PUBPOL 5515

American Defense Policy & Military History from the World Wars to the Global War on Terror

Course Description

Course information provided by the 2025-2026 Catalog.

America has fought two wars in the 21st century, in Iraq and Afghanistan. They were the longest wars in American history and ended badly, amid much ambivalence about the defense policies that created them. Those wars and policies are part of the long history of the war that America has fought as a global power and the policies that shaped those wars and shaped that global power. This course will look at US defense policies and military experience over the long 20th century, from the earth-spanning conflicts of World War I and II, to the nuclear tension of Cold War conflicts, to the global war on terror, and finally to current conflicts like Ukraine and the Middle East. Though this course is primarily about the United States, it draws in the critical global events and actors as well so as to understand the entire history — as much as possible.

Last 4 Terms Offered (None)

Learning Outcomes

• Demonstrate a strong grasp of American defense policy and military history of the 20th & 21st centuries.
• Create multiple works of defense policy analysis and history using primary and secondary sources.
• Analyze how wars are remembered and memorialized and how that remembrance has shaped current thinking.
• Synthesize the scholarly understanding of a particular formulation of American defense policy.

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