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American Foreign Policy: Past, Present, and Future >> Content Detail

Study Materials

Readings

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Required Texts

Paterson, Thomas G., J. Garry Clifford, and Kenneth J. Hagan. American Foreign Relations. Vol. 2: A History Since 18903959388725. 5th ed. Boston, MA,: Houghton Mifflin, 1999. ISBN: 9780395938874.

Gaddis, John Lewis. Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of Postwar American National Security Policy. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1982. ISBN: 9780195030976.

Herring, George C. America's Longest War: The United States and Vietnam, 1950-1975. 3rd ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1995. ISBN: 9780070283930.

Kennedy, Robert F. Thirteen Days: A Memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1999/1971. ISBN: 9780393318340.

A book that will improve your papers (also used for another course - 17.432):

Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Term Papers, Theses, and Dissertations. 6th ed. Rev. by John Grossman and Alice Bennett. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996. ISBN: 00226816273.

Turabian is not required for 17.40 but you will want to own a copy. She has the basic rules for how to format footnotes, etc. Learn and obey them.

In addition to the readings given in the table, see the bibliographies for further reading.

Readings (PDF)

LEC #	TOPICS	READINGS
Theories and Strategies
1	Introduction
2	Overview of American Foreign Policy Since 1914	Kennedy, Paul. Rise and Fall of the Great Powers. Tables. Oye, Kenneth, ed. Eagle in a New World. Tables. Class discussion will focus on tables 6, 17, 18, 31, 35, 4-1, and chart 2 on pages 3, 6, 7, 15, 16, 19, and 20 (handwritten numeration), so study these seven with more care; skim the rest.
3-5	Theories of American Foreign Policy	Van Evera, Stephen. "Offense, Defense and the Causes of War." Manuscript, 1-36. Your instructor's summary of the argument, made famous by Robert Jervis, that war is more likely when conquest is easy. A key related argument: international conflict arises largely from the "security dilemma"—the tendency of states to threaten others' security by their efforts to secure themselves. Can the U.S. prevent war by making conquest hard in world trouble-spots? Have America's past conflict with others arisen from the security dilemma? Walt, Stephen. "Explaining Alliance Formation." Chapter 2 in The Origins of Alliances. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1990, pp. 17-49. Walt presents competing hypotheses on how states choose their friends. Which hypotheses are valid? Do your answers matter for the kind of foreign policy you would recommend? Jervis, Robert. Perception and Misperception in International Politics. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976, pp. 58-84. Some ("spiral model" advocates) say international conflict is best resolved by the carrot, while using the stick merely provokes; others ("deterrence" advocates) would use the stick, warning that offering carrots ("appeasement") leads others to make more demands. Who's right? Probably both—but under what circumstances? And how can you tell which circumstances you face? Isaacson, Walter, and Evan Thomas. The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1986, pp. 171-173, 731-733. Does the American foreign policy elite share America's wider democratic values? We learn here that George Kennan thought women, blacks, and immigrants should be denied the vote; Kennan and Dean Acheson saw little wrong with the white minority governments in Rhodesia and South Africa; and John McCloy adopted the cause of Iran's Pahlevi family. Not your typical League of Women Voters views. Hersh, Seymour. The Price of Power. New York, NY: Summit, 1983, pp. 108-111. What to make of the attitudes of Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, and Alexander Haig reported here? (Are such attitudes widespread among foreign policymakers? Do such attitudes matter?) Pearson, David. "The Media and Government Deception." Propaganda Review (Spring 1989): 6-11. Pearson thinks the American press is obedient to official views, and afraid to criticize. Anti-establishment paranoia or the real picture? Jordan, Eason. "The News We Kept To Ourselves." New York Times, April 11, 2003. The press can be cowed into practicing self-censorship. This allows tyrants to intimidate the press into painting themselves in rose-colored hues. Kristoff, Nicholas. "Save Our Spooks." New York Times, May 30, 2003. Governments misperceive the world if their intelligence agencies misreport foreign realities. This can happen if government leaders press their intelligence agencies to tell the leaders what they want to hear regardless of the facts. Beschloss, Michael R. "Foreign Policy's Big Moment." New York Times, April 11, 1999. Claimed here: during political campaigns U.S. politicians pander to U.S. voters by framing dangerous foreign policy positions that they cannot abandon once in office. The country is thereby led into folly. A corollary: a prime threat to America is ... an American public that responds well to irresponsible pandering.
