GRIID Class: History of US foreign policy since WWII

This 8-week class will investigate and analyze US foreign policy from WWII through the current Trump administration.

It is impossible to investigate more than 80 years of US foreign policy in 8 weeks. However, we will look at US Foreign Policy through various lenses, such as:

• chronological
• geographical/geopolitical
• the history of US relations with a country/region
• direct US military intervention
• economic warfare/trade agreements
• the use of proxy forces
• weapons sales
• diplomatic coercion
• the annual size of the US military budget
• the influence of defense contractors
• and how the US media reports on US foreign policy.

Indeed, this is how we should always assess current US policy, by asking all of these questions in order to have a more comprehensive understanding of US foreign policy, regardless of which country we are talking about. In addition, we will look at the human and ecological impact of US foreign policy.

There is no single book assigned for this class, rather we will use chapters from a variety of books, online sources that provide historical analysis, online sources that track certain aspects of US foreign policy, online sources that focus on specific regions or countries, declassified US government documents and current news & analysis of US foreign policy. In addition, we will use clips from various documentaries on US foreign policy and provide a bibliography for further investigation.

The GRIID class will be held on Thursday nights beginning on Thursday, January 15th and ending on Thursday, March 5th. The class runs two hours, from 6:00pm til 8:00pm. The GRIID class will be held at Fountain Street Church in room 109 on the lower level. The address for Fountain Street Church is 24 Fountain St NE, Grand Rapids, MI 49503.

The cost of the class is a suggested donation of $25 for the whole 8 weeks, but no one will be turned away because of the cost. For those interested in attending this class, send an e-mail to sjeff987@gmail.com. The class can hold up to 25 people, so don’t wait too long to sign up.