The past few years have witnessed changes which will be of lasting significance in international affairs. The revolutions in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, for example, are fundamental not only for those societies but also in their implications for the rest of the world. They signal the passing of the international order that has governed the post war era. Since the United States was the principal architect of that order, its passing will have fundamental implications for America's role in the modern world. It has been suggested that this transformation will reduce the US to the status of an ordinary country, indeed that the signs of decline are already everywhere apparent. In this book, the author argues to the contrary that the emerging new world order offers great opportunities to the US to maintain its status as the leading power in the world.

"A Higher Education history textbook on Latin America"--

This text examines how larger global processes have had a role in each stage of American development, how this country's experiences were shared by people elsewhere, and how America's growing influence ultimately changed the world. By examining American history through a global lens, Carl Guarneri creates a framework that situates specific American events within the larger realm of world history.

America has a long history of diplomacy–ranging from Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, and Thomas Jefferson to Henry Kissinger, Ronald Reagan, and James Baker–now is your chance to see the impact these Americans have had on the world. Recounting the actors and events of U.S. foreign policy, Zoellick identifies five traditions that have emerged from America's encounters with the world: the importance of North America; the special roles trading, transnational, and technological relations play in defining ties with others; changing attitudes toward alliances and ways of ordering connections among states; the need for public support, especially through Congress; and the belief that American policy should serve a larger purpose. These traditions frame a closing review of post-Cold War presidencies, which Zoellick foresees serving as guideposts for the future. Both a sweeping work of history and an insightful guide to U.S. diplomacy past and present, America in the World serves as an informative companion and practical adviser to readers seeking to understand the strategic and immediate challenges of U.S. foreign policy during an era of transformation.

How did the modern world get to be the way it is? How did we come to live in a globalized, industrialized, capitalistic set of nation-states? Moving beyond Eurocentric explanations and histories that revolve around the rise of the West, distinguished historian Robert B. Marks explores the roles of Asia, Africa, and the New World in the global story. He defines the modern world as marked by industry, the nation state, interstate warfare, a large and growing gap between the wealthiest and poorest parts of the world, and an escape from environmental constraints. Bringing the saga to the present, Marks considers how and why the United States emerged as a world power in the 20th century and the sole superpower by the 21st century; the powerful resurgence of Asia; and the vastly changed relationship of humans to the environment.