6-8	American Interests and Grand Strategies	Gaddis. Strategies of Containment. pp. 3-53. George Kennan was a prime intellectual architect of America's Cold War containment policy. In pages 25-53 Gaddis explicates his ideas. Van Evera, Stephen. "American Intervention in the Third World: Less Would Be Better." Security Studies 1, no. 1 (Autumn 1991): 1-24. The instructor's largely Kennanite analysis of past American strategy toward the Third World. Posen, Barry R., and Andrew L. Ross. "Competing U.S. Grand Strategies." In Strategy and Force Planning Faculty. Edited by Strategy and Force Planning. Newport, RI: Naval War College Press, 1995, pp. 115-134. A survey of four contending post-Cold War grand strategies. Which strategy is best? (Is this list complete?) Sanger, David E. "Bush to Formalize A Defense Policy of Hitting First." New York Times, June 17, 2002. The Bush Administration has embraced a general doctrine of preventive war against rogue states that aspire to develop weapons of mass destruction. Iraq is only the first rogue state that the administration would attack. Good idea? Lieber, Keir A., and Robert J. Lieber. "The Bush National Security Strategy." U.S. Foreign Policy Agenda, An Electronic Journal of the U.S. Department of State 7, no. 4 (December 2002). A friendly summary and assessment of the 2002 U.S. National Security Strategy (NSS), the document that frames the main elements of the strategy selected by the Bush II Administration, including its general doctrine of preventive war (see Sanger, "Bush to Formalize," directly above). Ikenberry, G. John. "America's Imperial Ambition." Foreign Affairs 81, no. 5 (September/October 2002). The Bush Administration has embarked on a fateful imperial rampage. It will end badly. Others will eventually coalesce to check the U.S. "American Imperialism, Embraced." The New York Times Magazine. December 9, 2001. Ricks, Thomas E. "Empire or Not? A Quiet Debate over U.S. Role." Washington Post. August 21, 2001. More color on rising arguments for a U.S. empire in the U.S. conservative movement. Do Tom Donnelly and William Kristol have a good idea? Lind, Michael. Made in Texas: George W. Bush and the Southern Takeover of American Politics. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2003, pp. 128-153. What's causing the rise of imperialist thinking in Washington? Lind argues that the Bush coalition includes dangerous elements, including millennialist Christians who want to take U.S. Mideast policy in dangerous directions. Lieber, Robert. "The Neoconservative Conspiracy Theory: Pure Myth." Chronicle of Higher Education, May 2, 2003. Lieber disputes claims that a neoconservative clique dominates Bush foreign policy. Kaufmann, Chaim. "See No Evil." Foreign Affairs 81, no. 4 (July/August 2002): 142-149. The U.S. could have stopped genocide in Rwanda in 1994 and elsewhere but chose not to. Good choice? Should the U.S. intervene to prevent such horrors? Cooper, Glenda. "U.S. Memos on Rwanda Cited." Boston, Globe, August 23, 2001. More color on U.S. inaction in Rwanda. Kristof, Nicholas D. "Starved for Safety." New York Times, March 31, 2004. Another genocide is now unfolding in the Darfur region of Sudan, where the Sudanese government is slaughtering inconvenient peoples by the thousands. Should the U.S. act? See Kristof's website for more columns on this horrific crime. Gelb, Leslie H., and Justine A. Rosenthal. "The Rise of Ethics in Foreign Policy." Foreign Affairs 82, no. 3 (May/June 2003): 2-7. Ethical concerns once played little role in U.S. foreign policy; now they have an important place at the table. Revkin, Andrew C. "Scientists Say a Quest for Clean Energy Must Begin Now." New York Times, November 1, 2002. A new study warns that we must start looking for clean energy sources now or we may destroy the planet. Later may be too late. No kidding. This will require broad international cooperation. Sadly we're not very good at international cooperation. Oh dear. Bradsher, Keith. "Bird Flu is Back, Raising Fear of Spread Among Humans." New York Times, August 30, 2004. The 1918 flu killed 675,000 Americans—more than the two World Wars combined. Bummer. Could it happen again? Maybe! The current avian flu in Asia is mighty scary. What's the answer? Worldwide preventive action. Again, everyone must cooperate. Hence this is a foreign policy problem.
America's Major Wars: World War I, World War II, Cold War, and Korea
9-11	World War I and World War II	Paterson, Clifford, and Hagan. American Foreign Policy. pp. 55-62, 68-92, 117-125, 128-136, 141-153, 173-215. A standard textbook history of American policies before and during the two world wars.
