Module 3: Grand Strategy I: Introduction and Isolationism

What's the logic of isolationism?

American Threats abroad are minimal Foreign conflict can inflect domestic politics Foreign intervention itself can create a threat America First: scarce resources should be devoted to demostic problems

For posen, pursuit of this strategy has resulted in _____ outcomes

BAD

What ideas construct Grand Strategy?

Core principals of international political order Main Threats Content of national interests Arguments about best policy means to achieve these goals

What speech helped establish the tradition of isolationism?

George Washington's farewell address

What is Grand Strategy

Is the set of overarching ideas that structure conduct of foreign policy Intellectual architecture/world view that provides the foundation for foreign policy

What is a critique of isolationism

Isolation allows problems to fester

Seven post-cold war US grand strategy possibilities

Isolationism Offshore balancing Restraint (Fusion of Isolationism, offshore balacing, selective engagement) Selective engagement Liberal internationalism Liberal Hegemony (fusion of liberal internationalism and primacy) Primacy Going down the list, the more the US has global interest and will use MORE military force

What did Obama talk about during his West Point Speech?

National Interest (human dignity, promoting justice and welfare on a global perspective, goals are rooted in moral obligation) Discussion of Means (US cannot rely soley on military power to get what it wants around the world bc it causes backlash in the world) ( we should rely on local military and local partners bc we cannot have american troops fighting to every threat)

What are the components of grand strategy?

Optimal policy instruments Principal Threats Facing the US National Interest

What is isolationism?

Strives to reduce the US in international politics and safeguards its secures its security and national interest

What did Obama critique about rival grand strategy during west point speech

There is things around the world that are going to impact us no matter what

Isolationism is the most ____ and ___ of the grand strategies

constrained and narrow

Obama said that US is not in _____

decline

Grand Strategy is labeled as an ______, a kin to domestic partisanship

ideology

Whats the goal of isolationism?

reduce foreign intervention and avoid future commitments

What was argued in the Posen Reading?

that the US has pursued a bi-partisan grand strategy that fuses liberal internationalism and primacy and followed this strategy since the end of the cold war. He labels this grand strategy "Liberal Hemogony"