IAS A5030 Geopolitics and Diplomacy Across the Americas
This course serves as an introduction to the geopolitics, that is the spatial expressions of power, that have shaped the geographic boundaries, cultural and racial representations and political and economic relations among the nations of the Americas. David Slater, writes in Geopolitics and the Post-colonial States: "It can be argued that US imperialism has always followed a double movement of erecting and policing boundaries, and of breaking down borders both internally and externally so as to open up new spaces of unfettered expansion" (30). We will examine the construction of US hegemony in the Americas, exploring continuities and critical conjunctures that have shaped relations among the nations of the Americas; we will also examine specific countries more closely through the close reading of primary and secondary sources. As a class, we will also attempt to extend the idea of geopolitics as it relates to protest, resistance and the structuring of people's everyday life.
Contact Hours
3 hr./wk.