American Foreign Policy: Theoretical Essays - Softcover

Ikenberry, G. John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0673398153 ISBN 13: 9780673398154

Publisher: Longman, 1989

Synopsis

Ikenberry, John G., American Foreign Policy: Theoretical Essays, 4th Edition*

About this title

Review

"A valuable study that can be highly recommended."
Australian Journal of Political Science

"Viotti′s book is very intelligently constructed and can be read with profit by any student of US foreign policy."
International Affairs

"Paul Viotti, who has served as both a career military officer and professor, has written an excellent introduction to American foreign policy that is both theoretically and historically grounded. It will be of great value to students and professors alike."
Dan Caldwell, Pepperdine University

"Professor Viotti has done a masterful job of analyzing the factors that go into the making and implementing of American foreign policy. After reviewing the kinds of foreign policy options available to policy makers, he shows how these options have been applied by various US administrations in the last 200 years. He also identifies particular themes that have helped determine American foreign policy and concludes with reflections on the role of presidential power. Overall, a brilliant summary of what happened and why in American foreign policy since the earliest days of the republic."
Ambassador George M. Lane, U.S. Foreign Service (retired)

"With its focus on the policymaker, Paul Viotti′s new book is both engaging and distinctive; this approach gives students a sense of the range of policy options to consider in particular cases and it allows those familiar with IR theory to make connections between those theories and policymaking."
Daniel G Lang, Lynchburg College

From the Back Cover

As the world s only superpower, America s foreign policy inevitably has a major impact be it positive or negative – on contemporary international affairs. Since the terrorist attacks of 9/11, George W. Bush s decision to move away from multilateral decision–making in favour of a more aggressive, pre–emptive style of foreign policy has attracted widespread debate, and criticism, throughout the world.

In this book, Paul Viotti explores American foreign policy from the founding of the Republic in the late 18th Century to the present day. Part 1 examines the broad policy options available to the US government: namely, peaceful engagement, containment through deterrence or coercive diplomacy, and armed intervention. Part 2 looks at the American experience of foreign policy. By exploring early precedents and elite practices, the moralism of American exceptionalism as well as the roots of an expansionist American foreign policy, the discussion draws out the continuities running through this period. Part 3 concludes with an analysis of the politics of interest on the Potomac, analysing the interplay of contending policy elites, factions and parties influencing foreign policy making today.

In explaining the making and implementation of American foreign policy, the author reminds us that the theoretical challenge is how to connect power, norms and ideas to the policy makers who incorporate them into their practical decision–making. Ideas grounded in understandings of interest driven American foreign policy peaceful engagement, he argues, is the most promising course of action for the coming decades.

About this edition

• Publisher: Longman
• Publication date: 1989
• ISBN 10: 0673398153
• ISBN 13: 9780673398154
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 448