Bøger i Political Traditions in Foreign Policy Series serien

Examines recurring modes or patterns of legislative behaviour over the span of America's diplomatic experience. Although congressional involvement in foreign policy making has received much scholarly attention, this work is groundbreaking in that it focuses on those patterns of congressional conduct that have repeated themselves over time.

This work connects realist political theory to late-1990s foreign policy issues. Adherents of realism like the author claim that a political philosophy based on the key considerations of interest, power, and moral purpose will create order from the chaotic nature of international relations.

This ground breaking work identifies and analyses six distinct approaches to America's diplomatic course after the Cold War, addressing perhaps the most important question of our time: what should US foreign policy be in the twenty-first century?

The collapse of the Soviet Union and other Marxist regimes seems to have left liberal democracy as the only surviving ideology. Yet many scholars of political thought still find liberal democracy objectionable, using Aristotle to support their views. Clifford Angell Bates challenges this, demonstrating that Aristotle was a defender of democracy.

Presents a provocative case study of the Spanish-American War, exposing newfound dimensions to the relationship between American nationalism and US foreign policy. Two foreign-policy issues are at the centre of the analysis: the declaration of war against Spain in 1898 and the annexation of the Philippine Islands as part of the war's peace treaty.

In this informed and comprehensive assessment of current issues in international politics, Kenneth W. Thompson addresses the role that traditions and values play in shaping change and in helping us to understand its implications.

In The Two Faces of National Interest, W. David Clinton sets out to form a clear definition of a concept that may have become too elastic for its (and our) own good, and to ascertain its utility in the field of foreign relations. Much of the confusion surrounding the term National Interest, Clinton argues, stems from the fact that analysts and officials use it in two different senses, without defining it precisely or making clear which sense they mean in any particular case. In Part One of his study, Clinton presents a clarification of the two meanings--one, the common good of a society, which necessarily looks inward to the basic principles of the domestic regime; the other a specific claim, which can be supported by justifying arguments, made by the state on other states or the society of states. Clinton lays out the critics' case against national interest, suggests that his definition meets the objections, and considers the special case of the fit between national-interest thinking and the American diplomatic tradition. In Part Two, Clinton uses this definition to consider four departures in American foreign policy--that is, significant turns in policy that occasioned reexamination of the requirements of the national interest--since World War II. The preparation of the Marshall Plan and the decision to enter the Korean War both came during the Truman presidency and together did much to define containment; the evolution of the Nixon Doctrine and the Carter policy on human rights accompanied the end of the containment consensus and marked attempts to devise a new roster of asserted interests. Interpreting these events by means of the society's national interest and the several national interests or claims pressed by it on the international setting, Clinton concludes that the concept of national interest, if used carefully, remains a valuable tool for understanding international relations. In presenting a balanced treatment of what is sometimes an extremely controversial subject, Clinton addresses an issue largely ignored since Charles Beard and Hans J. Morgenthau. Written with grace and power, The Two Faces of National Interest is an informed, thought-provoking, and authoritative work that will have enduring value as a scholarly and public information resource.

Throughout history, readers of Thucydides' "History of the Peloponnesian War" have sought to apply its lessons to the problems of their times. In that tradition, these essays explore Thucydides' observations on the human condition in an effort to comprehend the modern world.

Hans J. Morgenthau, a founding proponent of political realism, remains the central figure in international relations scholarship of the twentieth century. In the first volume devoted to the intellectual formation of Morgenthau, Christoph Frei draws upon an abundance of resources to disclose the compelling story of a great mind in the making.

Joel Rosenthal's survey of five noteworthy self-proclaimed political realists explores the realists' overarching commitment to transforming traditional power politics into a form of "responsible power" commensurate with American values.

John Farrenkopf takes advantage of the historical perspective the end of the millennium provides to reassess visionary thinker Oswald Spengler and his challenging ideas on world history and politics and modern civilisation.

Dante Germino's biography of the Italian communist and political theorist Antonio Gramsci offers a major reassessment of this important twentieth-century thinker. Germino analyses Gramsci's remarkable life as well as his extensive oeuvre, from the early Turin articles to the meditative Prison Notebooks.

Addressing issues of continuing if not heightened relevance to contemporary debate, America at the Brink of Empire explores the foreign policy leadership of Dean Rusk and Henry Kissinger regarding the extent of the United States' mission to insure a stable world order.

The tradition in international relations theory known as realism has often been associated with the Cold War. The contributors to this surprising volume argue, however, that realism remains a profound and relevant perspective on contemporary international politics. They point out that classical realism is based on concepts that were elucidated long before the Cold War began and are not confined by its boundaries. Further, they believe that insights of the realist tradition can provide valuable guidance in our contemporary world. With W. David Clinton's clear-eyed supervision, ten scholars of foreign policy reexamine the work of thinkers, spanning twenty-five centuries, who have contributed to the development of realism across the ages. In their essays, the authors consider two key questions: What makes these thinkers "realists"? And how is their work relevant to the modern, postCold War world?

Hailed as one of the great defenders of democratic liberalism in postwar Europe, French philosopher, sociologist, and political commentator Raymond Aron left behind a staggering amount of published work on a wide range of topics both scholarly and popular. In this volume, Reed Davis assesses the originality and consistency of Aron's body of work.

Political scientist Glenn Antizzo identifies fifteen factors critical to the success of contemporary US military intervention and evaluates the likely efficacy of direct US military involvement today - when it will work, when it will not, and how to undertake such action in a manner that will bring rapid victory at an acceptable political cost.