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.

This textbook provides a comprehensive introduction to US foreign policy. Bringing together a number of the world's leading experts, the text deals with the rise of America, US foreign policy during and after the Cold War, and the complex issues facing the US since September 11th.

At no time in American history has an understanding of the role and the art of diplomacy in international relations been more essential than it is today. Both the history of U.S. diplomatic relations and the current U.S. foreign policy in the twenty-first century are major topics of study and interest across the nation and around the world. Spanning the entire history of American diplomacy—from the First Continental Congress to the war on terrorism to the foreign policy goals of the twenty-first century—Guide to U.S. Foreign Policy traces not only the growth and development of diplomatic policies and traditions but also the shifts in public opinion that shape diplomatic trends. This comprehensive, two-volume reference shows how the United States gained "the strength of a giant" and also analyzes key world events that have determined the United States’ changing relations with other nations. The two volumes’ structure makes the key concepts and issues accessible to researchers: The set is broken up into seven parts that feature 40 topical and historical chapters in which expert writers cover the diplomatic initiatives of the United States from colonial times through the present day. Volume II’s appendix showcases an A-to-Z handbook of diplomatic terms and concepts, organizations, events, and issues in American foreign policy. The appendix also includes a master bibliography and a list of presidents; secretaries of state, war, and defense; and national security advisers and their terms of service. This unique reference highlights the changes in U.S. diplomatic policy as government administrations and world events influenced national decisions. Topics include imperialism, economic diplomacy, environmental diplomacy, foreign aid, wartime negotiations, presidential influence, NATO and its role in the twenty-first century, and the response to terrorism. Additional featured topics include the influence of the American two-party system, the impact of U.S. elections, and the role of the United States in international organizations. Guide to U.S. Foreign Policy is the first comprehensive reference work in this field that is both historical and thematic. This work is of immense value for researchers, students, and others studying foreign policy, international relations, and U.S history. ABOUT THE EDITORS Robert J. McMahon is the Ralph D. Mershon Professor of History in the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at The Ohio State University. He is a leading historian of American diplomatic history and is author of several books on U.S. foreign relations. Thomas W. Zeiler is professor of history and international affairs at the University of Colorado at Boulder and is the executive editor of the journal Diplomatic History.

A fierce critique of civil religion as the taproot of America’s bid for global hegemony Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Walter A. McDougall argues powerfully that a pervasive but radically changing faith that “God is on our side” has inspired U.S. foreign policy ever since 1776. The first comprehensive study of the role played by civil religion in U.S. foreign relations over the entire course of the country’s history, McDougall’s book explores the deeply infused religious rhetoric that has sustained and driven an otherwise secular republic through peace, war, and global interventions for more than two hundred years. From the Founding Fathers and the crusade for independence to the Monroe Doctrine, through World Wars I and II and the decades-long Cold War campaign against “godless Communism,” this coruscating polemic reveals the unacknowledged but freely exercised dogmas of civil religion that bind together a “God blessed” America, sustaining the nation in its pursuit of an ever elusive global destiny.

"A concise, comprehensive guide to America's critical policy choices at home and overseas . . . without a partisan agenda, but with a passion for solutions designed to restore our country's strength and enable us to lead." -- Madeleine K. Albright A rising China, climate change, terrorism, a nuclear Iran, a turbulent Middle East, and a reckless North Korea all present serious challenges to America's national security. But it depends even more on the United States addressing its burgeoning deficit and debt, crumbling infrastructure, second class schools, and outdated immigration system. While there is currently no great rival power threatening America directly, how long this strategic respite lasts, according to Council on Foreign Relations President Richard N. Haass, will depend largely on whether the United States puts its own house in order. Haass lays out a compelling vision for restoring America's power, influence, and ability to lead the world and advocates for a new foreign policy of Restoration that would require the US to limit its involvement in both wars of choice, and humanitarian interventions. Offering essential insight into our world of continual unrest, this new edition addresses the major foreign and domestic debates since hardcover publication, including US intervention in Syria, the balance between individual privacy and collective security, and the continuing impact of the sequester.

What is the long-term nature of American foreign policy? This new book refutes the claim that it has varied considerably across time and space, arguing that key policies have been remarkably stable over the last hundred years, not in terms of ends but of means. Closely examining US foreign policy, past and present, David Sylvan and Stephen Majeski draw on a wealth of historical and contemporary cases to show how the US has had a 'client state' empire for at least a century. They clearly illustrate how much of American policy revolves around acquiring clients, maintaining clients and engaging in hostile policies against enemies deemed to threaten them, representing a peculiarly American form of imperialism. They also reveal how clientilism informs apparently disparate activities in different geographical regions and operates via a specific range of policy instruments, showing predictable variation in the use of these instruments. With a broad range of cases from US policy in the Caribbean and Central America after the Spanish-American War, to the origins of the Marshall Plan and NATO, to economic bailouts and covert operations, and to military interventions in South Vietnam, Kosovo and Iraq, this important book will be of great interest to students and researchers of US foreign policy, security studies, history and international relations. This book has a dedicated website at: www.us-foreign-policy-prespective.org featuring additional case studies and data sets.

A career of nearly three decades with the CIA and the National Intelligence Council showed Paul R. Pillar that intelligence reforms, especially measures enacted since 9/11, can be deeply misguided. They often miss the sources that underwrite failed policy and misperceive our ability to read outside influences. They also misconceive the intelligence-policy relationship and promote changes that weaken intelligence-gathering operations. In this book, Pillar confronts the intelligence myths Americans have come to rely on to explain national tragedies, including the belief that intelligence drives major national security decisions and can be fixed to avoid future failures. Pillar believes these assumptions waste critical resources and create harmful policies, diverting attention away from smarter reform, and they keep Americans from recognizing the limits of obtainable knowledge. Pillar revisits U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War and highlights the small role intelligence played in those decisions, and he demonstrates the negligible effect that America's most notorious intelligence failures had on U.S. policy and interests. He then reviews in detail the events of 9/11 and the 2003 invasion of Iraq, condemning the 9/11 commission and the George W. Bush administration for their portrayals of the role of intelligence. Pillar offers an original approach to better informing U.S. policy, which involves insulating intelligence management from politicization and reducing the politically appointed layer in the executive branch to combat slanted perceptions of foreign threats. Pillar concludes with principles for adapting foreign policy to inevitable uncertainties.