American Foreign Policy

We often treat foreign policy as a mystery that can only be understood by an enlightened few who have committed their lives to understanding the complexities of international life.  

This view is dangerous because it encourages citizens to ignore a critical aspect of American political life that it’s our duty to understand. And it’s false because the basics of foreign policy are commonsense and a joy to learn.  

For the Founders, the basic premise of foreign policy is simple—we must make every decision with a view towards securing the equal, natural rights of American citizens. This understanding requires that America’s leaders remain accountable to the people, and it places essential limits on our interventions abroad. 

Yet, for over a century, this traditional understanding of American foreign policy has been challenged by new and more ambitious doctrines that argue for increased American involvement and leadership abroad. 

In our newest free online course, “American Foreign Policy,” Michael Anton, lecturer in politics at Hillsdale College and member of the National Security Council staff in both the George W. Bush and Donald Trump administrations, examines the key events and principles of America’s foreign policy. 

In this course, you’ll learn about: 

• the principles that guided the foreign policy of the American Founders. 
• the importance of the Monroe Doctrine in shaping the foreign policy of the early Republic. 
• the new, Progressive understanding of foreign policy that dominated the United States from the Spanish-American War through World War I.
• the foreign policy debates during the interwar period. 
• the formulation of America’s Cold War foreign policy and the growth of America’s military and intelligence bureaucracy.
• the aims of the Global War on Terrorism and how today’s foreign policy departs from the understanding of the Founding.

The course includes nine lectures you can watch at your own pace and schedule. You’ll receive a completion certificate for the course by watching the lecture videos, submitting a short quiz after each lecture, and passing a course test at the end.  

The course aims to provide a framework to analyze and understand the matters of war and peace that affect all of us.