12-13	Cold War Origins and Conduct The Korean War	Cold war origins and conduct Paterson, Clifford, and Hagan. American Foreign Policy. pp. 222-249. A standard textbook account of the Cold Wars's origins, from a viewpoint somewhat critical of U.S. policy. Korea Paterson, Clifford, and Hagan. American Foreign Policy. pp. 266-275.
Interlude: U.S. National Security Policy; The Terror War; U.S. Foreign Economic Policy
14	American National Security Policy, 1945-Present	Jordan, Amos A., William J. Taylor, and Lawrence J. Korb. "The Evolution of American National Security Policy." Chapter 4 in American National Security: Policy and Process. 4th ed. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993, pp. 63-86. Gaddis. Strategies of Containment, pp. 54-197. Review also pp. 3-53. An excellent analytic account of American security policy under Truman and Eisenhower, by a leading American historian. Rees, Martin. Our Final Hour: A Scientist's Warning: How Terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind's Future in this Century—On Earth and Beyond. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2003, pp. 41-60, 73-88. The advance of science has a fearsome byproduct: we are discovering ever more powerful means of destruction. These destructive powers are being democratized: the mayhem that only major states can do today may lie within the capacity of millions of individuals in the future unless we somehow change course. Deterrence works against states but will fail against crazed non-state organizations or individuals. How can the spread of destructive powers be controlled? For more on controlling the longterm bioweapons danger see: The Controlling Dangerous Pathogens Project. Kelly, Henry C. "Terrorism and the Biology Lab." New York Times, July 2, 2003. The biology profession must realize that its research, if left unregulated, could produce discoveries that gravely threaten our safety. Biologists must develop a strategy to keep biology from being used for destructive ends. Meselson, Matthew. "Averting the Hostile Exploitation of Biotechnology." CBWCB (June 2000): 16-19. We must pursue arms control measures to limit the spread of biological weapons. "Nuclear Breakout." New York Times, July 27, 2003. "Curb the Spread of Nuclear Arms." New York Times, July 29, 2003 (letters). A snippet arguing that to halt nuclear proliferation the world must strengthen the 1968 nuclear non-proliferation treaty. Today that treaty doesn't even ban the enrichment of uranium or reprocessing of plutonium, the two basic methods of making nuclear bombs. Let's do something about it! And letters in reaction. Perry, William. "Preparing for the Next Attack." Foreign Affairs 80, no. 6 (November/December 2001): 31-45. Perry, a former U.S. Defense Secretary, warns that al Qaeda will strike again, this time with weapons of mass destruction, unless we avert their attack. He's cool toward national missile defense—a favorite Bush administration project—because Al Qaeda won't use missiles to send us its horrors. Seitz, Frederick. "Missile Defense Isn't Rocket Science." Wall Street Journal. July 7, 2000. A positive view of national missile defense. For more discussion of the latest U.S. strategy statement see the "Defense Strategy Review Page " of the Project on Defense Alternatives.
15-16	The U.S. War on Terror	"The Uranium Underground." Time, December 17, 2001, 40-45. Vast amounts of nuclear materials are swishing around the former Soviet Union unguarded—enough to build tens of thousands of atomic bombs. Washington doesn't seem to care much. Is this stupid or what? Duck and cover! Benjamin, Daniel, and Steven Simon. The Age of Sacred Terror. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Random House, 2003, pp. 38-55, 61-68, 91-94, 447-489. Pages 38-55, 62-68, 91-94 describe the Islamist currents of thinking that spawned Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda. Al Qaeda's violence stems from a stream of Islamist thought going back to ibn Taymiyya, a bellicose Islamic thinker from the 13th century; to Abd al-Wahhab (1703-1792), the harsh and rigid shaper of modern Saudi Arabian Islam; to Rashid Rida (1866-1935) and Hassan al-Banna (?-1949); and above all to Sayyid Qutb (?-1966), the shaper of modern Islamism. Taymiyya, al-Wahhab and Qutb are covered here. Covered also (pp. 91-94) is the frightening rise of apocalyptic thinking in the Islamic world. What causes the murderous thinking described here? Pages 447-489 are a survey and evaluation of Bush administration counter-terror strategies. Not assigned but also valuable are pages 219-393, a survey of Clinton administration counter-terror strategies and policies. Chyba, Christopher F. "Toward Biological Security." Foreign Affairs 81, no. 3 (May/June 2002): 122-137. The danger posed by biological weapons in terrorist hands may be even scarier than the danger of nuclear weapons. Chait, Jonathan. "The 9/10 President." New Republic, March 10, 2003, 18-23. The Bush Administration's program for homeland security is surprisingly lame. There are big holes in the homeland security program. Schwartz, Stephen. "The Real Saudi Arabia." Wall Street Journal, May 15, 2003. Al-Hattan, Sulaiman. "Homegrown Fanatics." New York Times, May 15, 2003. Saudi Arabian society is dominated by a hateful and xenophobic version of Islam—Wahhabism. Unless Wahhabism is tempered Saudi Arabia will export more terror against the non-Muslim world.
