MICHAEL BARNHART
Distinguished Teaching Professor (Ph.D., Harvard University, 1980)
Curriculum vitae
Email: michael.barnhart@stonybrook.edu
Interests: U.S. foreign policy, U.S.-Japan relations
After early interest in Japanese-American relations, particularly on the Japanese
side, I have turned my attention to a broad, interpretive analysis of American foreign
relations. My current and apparently eternal project is tentatively titled E Pluribus:
A Political History of American Foreign Relations from Jamestown to Obama. Chapter 28, “Standing Taller,” covers the Clinton presidency. It centers on themes
of significant contemporary significance: the creation of globalized economic and
financial orders as spearheaded by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA);
American operations to minimize the disruptions of the post-Cold War era which included
military forces in Somalia, Haiti, and Bosnia; and American efforts to stabilize Europe:
efforts to ease Russia’s transition from communism to liberal democracy, to eliminate
nuclear weapons from former Soviet republics such as the Ukraine, and to expand the
North American Treaty Organization (NATO) to include Poland, Hungary and other former
communist states.
SELECT WORK
• "Domestic Politics, Interservice Impasse, and Japan's Decisions for War"
• "The Best History Books For Teaching and Learning"