Crossroads: High School Curriculum
Unit VIII: Waves of Reform: 1880s to 1921

Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Lesson 2

Senate Foreign Relations Committee

You are a member of the Foreign Relations Committee of the United States Senate. Your committee oversees the foreign policy of the United States. In the past, many long-standing American assumptions about the world have changed. The role of the United States in world affairs must keep up with these changes. In this exercise, you will consider four different situations pertaining to United States interests abroad and suggestions from foreign-policy experts on the relevant parts of the world. You are to question the experts on their views with an eye to finding possible solutions to the foreign-policy challenges the United States faces; you are to establish your position agreeing or disagreeing with the experts' proffered solutions, in particular on the scope and desirability of direct United States involvement. Your ultimate goal is to create a foreign policy for the United States with respect to each region.

1. Select a representative to gather information from the expert groups at the beginning of each lesson.

2. Representatives return to the committee and the group; together they are to prepare a summary of the activities for each day.

3. Start each subsequent daily lesson with a summary report to the class before group activity continues.

4. Prepare a final position paper describing your policy toward each of the four regions and regional problems confronting the nation.