17-18	American Foreign Economic Policy, 1945-Present	"World Trade: Jousting for Advantage." The Economist, September 22, 1990, 5-25. "World Trade: All Free Traders Now?" The Economist, December 7, 1996, 21-23. The first item is a pro-free-trade survey of the basic questions in trade, and a preview of the now-passed North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and General Agreement on Tariff and Trade (GATT), Uruguay Round. Focus on pages 12-19, "The Economics of Free Trade," which explicates David Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage; you can skim the rest. The second item surveys later trade issues. "Pakistanis Fume as Clothing Sales to U.S. Tumble." New York Times, June 23, 2002. The U.S. could provide large benefit to the poor of Pakistan by dropping its barriers to the import of Pakistani textiles. This could also jolly up the Pakistanis to support the U.S terror war. But the U.S. textile lobby won't allow it. U.S. special interests override the U.S. national interest. Too bad for you and me. "Raising Farm Subsidies, U.S. Widens International Rift." New York Times, June 15, 2002. The U.S. waves the free trade banner—except when it doesn't want to. U.S. strictures on imports of agricultural products and textiles are a major blow to the world's poor. Shelton, Judy. "More Aid? Sounds Great. But Wait ..." Wall Street Journal, February 15, 2002. Shoving money at poor states doesn't make them richer. Instead western societies should help poor states improve their governance—i.e., to control corruption and bolster the rule of law. Better economic performance will follow.
Cold War Crises: Berlin, Taiwan Straits, and Cuba 1962
19-20	The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis Other Cold War Crises	Paterson, Clifford, and Hagan. American Foreign Policy, pp. 291-295 and 335-340. Standard synopses of the Taiwan Straits crises and the Cuban Missile Crisis. Kennedy. Thirteen Days, 1-106. A gripping memoir of the Cuban Missile Crisis by a central participant. Kaplan, Fred. "Kennedy and Cuba at 35." Boston, Sunday Globe, October 12, 1997, D1-D3. Later revelations about the Cuban Missile Crisis. JFK was the most dovish official in the government. He secretly traded the U.S. Jupiter missiles in Turkey for the Soviet missiles in Cuba. He was willing to give even further if needed. What if someone else had been president? For more on the Cuban Missile Crisis you can visit an excellent website on the crisis put together by the National Security Archive. Documents can be seen, tapes can be listened to, and intelligence photos can be viewed at this site. And for more sources on the crisis see a website from Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs.
American Interventions in the Third World
21-22	The Indochina War, 1950-1975	Paterson, Clifford, and Hagan. American Foreign Policy, pp. 315-333, 340-354. Herring. America's Longest War, Chapters 4 and 7, pp. 121-157, 242-283. A more detailed account, from a middle-of-the-road perspective, of the key decisions to escalate and de-escalate the war. Herring's book is the most prominent general history of the war. Johnson, Lyndon B. "American Policy in Viet-Nam." In The Viet-Nam Reader. Edited by Marcus G. Raskin and Bernard B. Fall. New York, NY: Vintage, 1967, pp. 343-351. This statement, Johnson's famous Johns Hopkins University speech of April 7, 1965, was the fullest official explication of the case for the war. Sanders, Sol W., and William Henderson. "The Consequences of 'Vietnam." Orbis 21, no. 1 (Spring 1977): 61-76. The authors re-evaluate the propositions at issue in the debate over the war, concluding that postwar events show that the hawks were right and the doves wrong. Clifford, Clark and Richard Holbrooke. Counsel to the President. New York, NY: Random House, 1991, pp. 612-614. A short counterpoint to Sanders and Henderson.
