Ethnic identity groups-defined broadly to include ethnic, religious, linguistic, or racial identities-have long played a role in the formulation and implementation of U.S. foreign policy. Yet ethnic group influence increased significantly following the Cold War. Ambrosio and his colleagues provide a unique collection of essays on the relationship between ethnic identity groups and U.S. foreign policy. The book covers a wide range of issues, historical periods, and geographic regions. Integrated chapters examine four major issues: the traditional (white) role of ethnicity in U.S. foreign policy; ethnic identity group mobilization; newcomers to the foreign policy process; and the complexities of ethnic identity politics. An in-depth literature review is provided, as well as an overview of the moral/ethical issues surrounding ethnic group influence on U.S. foreign policy, especially after the events of September 11, 2001. This volume is designed to spark debate on the theoretical, historical, and ethical issues of ethnic identity group influence on U.S. foreign policy. As such, it will be of special interest to scholars, students, researchers, policymakers, and anyone concerned with the making of American foreign policy.

Who speaks for America in world affairs? In this insightful new book, Tony Smith finds that, often, the answer is interest groups, including ethnic ones. This seems natural in a country defined by ethnic and cultural diversity and a democratic political system. And yet, should not the nation's foreign policy be based on more general interests? On American national interests? In exploring this question, Smith ranges over the history of ethnic group involvement in foreign affairs; he notes the openness of our political system to interest groups; and he investigates the relationship between multiculturalism and U.S. foreign policy. The book has three major propositions. First, ethnic groups play a larger role in the formulation of American foreign policy than is widely recognized. Second, the negative consequences of ethnic group involvement today outweigh the benefits this activism at times confers on America in world affairs. And third, the tensions of a pluralist democracy are particularly apparent in the making of foreign policy, where the self-interested demands of a host of domestic actors raise an enduring problem of democratic citizenship--the need to reconcile general and particular interests.

Dozens of ethnic groups work determinedly to achieve specific policy goals in Washington, but to what degree do they actually wield power? Which groups are the most influential, and why? David Paul considers the relative impact of 38 ethnic lobbies to determine whether?and if so, how?they affect the course of US foreign policy. Paul systematically examines the impact of ethnic-group influence in six policy areas: aid, immigration, human rights, security, trade, and energy. He also compares the influence of ethnic lobbies to that of other actors, including business groups, the media, and foreign lobbyists. Challenging the conventional wisdom, he effectively draws on both qualitative and quantitative methods to shed needed light on this often heatedly contentious subject.

This book examines the effects of ethnicity on party politics in ten African countries. Sebastian Elischer finds that five party types exist: the mono-ethnic, the ethnic alliance, the catch-all, the programmatic, and the personalistic party. He uses these party types to show that the African political landscape is considerably more diverse than conventionally assumed.

Ethnic identity groups-defined broadly to include ethnic, religious, linguistic, or racial identities-have long played a role in the formulation and implementation of U.S. foreign policy. Yet ethnic group influence increased significantly following the Cold War. Ambrosio and his colleagues provide a unique collection of essays on the relationship between ethnic identity groups and U.S. foreign policy. The book covers a wide range of issues, historical periods, and geographic regions. Integrated chapters examine four major issues: the traditional (white) role of ethnicity in U.S. foreign policy; ethnic identity group mobilization; newcomers to the foreign policy process; and the complexities of ethnic identity politics. An in-depth literature review is provided, as well as an overview of the moral/ethical issues surrounding ethnic group influence on U.S. foreign policy, especially after the events of September 11, 2001. This volume is designed to spark debate on the theoretical, historical, and ethical issues of ethnic identity group influence on U.S. foreign policy. As such, it will be of special interest to scholars, students, researchers, policymakers, and anyone concerned with the making of American foreign policy.

The United States is once again experiencing a major influx of immigrants. Questions about who should be admitted and what benefits should be afforded to new members of the polity are among the most divisive and controversial contemporary political issues. Using an impressive array of evidence from national surveys, The Politics of Belonging illuminates patterns of public opinion on immigration and explains why Americans hold the attitudes they do. Rather than simply characterizing Americans as either nativist or nonnativist, this book argues that controversies over immigration policy are best understood as questions over political membership and belonging to the nation. The relationship between citizenship, race, and immigration drive the politics of belonging in the United States and represents a dynamism central to understanding patterns of contemporary public opinion on immigration policy. Beginning with a historical analysis, this book documents why this is the case by tracing the development of immigration and naturalization law, institutional practices, and the formation of the American racial hierarchy. Then, through a comparative analysis of public opinion among white, black, Latino, and Asian Americans, it identifies and tests the critical moderating role of racial categorization and group identity on variation in public opinion on immigration.

Immigration studies have increasingly focused on how immigrant adaptation to their new homelands is influenced by the social structures in the sending society, particularly its economy. Less scholarly research has focused on the ways that the cultural make-up of immigrant homelands influences their adaptation to life in a new country. In Ethnic Origins, Jeremy Hein investigates the role of religion, family, and other cultural factors on immigrant incorporation into American society by comparing the experiences of two little-known immigrant groups living in four different American cities not commonly regarded as immigrant gateways. Ethnic Origins provides an in-depth look at Hmong and Khmer refugees—people who left Asia as a result of failed U.S. foreign policy in their countries. These groups share low socio-economic status, but are vastly different in their norms, values, and histories. Hein compares their experience in two small towns—Rochester, Minnesota and Eau Claire, Wisconsin—and in two big cities—Chicago and Milwaukee—and examines how each group adjusted to these different settings. The two groups encountered both community hospitality and narrow-minded hatred in the small towns, contrasting sharply with the cold anonymity of the urban pecking order in the larger cities. Hein finds that for each group, their ethnic background was more important in shaping adaptation patterns than the place in which they settled. Hein shows how, in both the cities and towns, the Hmong's sharply drawn ethnic boundaries and minority status in their native land left them with less affinity for U.S. citizenship or "Asian American" panethnicity than the Khmer, whose ethnic boundary is more porous. Their differing ethnic backgrounds also influenced their reactions to prejudice and discrimination. The Hmong, with a strong group identity, perceived greater social inequality and supported collective political action to redress wrongs more than the individualistic Khmer, who tended to view personal hardship as a solitary misfortune, rather than part of a larger-scale injustice. Examining two unique immigrant groups in communities where immigrants have not traditionally settled, Ethnic Origins vividly illustrates the factors that shape immigrants' response to American society and suggests a need to refine prevailing theories of immigration. Hein's book is at once a novel look at a little-known segment of America's melting pot and a significant contribution to research on Asian immigration to the United States. A Volume in the American Sociological Association's Rose Series in Sociology