My name is Adam Quinn I’m a senior lecturer
here at the Political Science and International
Studies Department my research is on the United
States on International Politics and bringing
those two things together on United States
Foreign Policy. I teach a couple of modules
within the department both on United States
foreign policy one for undergraduates and
one for people taking our MA programme it's
called Contemporary United States Foreign
and Security Policy for undergraduates and
US Foreign and Defence Policy for our MA students
that covers a lot of really contemporary issues
in regards to US foreign policy today we talk
about American policy in the middle east nuclear
proliferation terrorism relations with Russia
relations with china relations with European
allies new threats like cyber security etc.
and we try to keep that as up to date as possible
these are all moving issues changing all the
time in the news and I keep very much up to
date with that I’m on social media a lot
sharing articles for the benefit of the students
as we go along sometimes I even write things
online or appear on radio or TV myself to
talk about some of these things so we try
and make sure that it's really up to the minute
and a discussion of the current policy dilemmas
facing US policy makers but we also try to
put those things into context on the modules
to try and make sure that the people doing
the module come away with a sense of the history
of the United States with relation to a lot
of these issues that they understand the institutions
that are used in the making of US foreign
policy so that we don't all obsess about the
president we know that there are a lot more
actors in the American system and we also
try to think about the long term driving factors
of American foreign policy the economic drivers
the ideological drivers the quest for security
and power these things that over the longer
term we can see shaping the United States
relates to the particular issues that come
up so I hope that by the time people come
away from taking these modules they are able
to really arrive a decision about what they
think about some of these issues that are
more mature and informed and consistent than
the ones that they would have started out
with and that they can develop the ability
to think in a critical and informed way about
some of these things that people are talking
about around them.
