America at Arms 2100-ERASMUS-AMAA

The American Project was initiated as a result of an armed conflict . The achievement of objectives that Americans set up for themselves often required military action. The law of unintended consequences made the US involve in international affairs even though the USA authorities declared their intentions to stay away from them. In the course we will investigate the social, political and cultural consequences of the American military action. Starting with the French and Indian Wars, the American Revolution, through the Civil War, the involvement in the two World Wars, the military episodes of the the Cold War and the post-Cold War interventions, the US has emerged as the global superpower. The military spending of the USA far exceeds those of other contestant adversaries. It seems that the oscillation between the isolation from and involvement in the international affairs has ended with the early XXI c. action in Afghanistan and Iraq, a harbinger of the permanent American watch over the global order. In spite of the declaration of the present administaration of Donald Trump to stay away from the conflicts of the Old World, the US is getting involved in even more risky and consequential ways in the brunt of the global affairs. We will study the effects of those conflicts and involvements on the internal development of the American society and politics.