Applied History Project

Article of the Week 

“Trump Is Gutting America’s Core Geopolitical Advantage” by Robert Zoellick (Senior Fellow, Harvard’s Belfer Center; former US Trade Representative, Deputy Secretary of State, and President of the World Bank) in Foreign Affairs 

Zoellick argues that a friendly North America is an American strategic asset and highlights the long tradition of support for closer economic ties with Canada and Mexico. Secretary of State William Seward, best remembered for buying new territory such as Alaska, in fact “envisioned a North American union created through free choice, not coercion or conquest...Commerce, he maintained, would be the new ‘god of boundaries’ that would redraw borders and pull countries together.” In the twentieth century, the US increasingly recognized the strategic value of integration. For example, the US cooperated with its southern neighbor despite Mexico’s “stunted democracy, prickly nationalism, and closed economy,” launching the Bracero employment program in 1942.

The mission of Harvard’s Applied History Project is to revitalize applied history by promoting the production and use of historical reasoning to clarify public and private challenges and choices. Founded by Professors Graham Allison and Niall Ferguson in 2016, the Applied History Project builds upon the foundation laid by Professors Ernest May and Richard Neustadt in the 1980s, reflected in their book Thinking in Time: The Uses of History for Decision Makers. 

Advancing its mission, the Project sponsors the Applied History Working Group of faculty members across Harvard University to organize discussions with scholars and practitioners; supports historians and policymakers in producing Applied History; develops courses in Applied History; funds the Ernest May Fellowships in History and Policy for pre- and post-doctoral students; and holds Applied History Events open to the Harvard Community and the public. Harvard’s project is one of the leaders among a rapidly expanding network of universities and think tanks that are furthering the discipline of Applied History by clarifying predicaments and choices to inform better decisions.

The Project gratefully acknowledges the Stanton Foundation's generous support for its Applied History endeavors.