US foreign policy from Wilson to Biden, a video 2x2
I created this video because of the great response to my original "Post-Cold War" 2x2 image
For those interested, here is an image of the final 2x2
Some notes:

- "Early F.D.R" refers to his first two terms
- "Late F.D.R." refers to his second two terms
- Some might be surprised that W & Wilson are in the same cell. The more I've researched Wilson, the more I'm convinced he was NOT the ideal "liberal internationalist".
More notes:

- I think "F.D.R.", Truman, and H.W. Bush *wanted* to be in the "Reluctant America" cell, but circumstances moved them into the "Team America" cell.
- Coolidge was surprisingly "internationalist", particularly for someone who wasn't super into foreign policy.
Even more notes:

- I started with Wilson because of how WWI transformed America's place in the world. But if I went back further, I think:
-- Taft is "America First"
-- T Roosevelt & McKinley might have been "America, F**k Yeah"
-- Most of Pre-McKinley is "America First"

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More from @ProfPaulPoast

5 Feb
Biden's Thursday speech makes clear that his foreign policy will be different from Trump's...and Obama's.

No more "America First" or "America Reluctant". Be ready for "Team America."

[THREAD]
npr.org/2021/02/04/963…
To start, we all know the theme of Trump's foreign policy: "America First"

Or, as the "Trump Doctrine" came to be called: "We're America, B***h!"

theatlantic.com/politics/archi…
What about Obama? It's an open question as to whether there was an "Obama Doctrine".

Actually, the very fact that we must ask that question was likely the goal of Obama's foreign policy: the approach was highly nuanced (or even vague).
Read 19 tweets
30 Jan
Let's talk about that "Longer Telegram" making the rounds...and why it's a mess.

[THREAD]

atlanticcouncil.org/content-series…
First, to be clear, it IS NOT a telegram. It's a report. I mean, it has a flipping 11.5 page executive "summary"...
...a two page table of contents...
Read 27 tweets
27 Jan
You've heard the quote, "a single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic."

What if international relations scholars took that quote seriously? What if we brought tragedy back into our conception of war? What would we learn?

[THREAD]
I am referring to how studies of war, especially interstate war, use "fatality thresholds" to decide if a conflict is a war. For example:

- 1,000 battlefield deaths (COW)

- 500 deaths (IWD by @mchorowitz)

- 250 deaths (MARS by @jaylyall_red5)

- 25 deaths/year (@UCDP)
There are issues with such thresholds, as @tanishafazal pointed out in her @Journal_IS 2014 piece

mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.116…
Read 20 tweets
23 Jan
How did I change (or not) the content in my Intro to International Relations course during the 4 years of Trump? [THREAD]
This thread is my way of answering @dhnexon's excellent question

In this thread, I'll share

- what I added

- what I reinforced

- what I dropped/diminished
Read 28 tweets
20 Jan
In the final hours of Trump's Presidency, it's worth asking: what just happened?

With respect to foreign policy, Trump told us exactly what was going to happen...back in 1987. That's when he placed a full page open letter in @nytimes @washingtonpost & @BostonGlobe

[THREAD]
He then followed up that letter with an interview on @Oprah

oprah.com/own-oprahshow/…
At the time, there was speculation that the letter signaled his intent to run for President in 1988

nytimes.com/1987/09/02/nyr…
Read 24 tweets
17 Jan
The Capitol Attacks make clear that the US can't lead abroad if democracy is undermined at home.

MLK taught that same lesson...we just didn't learn it.

[THREAD]
In particular, I am referring to the warnings and lessons in King's 1967 "Beyond Vietnam" Speech

kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/do…
King had become an outspoken critic of the war. This is not surprising. In his 1964 Nobel Prize speech, he highlighted war as the third great plague on modern society (the other two being racial injustice and poverty)
nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/1…
Read 19 tweets

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