POL 13--Introduction to American Foreign Policy: Open for Antiracism (OFAR)
Overview
The goal of the term paper question is to give students agency in discovering the hypocrisy and racism of U.S. foreign policy since (and before) World War II. The students are asked to pick and choose details from peer-reviewed, academic books, which challenges the assumption of the US operating with an ethical framework. The key purpose is for students to understand the following:
- What caused past U.S. involvement in foreign wars and interventions?
- Were the results of U.S. policies good or bad?
- Were the beliefs that guided U.S. policy true or false?
Term Paper: Critical Examination on the Hypocrisy and Racism of American Foreign Policy
Hypocrisy have been (and continues) to be a feature of American foreign policy. You are now very well aware of US imperialism and soon will become familiar with US covert operations in destabilizing democratic nations.
For the term paper, which will be due on the last day of finals’ week, you will need to read Kinzer’s section on “Covert Actions” which is from chapter 6-9. In other words, outside material and/or research should not be integrated into the term paper. This ensures that I evaluate all student work at the same “playing field.”
However, aside from reading the additional chapters from Kinzer’s book, you will also need to add details from Briggs’s Reproducing Empire: Race, Sex, Science and US Imperialism of Puerto Rico and Power’s “A Problem from Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide. Meaning, for the rest of the semester, you will be asked to read/skim both these books and use the information from Briggs and Power’s books to build your term paper. So, rather than asking you to do more outside reading and research, I am asking you to slowly and incrementally write your paper throughout the semester. As a general rule, students do remarkably well on their term papers if they “chip away” at it, a little bit at a time.
Use the information from all three books and answer the following question:
To what extent are your chosen details from Kinzer (chapter 6-9), Briggs (chapter 1-4), and Power (chapter 6, 8, 10, & 11) reflect and/or illuminate the hypocrisy and racism of American foreign policy, thereby, undermining the full potential of a people and/or nation?