AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY, PAST AND FUTURE

September 8-11, 2013

Does America have a moral obligation to promote enlightened democracy abroad, or should national self-interest be the guiding principle of U.S. foreign policy? How is the U.S. to balance the need for a strong national defense in the face of challenges from Islamism, China, and Russia, with the need to address its debt crisis?

This first CCA of the 2013-2014 academic year will consider these and other questions in a historical context.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 8

4:00 pm "Promised Land: U.S. Foreign Policy as it Emerged from the Founding Era"
             Walter A. McDougall
             University of Pennsylvania
             Author, Promised Land, Crusader State: The American Encounter
             with the World Since 1776

8:00 pm "Crusader State: Progressivism and U.S. Foreign Policy"
             Walter A. McDougall

MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 9

4:00 pm “Lessons from Geography”
             Robert D. Kaplan
             The Atlantic
             Author, The Revenge of Geography: What the Map Tells Us 
             About Coming Conflicts

8:00 pm "The Role of China in American Foreign Policy, Present and Future"
             Gary J. Schmitt
             Director, Program on American Citizenship
             American Enterprise Institute

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 10

4:00 pm "The Neo-Conservative View"
             Max Boot
             Council on Foreign Relations

8:00 pm "Culture and Foreign Policy"
             David P. Goldman
             Asia Times Online and PJ Media

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11

4:00 pm Faculty Roundtable