Given the predominant role the United States has played in world affairs since World War II, American national security policy effects, not just Americans, but peoples and nations around the globe. The central aim of this course is to provide students with a systematic understanding of the dimensions and dilemmas of American national security policy. This aim will be pursued through a lecture and tutorial program that provides students with an overview of the key areas of American national security policy, with a particular focus on the ideas, institutions, and individuals that have shaped how America frames its approach to national security.

The course will begin by examining the foundations of the American approach to national security policy through developing an understanding of the historical foundations of American power and interests in international affairs, the historical development of major traditions of American thinking about national security, and the major institutions involved in the national security policy-making process. The course will then examine in detail the conduct of American national security policy during the Cold War with a particular focus on the dilemmas of implementing the strategy of containment. The final part of the course will turn its attention to examining in detail American national security policy in the post-Cold War era and how it has sought to maintain its position of global leadership and predominant power in the face of a rapidly changing international environment.