B31: The New President Faces Difficult Choices about America’s Role in the World - 3 units
Donald Nuechterlein 
Thurs. 9:30–11:00 a.m. - Oct. 30, Nov. 6, 13    
Meadows Presbyterian Church - Limit: 75

Donald Nuechterlein was a naval officer in World War II.  During his long government career he served in U.S. military government in Germany, the Department of State (in Washington, Iceland and Thailand), and the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Until his retirement from federal service he served on the faculty of the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville. His Ph.D. is from the University of Michigan (political science and international relations) and he has taught at universities in Canada, Great Britain and Germany and at UVa, where he taught a seminar on U.S. foreign policy in the fall of 2007. He is the author of nine books on U.S. foreign policy.

The United States has lost much influence abroad since 2001 because of its inability to stabilize the political situation in Iraq after five years and because it has failed to crush al-Qaeda’s terrorist organization in Afghanistan and Pakistan. In addition to the al-Qaeda threat, the new president must decide how to deal with serious challenges in Asia from North Korea and China, in the Middle East from Iran and Syria, in Africa from Sudan, in Europe from the Soviet Union, and in Latin America from Venezuela. The reality is that the U.S. economy is no longer capable of sustaining the level of military and economic commitments undertaken in the 1990s and early 2000s as a result of winning the Cold War. The U.S. now must make difficult choices about how best to use its resources abroad. A new administration and Congress will inevitably have to decide how to reduce America’s international role without jeopardizing its security and economic well-being. This seminar will attempt to find answers to that dilemma.

Suggested Reading: Donald E. Nuechterlein, America Recommitted: A Superpower Assesses Its Role in a Turbulent World, University Press of Kentucky, 2001.