PUBPOL 5025

U.S. Foreign Policy and Economic Statecraft

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2025-2026 Catalog.

The world has changed, and the collective global policy goals of the 2000s are no longer at the forefront of international affairs. Increasingly, economic tools--both carrots and sticks--are a core tool of the U.S. Foreign Policy toolbox. The sticks, or coercive tools, such as sanctions, tariffs, and export controls, garner more public attention, but tools of positive reinforcement are equally relevant. This course will explore the historical and geopolitical context within which U.S. Foreign Policy is shifting toward weaponizing economic interdependence -- competition with the People's Republic of China, the war in Ukraine, and organized crime in the Western Hemisphere. It will also explore the question of how a new generation of national security professionals can navigate a world and a professional space that is increasingly moving away from the pro-globalization consensus of the 2000s.

Last 4 Terms Offered (None)

Learning Outcomes

• Compare and describe the pros and cons of the foreign policy tools of economic statecraft.
• Evaluate how policy-making in this realm is playing out in the relevant departments and agencies of the federal government (Treasury, Commerce, State, the National Security Council, etc.).
• Cogently assess which is the best economic statecraft tool on behalf of a particular foreign policy goal.

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