Will Walldorf
Professor
BA Bowdoin College
MA University of Virginia
PhD University of Virginia
Areas of Expertise: International Security, US Foreign Policy, Grand Strategy, and Culture and Politics
Will Walldorf is a Professor in the Department of Politics and International Affairs at Wake Forest University. He is also a Senior Fellow at Defense Priorities, a think-tank in Washington, D.C. Will focuses primarily on United States national security policy, grand strategy and great power competition, with a special emphasis on the Middle East, South Asia, and Africa. His latest book, To Shape Our World For Good: Master Narratives and Forceful Regime Change in United States Foreign Policy, 1900-2011 (Cornell University Press, 2019), explores the ways that broad, public narratives drive major U.S. foreign policy decisions about forceful regime change. He is also the author of Just Politics: Human Rights and the Foreign Policy of Great Powers (Cornell University Press, 2008), which won the 2010 International Studies Association ISSS Award for the best book on international security. Will has published articles on topics related to United States foreign policy and grand strategy in several edited volumes as well as International Security, The European Journal of International Relations, Security Studies, and Political Science Quarterly.
His policy articles and essays have appeared in venues such as the Chicago Tribune, Time, The Hill, Real Clear Defense, The Conversation, Washington Quarterly, National Interest, Defense One, Democracy Paradox, Inkstick, Huffington Post, the Stimson Center, and Defense Priorities. He is co-editor of the Oxford Companion to American Politics.
Will is currently writing a book, titled America’s Forever Wars: Why So Long, Why End Now, What Comes Next, that among other things develops a comprehensive strategy for over-the-horizon counterterrorism in U.S. foreign policy. His other ongoing research focuses on the role that public opinion and public narratives play in shaping and constraining U.S. grand strategy. Will received his BA from Bowdoin College and his MA and PhD in Politics from the University of Virginia. He has held postdoctoral fellowships at Dartmouth College and the Institute for Advanced Studies in Culture at the University of Virginia. He taught at Gordon College, Dartmouth College, the University of Virginia, and Auburn University before coming to Wake Forest.
POL 116 International Relations
We live in a world of great change. Globalization, the dramatic end to decades of cold war and the rise of non-state challenges, like terrorism and global warming, speak to this reality. Yet, at the same time, we find constant reminders that problems such as competition, conflict, war and famine, which have plagued international politics since its inception, have not receded — in some cases, they have intensified. This course is intended to give students the tools for recognizing and understanding both change and consistency in international relations. It does so by, first, offering a broad introduction of diplomatic history from the Peloponnesian War to the current day, emphasizing trends in both international security and political economy. Second, the course introduces social scientific theories that seek to explain various phenomena in international relations with the intention of both sharpening the analytical tools of students and preparing them for further study in international relations and political science, more broadly.
POL 252 Perspectives on International Relations
Why do states fight wars? Why do long, enduring conflicts like the Cold War, suddenly end, sometimes peacefully and sometimes with military confrontation? Why are states interested in human rights at some points in history but not others? How do states simultaneously cooperate on some international trade issues and face great contestation on others? These questions comprise major issues with which scholars of international relations have struggled for decades. This class is intended to introduce students to the competing theories that international relations scholars offer to questions like these. In this light, the central objective of this class is to develop an understanding of how these different theories explain international politics and to assess which seem more or less persuasive. This task has beneficial ramifications beyond merely learning different schools of thought on international politics. It develops skills for thinking critically about the deeper assumptions that underlie the ways that we and others look at and assess the world. The abstract and theoretical also point us in the direction of developing practical policy solutions to pressing issues. While there are no prerequisites for this class, it is strongly recommended that you take POL 116 or another international relations class in the department before taking this course.
POL 252 US Grand Strategy
In a new era of great power competition, United States grand strategy is in a state of flux today. This course introduces students to the important normative frameworks that at the center of debate today. It also explores the process by which grand strategy is created, centering on the question of “what’s possible” for strategists both today and across history.
POL 254 American Foreign Policy: Contemporary Issues
Today, the United States stands as the greatest military, economic, and cultural power on the face of the earth. This presents both great responsibility and, potentially, great danger. How should America use its power? What is the best way to promote its interests and respect those of others in the international system? This course is intended to address questions like these. It does so in two different ways. The first part of the class focuses on the underlying causes of U.S. behavior. Drawing upon theories of international relations and examples from various historical cases, we explore the international, economic, domestic institutional, and domestic values that have determined U.S. foreign policy decisions in the last century. The final portion of the course turns to questions of what ought to determine U.S. foreign policy. The focus here is on debates over the course of contemporary policy. We explore both the broad contours of these debates as well as apply them to concrete issues and places, like humanitarian intervention, terrorism, and Iraq, that stand at the center of U.S. foreign policy today.
POL 256 International Security
This course examines contemporary problems of war and peace in historical and theoretical perspective. What have been the causes of war in the past and what can we learn from those wars for today? To what degree have nuclear weapons changed the international system? Will international relations be more or less peaceful in the future than they were in the past? This course explores several major theoretical explanations for war, then uses these theories to explore World War I, the Second World War in Europe, and the Pacific War between the United States and Japan. The course then turns to the dawn of the nuclear era and focuses on contemporary security challenges, from the issue of nuclear proliferation to countering terrorism.