4.0

credits

Average Course Rating

Doing grand strategy is hard. So is making sense of grand strategy in real time. Harry S Truman was one of the most unpopular presidents in history when he left office; today, his presidency is often considered a grand strategic golden age. In this course, we'll try to make of what the Biden administration has tried to do in the world since taking office, where it has succeeded and failed, and what sort of legacy it might leave to its eventual successor. We'll discuss questions like: What is grand strategy? What was Biden's initial grand strategic concept and how did it change under the pressure of events? How has this administration handled issues like the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the competition with China, the war in Ukraine, and the conflict in the Middle East? Perhaps most important, we'll try to come up with analytical frameworks and tools that help us all think systematically and intelligently about events that are unfolding before our eyes.