23-24	Other American Interventions and Non-Interventions	Those of 1900-1934 (Panama, Cuba, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, Mexico, Russia); 1945-1993 (Iran 1953, Guatemala 1954, Chile 1973, Angola 1975, Indonesia 1957, Guyana 1964, Congo 1960ff, the wars of the Reagan Doctrine, Panama 1989, Persian Gulf 1991, Somalia 1992-93); and non-interventions (Mexico in 1930s; Bolivia in 1950s). Paterson, Clifford, and Hagan. American Foreign Policy. pp. 32-51, 97-101, 153-162, 164-167, 379-383, 440-446, 477-493. Barnet, Richard J. "The Subversion of Undesirable Governments." Chapter 10 in Intervention and Revolution: America's Confrontation with Insurgent Movements Around the World. New York, NY: Meridian, 1972, pp. 264-293. A short history of some of the better-known CIA Cold War covert operations. Schraeder, Peter J. "Paramilitary Intervention." Chapter 8 in Intervention Into the 1990s. 2nd ed.Edited by Peter J. Schraeder. Boulder, Colo.: Lynne Rienner, 1992, pp. 131-151. Focus on pages 137-149 ("The Reagan Doctrine and Paramilitary Intervention"), skim the rest. The four wars waged under the rubric of the Reagan Doctrine are described here. Pollack, Kenneth. The Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq. New York, NY: Random House, 2002, pp.11-54. How did the U.S. confrontation with Saddam Hussein develop? Pollack offers excellent background. Bumiller, Elisabeth. "Was a Tyrant Prefigured by Baby Saddam?" New York Times, May 15, 2004. Saddam Hussein was severely abused as a child and as a result suffered narcissism and other personality disorders. Does this help explain the 1991 and 2003 Iraq wars? Can the U.S. deter or coerce such people if it better understands their personal demons? Zeller, Tom. "Building Democracy is Not a Science." New York Times, April 27, 2003. The United States' mixed record at exporting democracy by intervention is summarized here.
The Road Ahead: Current Crises and Future Policies
25-26	Current Issues and Crises Overviews of Bush Administration Foreign Policy The Future of American Foreign policy	Huntington, Samuel P. "The Coming Clash of Civilizations: Or, the West Against the Rest." New York Times, June 6, 1993. Humankind will again be at its own throat, this time in a confrontation of great civilizations. Kristoff, Nicholas D. "The Real Chinese Threat." New York Times Magazine, August 27, 1995, 50-51. The Chinese are coming. Kagan, Robert. "China's No. 1 Enemy." New York Times, May 11, 1999, A27. China hates the United States. Appeasing China will only encourage Chinese expansionism and bring on a Sino-American clash. Let's get tough on China. Note: In 2003-2004 the Bush Administration found itself cooperating with China against the grave threat posed by North Korea's advancing nuclear weapons program. What light does this shed on Kagan's argument? Freeman, Chas. W., Jr. "Preventing War in the Taiwan Strait." Foreign Affairs 77, no. 4 (July/August 1998): 6-11. Taiwan could suck the U.S. into a Taiwan-PRC conflict unless the U.S. restrains Taiwan now. Kristof, Nicholas D. "The Nuclear Shadow." New York Times, August 14, 2004. We are losing control of nuclear weapons. No one in Washington seems to care. A collective snore is heard from the government. This is a recipe for immense calamity. Isn't it obvious that unless we take prompt action terrorists will get hold of nuclear materials, make nuclear weapons, and nuke us until we glow? Perkovich, George. "Bush's Nuclear Revolution." Foreign Affairs 82, no. 2 (March/April 2003): 2-8. A traditional arms controller's view of how to limit nuclear proliferation: "Strengthen treaties that limit proliferation; downsize the U.S. nuclear arsenal; move toward total nuclear disarmament. Bush has it all wrong." Is this sensible? Is total nuclear disarmament a feasible or practical goal? Sanger, David. "The North Korean Uranium Challenge." New York Times, May 24, 2004. Saddam's Iraq didn't have nuclear weapons or a nuclear program. North Korea has both—and it has a nutty government that might sell the nukes it makes to the highest bidder. What to do? Smash 'em? Won't work. Cut a deal? The Bush administration is opposed. Overthrow the North Korean government? That's tough work. But we better do something!! French, Howard W. "When Liberians Looked to America in Vain." New York Times, July 13, 2003. In the 1980s and 1990s the United States turned a blind eye toward the bloody rampages of Liberian dictators Samuel K. Doe and Charles Taylor. They then ignited vicious wars that spread to the wider West African region. Klinkenborg, Verlyn. "Be Afraid. Be Very Afraid." New York Times Book Review, May 30, 2004. Recent science paints a frightening picture of the human impact on the global climate. Are we creating a hell that, once in, we cannot escape? This seems a increasingly plausible, perhaps likely! Browne, John. "Beyond Kyoto." Foreign Affairs 83, no. 4 (July/August 2004): 20-32. Browne outlines a program for action to address the grave and growing danger of climate change. Lieber, Keir A., and Robert J. Lieber. "The Bush National Security Strategy." U.S. Foreign Policy Agenda, An Electronic Journal of the U.S. Department of State 7, no. 4 (December 2002): assigned above on page 5. Prestowitz, Clyde. "Why Don't We Listen More." Washington Post, July 7, 2002. Bush is losing the U.S. friends by acting with little regard for their interests and ideas. Instead the U.S. should consult its friends and take their interests into account before acting.

