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diplomatic history



  • Why George Kennan Thought He Failed His Biggest Challenge

    by Patrick Iber

    After urging the United States to firmly oppose the expansion of Soviet influence as a way of bringing the USSR's internal weaknesses to the forefront, Kennan grew disillusioned at the militarized tack later versions of "containment" took. A new book revisits and challenges canonical studies of the diplomatic thinker. 



  • In Memoriam: Robert Divine, 1929-2021

    by H.W. Brands and Mark Atwood Lawrence

    Two University of Texas colleagues pay tribute to the scholarly, teaching, and personal contributions of the late Robert Divine to the field of diplimatic history. 



  • The Quintessential Institutionalist

    by Donald Alexander Downs

    Walter LaFeber's legacy goes beyond scholarship to his work as a champion of academic freedom and open debate, writes his former colleague political theorist Donald Alexander Downs. 



  • On Shedding an Obsolete Past

    by Andrew Bacevich

    "Sadly, Joe Biden and his associates appear demonstrably incapable of exchanging the history that they know for a history on which our future may well depend. As a result, they will cling to an increasingly irrelevant past."



  • Walter LaFeber, Historian Who Dissected Diplomacy, Dies at 87

    Walter LaFeber was an influential scholar of diplomacy whose work balanced analysis of institutions and individual influence, challenged views of American exceptionalism, and even capably wrote about how Michael Jordan explained globalization. 



  • Joe Biden is Making Clear that Saudi Human Rights Violations Won’t be Ignored

    by Nicholas DeAntonis

    President Biden's recent affirmation of an American commitment to human rights in discussions with King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud fell short of many demands for action against the Saudi regime. But it is a step in reforming a relationship in which human rights have not been an afterthought, but a non-thought. 



  • Imagining an Iranian Spring

    by Andrew Meyer

    The recent brush with war between the US and Iran underscores the persistent question of US-Iranian relations: will the two countries ever reach a point of mutual toleration ever again?


  • Do Morals Matter in Foreign Policy?

    by Joseph S. Nye, Jr.

    Examining 14 presidencies since 1945 shows that a radically skeptical view of morality is bad history. Morals did matter.


  • 2020 Will Be More Turbulent Than 2019, Unless…

    by Alon Ben-Meir

    The year 2020 will most likely be as turbulent if not more so than 2019 due mainly to the lack of American leadership and the rush of other powers, especially Russia, China, and to a lesser extent Turkey and Iran, to fill the vacuum the US is leaving behind.