Foreign Affairs Discussion Group
The Witherle Library foreign affairs discussion group will meet by zoom on Wednesday July 1 from 5-6pm. The topic is a 250 year review of America’s 10 best and worst foreign policy decisions, and what common elements have made memorable policies. All are welcome. Suggested readings follow. To request the Zoom link for the first time please email kathryn@witherlelibrary.net.
This is the key reading, based on a survey of members of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations undertaken in late 2023 by the Council on Foreign Relations. It covers the period from the signing of the Declaration of Independence through the first Trump administration. The link above requires no subscription. The Methodology section contains the full list of decisions voted on.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/28/trump-iran-analysis-us-foreign-policy-george-bush
This 2/28/2026 article in The Guardian (UK, left, left center leaning) notes that the CFR survey of the 10 worst foreign policy decisions took place in late 2023 before Trump’s 2nd administration and the 2026 Iran War, and argues for the Iran War as the #1 worst foreign policy decision of America’s 250 year history. Clickable without subscription.
https://www.economist.com/interactive/america-at-250
Published by The Economist (UK, right of center), this is an ongoing series of “Chapters “ on 250 years of US policy that now stops at the pre-Trump era. Interesting to date, but stay tuned. Clickable without subscription.
https://www.pbs.org/video/has-america-upheld-the-principles-formulated-250-years-ago-iyzkdl/
With sound bite brevity, this 6-minute clip from PBS Washington Week with the Atlantic of 6/12/26 discusses what distinguishes Trump’s foreign policy from nearly 250 years of previous American history.
https://america250.aei.org/volume/the-american-revolution-and-americas-role-in-the-world/
This is a long series of essays from the American Enterprise Institute (right leaning) with views from the think tank and scholarly conservative and neoconservative right, heavily based on the authors’ interpretations of (selected) founders’ thinking and their historical time. If you have the time and inclination, the essays are interesting in how they avoid mentioning Trump’s foreign polices. However, they also represent a persistent strand of thinking and historical interpretation that will remain a part of the American dialogue well beyond Trump. Note especially attitudes on treaties, taxation, national economic interests, and the role of the executive. Clickable without subscription.