2: Post-Independence Diplomacy

The purpose of this second class is to give students a better sense for American foreign policy in the years after the conclusion of the war for independence. The class meeting and readings should leave you with a firm grasp of what international concerns occupied the attention of the country’s first foreign policymakers, and how they began to craft U.S. foreign policy. You should understand how the first cornerstone of U.S. foreign policy became isolationism and the second, neutrality. What was the importance of George Washington as an American foreign policymaker? What, in particular, is he remembered for? Did he have foreign policy triumphs? Flaws?