The Rise of Security Studies and the Globalization of American Foreign Policy, 1937 to the Present

Abstract

Although the United States had global trading interests before World War II, American foreign policy was largely provincial before 1937 – driven by protectionist and particularist impulses. President Franklin Roosevelt's "Quarantine speech" in response to fascist threats marked the beginning of sea change in American thinking about global engagement and international security. The change emerged most immediately in the rise of security studies as an academic discipline and an influence on strategic planning. This presentation will trace that transformation and assess its implications for the next 70 years of American global engagement in the Cold War and post-Cold War worlds. The presentation will close with a discussion of how security studies as a discipline might influence the next generation of American thinkers, citizens, students, and policy-makers.Ohio State University. Mershon Center for International Security StudiesEvent web page, Streaming video, Event photo