The Security & Foreign Policy Initiative
The W&M GRI Security and Foreign Policy Initiative (SFPI) was designed with two key objectives: to meet students’ demand for courses and research opportunities in the areas of international security and U.S. foreign policy and to diversify W&M’s theoretical approaches to the study of these subjects. The SFPI consists of a post-doctoral fellowship program and a series of convenings that bring scholars, students, and policy practitioners together, generously supported by the Charles Koch Foundation and Paul C. Jost and Laura Holmes Jost.
Many in the academic field of international relations (IR) and observers of the foreign policy discourse in Washington, DC have noted the need for greater diversity of thought. Long dominant approaches to U.S. foreign policy have failed to integrate the insights of Realist thought to challenge the dominant liberal internationalist theories in academia and the consensus thinking in DC that leads to more interventionist policies. The changing balance of power within the international system, as indicated by the rise of China and other potential peer competitors, makes revisiting the theoretical and empirical underpinnings of U.S. foreign policy a pressing concern both in the academy and in Washington, DC.
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