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18th April 2012: John Lewis Gaddis Receives Biography Pulitzer Prize

John Lewis Gaddis

 

Congratulations to Yale historian John Lewis Gaddis who received the Biography Pulitzer for George F. Kennan: An American Life (New York: Penguin Books, 2011). Gaddis spent over 5 years writing and almost 30 years researching the diplomat and grand strategist’s life, influences and impact. The chapters on Kennan’s ‘Long Telegram‘ and ‘X’ article are a real education in policy work. You can read the recent H-Diplo discussion of Gaddis’s book here.  Louis Menand’s New Yorker review is here. I’ll miss Gaddis’s talk on Kennan at the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations annual conference. Gaddis’s books on the Cold War and history have given me some informative insights as I work on my PhD about counterterrorism studies and strategic culture.

 

Here’s a 2012 video of Gaddis discussing George F. Kennan: An American Life:

 

 

Photo: Strauss Center/Flickr.

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29th November 2010: Cablegate

Germany’s Der Spiegel has launched a series on Wikileaks’ release of 250,000 US diplomatic cables, dubbled ‘cablegate’.

Wikileaks reveals a darkly realist view of the world, likened to a “foreign policy meltdown“.

The New York Times has articles on the ‘decision to publish’ and a selection of diplomatic documents as part of its State’s Secret series.

This will keep colleagues at the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations busy for months.

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24th November 2010: Counterterrorism Studies Syllabi

Hedley Bull and Richard K. Betts each observed that one signal of a subfield’s growth is the number of new courses developed around a topic or theme.

Part of my ‘sampling frame’ includes the syllabi of counterterrorism studies courses after September 11. I started with the American Political Science Association, the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, and the International Studies Association.

I then found some counterterrorism-related resources at TeachingTerror.net (syllabi) and the University of Maryland’s START Consortium (syllabi).

First impressions: (i) despite Academic Board delays counterrerrorism became a ‘hot topic’ after September 11; and (ii) discussion of ‘strategic culture’ can occur in courses on comparative politics, international relations theory, American foreign policy, and issues-based courses.