Historiographical Surveys on American Foreign Policy

Combs, Jerald A. American Diplomatic History: Two Centuries of Changing Interpretations. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.
An excellent overview of American diplomatic historiography.

Carroll, John M., and George C. Herring, eds. Modern American Diplomacy. Rev. ed. Wilmington: Scholarly Resources Inc., 1996.
A collection of bibliographic review essays on aspects of American diplomatic history.

Haines, Gerald K., and J. Samuel Walker, eds. American Foreign Relations: A Historiographical Review. Westport: Greenwood Press, 1981.
Like Carroll and Herring, a collection of bibliographic review essays.

Hogan, Michael, ed. America and the World: The Historiography of American Foreign Relations since 1941. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
Fourteen historiographical reviews, most from the journal Diplomatic History.

Bibliographies on American Foreign Policy

Beisner, Robert L., and Kurt W. Hanson. American Foreign Relations Since 1600: A Guide to the Literature . 2nd ed. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio, 2003.
An enormous and excellent annotated bibliography. You should often start your research here.

———. "The Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR)." In Guide to American Foreign Relations Since 1700 . Edited by Richard Dean Burns. Santa Barbara, CA: ANC-Clio, 1983.

Beede, Benjamin R. Intervention and Counterinsurgency: An Annotated Bibliography of the Small Wars of the United States, 1898-1984 . New York, NY: Garland, 1985.

Smith, Myron J., Jr. The Secret Wars: A Guide to Sources in English. Vol. 2: Intelligence, Propaganda and Psychological Warfare, Covert Operations, 1945-1980. Santa Barbara: ABC Clio, 1981.

For more Bibliographies see also

Foreign Affairs: This journal's "Recent Books on International Relations" section reviews most important books on U.S. foreign policy.

American Historical Review: More than half of this journal is devoted to useful book reviews, maNew York, NY of books on U.S. foreign relations.

Paterson, Thomas G., J. Garry Clifford, and Kenneth J. Hagan. American Foreign Relations. Vol. 2: A History Since 1895. 5th ed. 2000.
This text (assigned for this course) has useful bibliographical notes at the ends of chapters.

Combs, Jerald A. The History of American Foreign Policy. 2 vols. New York, NY: Knopf, 1986.
This text also has useful bibliographical notes at the ends of chapters.

Web Sites to Consult

A research guide to Internet resources on American foreign policy. See other web sites referenced there.

This is the National Security Archive web site, an excellent source of primary documents about U.S. foreign and security policy.

Textbooks and Surveys

Bailey, Thomas A. A Diplomatic History of the American People. 10th ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1980. ISBN: 9780132147262.

Combs, Jerald A. The History of American Foreign Policy. 2 vols. New York, NY: Knopf, 1986.

Jones, Howard. Crucible of Power: A History of American Foreign Relations to 1913. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2002.

———. Crucible of Power: A History of American Foreign Relations from 1897. Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources, 2002.

Wittkopf, Eugene R., Charles W. Kegley, Jr. and James M. Scott. American Foreign Policy. 6th ed. Florence, KY: Thompson Wadsworth, 2002. ISBN: 9780534600488.

Hartmann, Frederick H., and Robert L. Wendzel. America's Foreign Policy in a Changing World. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1994.

Melanson, Richard A. American Foreign Policy Since the Vietnam War. Armonk, New York, NY: M.E. Sharpe, 1998.

Kennan, George F. American Diplomacy, 1900-1950. New York, NY: New American Library, 1951.

Stoessinger, John G. Nations in Darkness: Russia, China, and America. 5th ed. New York, NY: McGraw, 1990. ISBN: 75409208. (An interpretive survey.)

Historical Document and Essay Collections

Paterson, Thomas G., and Dennis Merrill, eds. Major Problems in American Foreign Relations. 2 vols. 4th ed. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath, 1995. ISBN: 9780669350777, 9780669350784.

Paterson, Thomas G., ed. Major Problems in American Foreign Policy. 2 vols. 3rd ed. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath, 1989. ISBN: 9780669158564, 9780669158571.

Journals

Foreign Affairs. The first and most famous journal of American foreign policy opinion. Published by the Council on Foreign Relations. For maNew York, NY decades it offered yawnsome pontifications by senior officials who repeated conventional wisdoms but now covers maNew York, NY issues very well.

Foreign Policy. A prominent if irritatingly undocumented journal of current policy.

Diplomatic History. The main journal covering American diplomatic history.

Journal of Cold War History. A good new history journal.

International Security. The leading American journal of military and foreign policy.

Security Studies. Another journal of military and foreign policy.

The National Interest. The leading conservative foreign policy journal.

Survival. A Europe-oriented journal of military and foreign policy.

American Historical Review. A general historical journal that once gave good coverage to American diplomatic history but has lately drifted into postmodern gibberizing.

Press and Radio on World Affairs

The Economist. A British weekly newsmagazine. The best single printed news source on current world affairs.

The Far Eastern Economic Review. A fine newsmagazine covering Asian affairs.

