课程目标：解释并评价美国过去与现在的外交政策：造成美国过去涉入外国战争和军事干预的原因是什么？美国政策的结果是好是坏？换成别的政策，会对美国或/和更广大的世界更有帮助吗？主导美国政策的信念是对是错？如果是错的，如何解释这些错误的认知呢？我们将应用支持美国政策因果的一般理论，来解释并评价过去和现在的政策。

本课程详尽探讨美国20世纪的外交政策史，同时包括了其他功能性主题如：美国的军事政策、美国的对外经济政策、美国对国外的人权和民主政策。最后，我们要预测并为未来开出处方：对当前的问题和危机，美国应采取何种政策？包括：对抗盖达组织和较广泛的恐怖战争、伊拉克和和海珊、台湾海峡、中非冲突等，在全球环境和人权问题中，美国应该采取何种立场？

Course mission: to explain and evaluate past and present United States policies. What caused the United States' past involvement in foreign wars and interventions? Were the results of U.S. policies good or bad? Would other policies have better served the U.S. and/or the wider world? Were the beliefs that guided U.S. policy true or false? If false, what explains these misperceptions? General theories that bear on the causes and consequences of American policy will be applied to explain and evaluate past and present policies.

The history of United States foreign policy in the 20th century is covered in detail. Functional topics are also covered: U.S. military policy, U.S. foreign economic policy, and U.S. policy on human rights and democracy overseas. Finally, we will predict and prescribe for the future. What policies should the U.S. adopt toward current problems and crises? These problems include the war against Al Qaeda and the wider war on terror; Iraq and Saddam Hussein; the Taiwan Straits; the Central African conflicts; and more. What should be the U.S. stance on global environmental and human rights questions?