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Past Event
Seminar

The Not-So-Liberal Leviathan: U.S. Foreign Policy towards German Reunification and its Legacy, Twenty Years On

Open to the Public

International relations theorists have described the United States at the end of the Cold War as a kind of liberal leviathan, focused on how to integrate former enemies into new post-conflict international organizations. The historical evidence now available, however, suggests a different understanding of U.S. foreign policy in 1989–1990.

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.

Date: Time: - Location: Littauer Building - Belfer Center Library, Room 369
A shower of fireworks burns the sky over the Brandenburg Gate into shades of red when hundreds of thousands of spectators watched the German unification ceremony early October 3, 1990.

About

International relations theorists have described the United States at the end of the Cold War as a kind of liberal leviathan, focused on how to integrate former enemies into post-conflict international organizations. The historical evidence now available, however, suggests a different understanding of U.S. foreign policy in 1989–1990. In particular, the response of the United States toward German unification, completed twenty years ago October 3, reveals a power concerned with maintaining its preeminence in the post-conflict era, not seeking to integrate its foes. The legacy of this policy has had profound consequences for everything from NATO to European monetary union and calls into question whether the end of the Cold War was truly a high-water mark in liberal foreign policymaking.

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.

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