stand at the center of U.S. foreign policy?\u00a0 Is the hope a peaceful world a beguiling illusion, and should the United States therefore build up a strong defense system to protect itself?\u00a0 \u00a0Should Americans seek to minimize foreign entanglements and shun foreign quarrels to focus on strengthening democracy at home?\u00a0 To ignore the history of these debates is shortsighted, for a thorough understanding of how these issues have shaped U.S. foreign policy in the past can help shape the present \u2013both for policymakers and for the American public.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Walter Russell Mead, \u201cThe American Foreign Policy Legacy,\u201d\u00a0Foreign Affairs\u00a0<\/em>81 (Jan.-Feb. 2002): 164-65<\/p>\n

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Discussion Questions<\/strong><\/p>\n