Three Crises and a Strategy: The Dilemma

Perhaps the greatest challenge of policymaking is how to manage the urgent while maintaining focus on the important.  Foreign policy leaders must maintain a strategic direction while also responding to the unexpected, and they often struggle to craft a policy that pursues long-term interests while also meeting the needs of the present and recognizing the reality of limits. This is especially true at a moment of tremendous geopolitical change, uncertainty, and political polarization. Historians will likely remember the years from 2020-2025 as an inflection point for the U.S. in the world — when global dynamics of great power competition, regional conflict, and rapid technological change clashed with an intense debate at home about American leadership and the purpose of power. This 1.5-credit workshop will explore the dilemmas of modern U.S. foreign policy decision-making by re-examining events from 2020-2025, focusing on three crises that are the three most acute policy challenges of the period. This workshop will meet over three sessions and consist of short readings, conversations with guest speakers who were directly involved in these events, and active student participation in discussions.  Each session will have three parts: 1) an overview of key events led by the instructor, 2) a moderated discussion (either in person or by zoom) with a former senior policymaker, and 3) a class discussion about conclusions, implications, opportunities missed, and lessons for the future. 1) The end of the U.S. war in Afghanistan, 2) the Ukraine crisis, and 3) the response to the October 7 attacks in Israel and its aftermath.