Gastvortrag: Dr. Till Tömmel, Shanghai Jiaotong University und Universität der Bundeswehr München, Four Schools of Thought: The Competing Political Beliefs on America’s Role in the World.

Veranstalter: Professur Anglistik/Amerikanistik

Seen from a structural perspective, the United States has a very favourable geopolitical position, which gives Washington considerable leeway in its foreign affairs. With fewer external constraints than all other major powers and a highly pluralistic intellectual tradition, the relationship between the US and the rest of the world has been subject to an internal debate spanning more than two centuries. In his book Special Providence (2001), Walter Russell Mead designs four Weberian ideal types of distinct persuasions about the nature of American foreign policy. Each ‘school of thought’ is named after an American statesman who exemplified one of the four different persuasions: Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804), Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826), Andrew Jackson (1767-1845), and Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924). In the talk, special attention will be given to the ‘Jacksonian’ tradition´ and the merits and limits of Mead’s typology will be discussed.

Kontakt:

Zink, Carmen Professur für Anglistische und Amerikanistische Kulturwissenschaft Telefon 0951 863-2032, Fax Mo. und Do. 13.-15.00 Uhr U5/02.02, Di. und Mi. 13.-16.00 Uhr OK8/02.03, E-Mail: sekretariat.anglak@uni-bamberg.de