BBC World Service. Good world news coverage, aired in Boston at 9:00-10:00 a.m., 1:00-2:00 p.m., and 12:00-2:00 a.m. weekdays, and 4:00-5:00 Saturdays and Sundays, on WBUR (90.9 FM radio). Less fun than KISS 108 but better for your brain.

Readers on 1990s Policy Questions

Oye, Kenneth A., Robert J. Lieber and Donald Rothchild. Eagle in a New World: American Grand Strategy in the Post-Cold War Era. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1992.

Rourke, John T. Taking Sides. 11th ed. Guilford, Conn.: Dushkin, 2003. ISBN: 9780072845150.

Theories of International Politics and of American Foreign Policy

Holsti, Ole R. "Models of International Relations and Foreign Policy." Diplomatic History 13, no. 1 (Winter 1989): 15-44.

Art, Robert J., and Robert Jervis, eds. International Politics: Enduring Concepts and Contemporary Issues. 3rd ed. New York, NY: 1991. ISBN: 9780673521613.

Holsti, K.J. The Dividing Discipline: HegemoNew York, NY and Diversity in International Theory. Boston, MA: Allen and Unwin, 1985.

Waltz, Kenneth N. Theory of International Politics. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1979.

Cohen, Benjamin. The Question of Imperialism. New York, NY: Basic Books, 1973.

Ikenberry, G. John, ed. American Foreign Policy: Theoretical Essays. New York, NY: HarperCollins, 1989.

Kegley, Charles W., Jr., and Eugene R. Wittkopf, eds. The Domestic Sources of American Foreign Policy: Insights and Evidence. New York, NY: St. Martin's, 1988.

Peace Movements

Johnson, Robert David. The Peace Progressives and American Foreign Relations. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1994.

Foreign Lobbies, Propaganda, and the Press as Influences on American Foreign Policy

Smith, ToNew York, NY. Foreign Attachments: The Power of Ethnic Groups in the Making of American Foreign Policy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2000.

Mannheim, Jarol B. Strategic Public Diplomacy and American Foreign Policy. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1994.

Koen, Ross Y. The China Lobby in American Politics. New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1974.

Cull, Nicholas John. Selling War: The British Propaganda Campaign Against American "Neutrality" in World War II. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Peterson, Horace C. Propaganda for War: The Campaign Against American Neutrality, 1914-1917. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1939.

Squires, J. Duane. British Propaganda at Home and in the United States from 1914 to 1917. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1935.

Lind, Michael. "The Israel Lobby." Prospect, April 1, 2002

Garfinkle, Adam. "Israel Lobby Part II." Prospect, September 2002.

Birnbaum, Jeffrey. "The Influence Merchants." Fortune, December 7, 1998, 134-152.

Especially the chart on page 137. Washington insiders rank the Israel lobby the second most powerful lobby in Washington, behind only the AARP and ahead of the NRA, the AMA, the AFL-CIO, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the VFW, and others.

Tivnan, Edward. The Lobby: Jewish Political Power and American Foreign Policy. New York, NY: Simon and Shuster, 1987.

Findley, Paul. They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions Confront Israel's Lobby. Westport, CT: Lawrence Hill and Co., 1985.

Strobel, Warren P. Late-Breaking Foreign Policy: The News Media's Influence on Peace Operations. Washington: United States Institute of Peace, 1998.

Neuman, Johanna. Lights, Camera, War: Is Media Technology Driving International Politics? New York, NY: St. Martin's, 1996.

Seib, Philip. Headline Diplomacy: How News Coverage Affects Foreign Policy. Westport, CT: Praeger, 1997.

American Grand Strategy

Art, Robert J. "A Defensible Defense: America's Grand Strategy After the Cold War." International Security 15, no. 4 (Spring, 1991): 5-53.
A survey of American interests and strategic choices after the Cold War.

Gholz, Eugene, Daryl G. Press, and Harvey M. Sapolsky. "Come Home America: The Strategy of Restraint in the Face of Temptation." International Security 21, no. 4 (Spring 1997): pp. 5-48.

Walt, Stephen M. "The Case for Finite Containment: Analyzing U.S. Grand Strategy." International Security 10, no. 1 (Summer 1989): 5-49.
A late Cold War argument for U.S. engagement in Europe and withdrawal from the Third World.

Lynn-Jones, Sean M., and Steven E. Miller, eds. America's Strategy in a Changing World: An International Security Reader. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1992.

David, Steven R. "Why the Third World Matters." International Security 14, no. 1 (Summer 1989): 50-85.
A late Cold War argument for continued engagement in the Third World.

Spykman, Nicholas. America's Strategy in World Politics: The United States and the Balance of Power. New York, NY: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1942.
A prominent early argument for European engagement, premised on geopolitics.

Burnham, James. Containment or Liberation? An Inquiry into the Aims of United States Foreign Policy. New York, NY: John Day, 1954.
The best statement of the rollback viewpoint.

