Throughout history there have been people who have excelled a the acquisition and utilization of power. Some of these people used mass movements and popular will to achieve their goals, others used cunning and subterfuge to make it to the top.This class will look at attempts (both successful and unsuccessful throughout history) to gain and exercise power. Case studies will include the Byzantine Empire, the Civil Rights Movement, and others.

Everyone learned certain lessons about how to deal with others when they were growing up: Share, play nice, be a good sport, listen to others, etc. Those bits of received wisdom aren't just useful on the playground though. They are timeless concepts which lend themselves just as well to the arts of diplomacy and statecraft as they do anywhere else. The class will cover case studies from diplomatic history every week and discuss how they are relevant to today and how they might be relevant in the future.

Over the past century the United States has gone through several distinct phases in its role as a member of the international community. First it was an unwilling participant in a conflict it had no interest in; most recently it has become the unwilling behemoth entrusted with maintaining the system it created. The course will be a fast moving look at the evolution of America's role in the world and some of the touchstone events which took place along that road.