Does American Foreign Policy Influence Terrorists?
There are those who argue that American foreign policy is at the root of terrorism. Others blame fanatical religious beliefs, traditions of hate, and other causes for terrorist activities. Explore the foreign policy angle further by first facilitating students’ understanding of what foreign policy is. Web resources on this topic include: Foreign Policy Association (http://www.fpa.org/), Council on Foreign Relations (http://www.cfr.org/), and Teaching Foreign Policy in the Post-Cold War Era. ERIC Digest (http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed363569.html). Invite students to construct a foreign policy timeline, including events, decisions, laws, acts of war, etc., that may have influenced terrorist activities against the United States. Be sure to include recent events such as the U.S. war on terrorism, and how relations with various countries have changed for good or bad, post 9/11. Based on the information gathered for the timeline, have students debate whether or not United States
