The question of this course: “Are you in or are you out?” is not theoretical. It is one of the key issues confronting this country and many of our key allies.
Underneath that big question are a host of others: Are global institutions slowing us down? Are our allies taking unfair advantage of us? Is free trade fair trade? Can walls protect us from transnational threats like disease, climate change and terrorism? For that matter can the alliances built up after World War II do any better? What do we lose–in ideas, in creativity, and humanity–if we close ourselves off from the rest of the world? I look forward to reading your posts and to our discussions in class and on this blog.