Brings together 12 scholars of US foreign relations. Each contributor provides a concise summary of an important theme in US affairs since the Spanish-American War. US policy process, economic interests, relations with the Third World, and the nuclear arms race have been highlighted.

This best-selling text presents the best synthesis of current scholarship available to emphasize the theme of expansionism and its manifestations. Volume 2 includes recently declassified documents, and provides the opportunity to consider new perspectives on topics such as the American intervention in the Bolshevik Revolution, the origins of the Cold War and the Korean War, and the Cuban missile crisis. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

Originally published in 1991, Explaining the History of American Foreign Relations has become an indispensable volume not only for teachers and students in international history and political science, but also for general readers seeking an introduction to American diplomatic history. This collection of essays highlights a variety of newer, innovative, and stimulating conceptual approaches and analytical methods used to study the history of American foreign relations, including bureaucratic, dependency, and world systems theories, corporatist and national security models, psychology, culture, and ideology. Along with substantially revised essays from the first edition, this volume presents entirely new material on postcolonial theory, borderlands history, modernization theory, gender, race, memory, cultural transfer, and critical theory. The book seeks to define the study of American international history, stimulate research in fresh directions, and encourage cross-disciplinary thinking, especially between diplomatic history and other fields of American history, in an increasingly transnational, globalizing world.

Is the US really exceptional in terms of its willingness to take universal human rights seriously? According to the rhetoric of American political leaders, the United States has a unique and lasting commitment to human rights principles and to a liberal world order centered on rule of law and human dignity. But when push comes to shove—most recently in Libya and Syria--the United States failed to stop atrocities and dithered as disorder spread in both places. This book takes on the myths surrounding US foreign policy and the future of world order. Weighing impulses toward parochial nationalism against the ideal of cosmopolitan internationalism, the authors posit that what may be emerging is a new brand of American globalism, or a foreign policy that gives primacy to national self-interest but does so with considerable interest in and genuine attention to universal human rights and a willingness to suffer and pay for those outside its borders—at least on occasion. The occasions of exception—such as Libya and Syria—provide case studies for critical analysis and allow the authors to look to emerging dominant powers, especially China, for indicators of new challenges to the commitment to universal human rights and humanitarian affairs in the context of the ongoing clash between liberalism and realism. The book is guided by four central questions: 1) What is the relationship between cosmopolitan international standards and narrow national self-interest in US policy on human rights and humanitarian affairs? 2) What is the role of American public opinion and does it play any significant role in shaping US policy in this dialectical clash? 3) Beyond public opinion, what other factors account for the shifting interplay of liberal and realist inclinations in Washington policy making? 4) In the 21st century and as global power shifts, what are the current views and policies of other countries when it comes to the application of human rights and humanitarian affairs?

Belief in the United States as a force for good in the world runs deep. Yet an honest consideration reveals a history marred by great crimes and ordinary errors, alongside many achievements and triumphs. In this comprehensive account of American foreign relations from the nation’s founding through the present day, the diplomatic historian Warren I. Cohen calls attention to the uses—and abuses—of U.S. international leadership and the noble as well as the exploitative ends that American power has wrought. In A Nation Like All Others, Cohen offers a brisk, argumentative history that confronts the concept of American exceptionalism and decries the lack of moral imagination in American foreign policy. He begins with the foreign policy of colonial and postrevolutionary America, exploring interactions with European powers and Native Americans and the implications of slavery and westward expansion. He then traces the rise of American empire; the nation’s choices leading up to and in the wake of the First World War; and World War II and renewed military involvement in foreign affairs. Cohen provides a long history of the Cold War, from its roots under Truman through the Korean and Vietnam Wars to the transformation of the international system under Reagan and Gorbachev. Finally, he surveys America’s recent history in the Middle East, with particular attention to the mismanagement of the War on Terror and Abu Ghraib. Written with great depth of knowledge and moral clarity, A Nation Like All Others suggests that an unflinching look at the nation’s past is America’s best option to shape a better future.

A third edition of this book is now available. Now in a fully updated edition, this knowledgeable and reader-friendly text gives a conceptual and historical overview of American foreign relations from the founding to the present. Providing students with a solid and readily understandable framework for evaluating American foreign policy decisions, Joyce P. Kaufman clearly explains key decisions and why they were made. Compact yet thorough, the book offers instructors a concise introduction that can be easily supplemented with other sources.

This volume brings together more than 50 documents which examine foreign policy not only in terms of leaders and states, but also through social movements, cultures, ideas, and images, to provide comprehensive understanding of how Americans have interacted with the wider world since 1898. Draws together over 50 primary documents to give readers a first-hand account of the people and events that shaped the foreign policy of the United States Incorporates documents relating not only to leaders and states, but also to social movements, cultures, ideas, and images Highlights the diverse range of contributors to debates about American foreign policy, from presidents to protesters, students to singers Includes a comprehensive introduction to the subject and headnotes for each document written by the editor, as well as a bibliography for further study