Post Archives

This case examines the historical and present-day political debate around Scottish independence. Against the backdrop of Brexit, a volatile global economic and security climate, and 300 years of intimately shared history, Scotland’s independence movement had special salience in 2014 and again a decade later. The issue is whether the UK can survive as a geopolitical […]

This case explores contentious debates surrounding the years preceding the outbreak of World War II in Europe. It closely tracks diplomatic machinations between allied powers and Hitler’s Germany as well as domestic political forces that shaped the most controversial 20th-century foreign policy: Appeasement. The Munich conference allows students to explore counterfactual history along a number […]

This case explores the minutiae of shuttle diplomacy conducted between the United States, Israel, and Egypt as a result of the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, exploring the transformation of U.S.-Egypt relations after 1973. It dissects the impacts of Nixon, Kissinger, and Sadat’s personalities in their navigation of Cold War politics and holds important lessons for the […]

This case study examines U.S. oil diplomacy with Mexico between 1917-1918. This period immediately followed an American invasion of northern Mexico in 1916 in pursuit of bandits led by Francisco “Pancho” Villa. Over ten thousand U.S. troops were in Mexico, resulting in multiple clashes with the Mexican government and dozens killed on each side. The […]

This case study examines the implications of China and Russia’s decision in May 2022 to veto a draft UN Security Council resolution strengthening sanctions against North Korea in the wake of the DPRK’s intercontinental ballistic missile launches, which violated UNSC resolutions. It was the first time a draft resolution on North Korea had been vetoed […]

This case study examines the international negotiations to release two Israeli passengers after the Palestinian hijacking of TWA flight 840 to Damascus, Syria. The hijacking placed the Nixon administration in a complex situation. Though the United States was responsible for the safety of the passengers according to international law and custom, State Department officials had […]

This case examines the Clinton Administration’s decision to deny Boutros Boutros-Ghali a second term as Secretary-General of the United Nations. Vincent A. Auger, an international relations scholar of U.S. foreign policy, international organizations, and counterterrorism, presents the important players involved, the competing interests of the administration domestically and internationally, as well as the inner workings […]

This case study documents and analyzes the utility of basketball as a tool of soft power diplomacy, focusing on interactions between France and China since The Cold War and beginning with the Sino-French rapprochement in 1964 and the French basketball team’s trip to China in 1966. The case offers students an alternative look at methods […]

This case examines women’s involvement in the peace process to end the Civil War in Guatemala. Mayesha Alam and Génesis Torres-Alcántara provide background on the civil war and how it specifically impacted women, and analyze how women’s groups organized to achieve their goals in the peace process. This case study is meant to be instructive […]

This case study explores the twists and turns in India’s relations with Iran between 2005 and 2012. It is designed to illustrate the material and ideational factors that drove a rising middle power like India to make policy choices with a backdrop of a major shift in its grand strategy. A secondary focus is how […]