POLISCI 116/316 / IntPol 222 / HIS 105F
Global Futures: History, Statecraft, Systems
Professors: Stephen Kotkin and Condoleezza Rice
TAs: Norman Joshua, Jonathan Roll, Lucian Staiano-Daniels
Winter 2025
Where does the future come from? It comes from the past, of course – but how? What are the key drivers of continuity or change, and how can we trace those drivers going forward, too? What are the roles of contingency, chance, and choice, versus long-term underlying structure? How can people, from whatever walk of life, identify and utilize levers of power to try to shift the larger system? What is a system, and how do systems behave? To answer these questions and analyze how today’s world came into being and where it might be headed, this course explores geopolitics and geoeconomics, institutions and technologies, citizenship and leadership. We examine how our world works to understand the limits but also the possibilities of individual and collective agency, the phenomenon of perverse and unintended consequences, and ultimately, the nature of power. Our goal is to investigate not just how to conceive of a smart policy, but how its implementation might unfold. In sum, this course aims to combine strategic analysis and tactical agility.
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INTNLREL 138
Great Power Rivalries: History, Theory, and Enduring Puzzles of Statecraft
Instructor: Jonathan Roll
Fall Quarter 2026
Great powers in world politics are notoriously prone to rivalry and competition. But is that fate preordained? Is there a way out of the "golden cage" of great power politics - and if so, how? In this class, we trace how historians and international relations scholars, from Thucydides to the present, sought to explain great power behavior and advise their leaders. We will address recurring themes such as material versus ideational factors shaping great power conduct, structural constraints versus leaders’ autonomy of action, and the likelihood of - along with pathways to prevent - great power war.
CIVIC 132
Citizens and Experts in Policymaking
Instructor: Julieta Casas
Fall Quarter 2026
Every modern democracy makes a bet that is never fully resolved: that citizens are competent to govern themselves. Yet, the actual work of government—regulating drugs, managing the air traffic, and responding to pandemics—requires specialized expertise most citizens do not have. This seminar examines the resulting tension between rule by the people and rule by the experts. Drawing together democratic theory, the historical development of American institutions, and the emerging field of civic studies, we ask who should decide, on what basis their authority rests, and how the competing claims of democratic legitimacy and expert competence might be reconciled. We move from the classic theoretical poles—guardianship and epistocracy on one side, popular sovereignty on the other—through the historical construction of the administrative state, to contemporary experiments in participation, co-production, and the current backlash against experts.
INTLPOL
Dilemmas in Diplomacy: Conflicting Priorities in Decisions of War and Peace
Instructor: Ziyi 'Emily' Wang
Winter Quarter 2027
Beyond Stanford
The Hoover History Lab is working to partner with innovative actors in the high school and education space, where we see an alignment of mission, methods, and underlying values. As part of this initiative, we have recently launched an exciting program for high school students, the Hoover History Skills Academy. Our new Academy will provide high school students with an unparalleled two-week learning opportunity on the Hoover campus to master best practices for designing, researching, and writing a substantive historical research paper using the extraordinary historical materials in the famed Hoover Library and Archives.
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