Tucker, Robert W. A New Isolationism: Threat or Promise?. Washington, DC: Potomac Associates, 1972.
A statement of the isolationist viewpoint.

David, Steven R. "Why the Third World Still Matters." International Security 17, no. 3 (Winter 1992/93): 127-159.
David argues that the Third World mattered in the Cold War and still matters today. An anti-Kennan view.

Huntington, Samuel P. "America's Changed Strategic Interests." Survival 33, no. 1 (January/February 1991): 3-17.
A conservative view of America's post-Cold War global interests.

The United States and Human Rights

Terry, Fiona. Condemned to Repeat? The Paradox of Humanitarian Action. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002.

Forsythe, David P. Human Rights and World Politics. 2nd rev. ed. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1983.

Forsythe, David. Human Rights and U.S. Foreign Policy: Congress Reconsidered. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1988.

Claude, Richard, and Burns Weston, eds. Human Rights in the World Community: Issues and Action. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1989.

Schoultz, Lars. Human Rights and United States Policy Toward Latin America. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981.

Human Rights Watch. The Bush Administration's Record on Human Rights in 1989. New York, NY: Human Rights Watch, 1990.

Human Rights Watch. World Report 1990. New York, NY: Human Rights Watch, 1991 and later years.

Slater, Jerome, and Terry Nardin. "Nonintervention and Human Rights." Journal of Politics 48 (1986): 86-96.

Halperin, Morton H., and David Scheffer, with Patricia L. Small. Self-Determination in the New World Order. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment 1992.

Lacqueur, Walter, and Barry Rubin, eds. The Human Rights Reader. Rev. ed. New York, NY: Meridian, 1990.

Marks, Stephen P. "Promoting Human Rights." In World Security. Edited by Michael T. Klare and Daniel C. Thomas. New York, NY: St. Martin's 1991, pp. 295-320. What are human rights, and how can they best be protected? Is it America's business to protect them?

The United States and Conflict Prevention/Conflict Termination

Rubin, Barnett. Blood on the Doorstep: The Politics of Preventive Action. New York, NY: Council on Foreign Relations, 2003.

The United States and Democracy

Carothers, Thomas. Aiding Democracy Abroad: The Learning Curve. Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 1999.

Smith, ToNew York, NY. America's Mission: The United States and the Worldwide Struggle for Democracy in the Twentieth Century. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1994.

Foreign Aid and NGOs

Maren, Michael. The Road to Hell: The Ravaging Effects of Foreign Aid and International Charity. New York, NY: Free Press, 1997.

The United States and World War I

Gregory, Ross. The Origins of American Intervention in the First World War. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1971.

Link, Arthur S. Woodrow Wilson: Revolution, War, and Peace. Arlington Heights, Ill.: Harlan Davidson, 1979.

Clements, Kendrick A. The Presidency of Woodrow Wilson. Lawrence: University of Kansas Press, 1992, pp. 93-203.

Knock, Thomas J. To End All Wars: Woodrow Wilson and the Quest for a New World Order. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1992.

Nordholt, Jan Willem Schulte. Woodrow Wilson: A Life for World Peace. Translated by Herbert Rowen. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.

Levin, N. Gordon. Woodrow Wilson and World Politics: America's Response to War and Revolution. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1968.

Coogan, John W. The End of Neutrality: The United States, Britain, and Maritime Rights, 1899-1915. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1981.

Peterson, Horace C. Propaganda for War: The Campaign Against American Neutrality, 1914-1917. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1939.

Squires, J. Duane. British Propaganda at Home and in the United States from 1914 to 1917. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1935.

Beard, Charles A. The Devil Theory of War: An Inquiry into the Nature of History and the Possibility of Keeping Out of War. New York, NY: Vanguard Press, 1936.

Buerhig, Eward H. Woodrow Wilson and the Balance of Power. Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1968.

May, Ernest R. The World War and American Isolation, 1914-1917. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1959. Excerpted in The Use of Force. Edited by Robert J. Art and Kenneth N. Waltz. 1st ed. Boston, MA: Little, Brown, 1971, pp. 298-315.

The United States and World War II

Doenecke, Justus D., and John E. Wilz. From Isolation to War, 1931-1941. 3rd ed. Wheeling, Ill.: Harlan Davidson, 2003. ISBN: 9780882959924.
The best single-volume survey.

Doenecke, Justus D. "U.S. Policy and the European War, 1939-1941." Diplomatic History 19, no. 4 (Fall 1995): 669-698.

Divine, Robert A. The Reluctant Belligerent: American Entry into World War II. Huntington, New York, NY: Krieger, 1976.

Russett, Bruce M. No Clear and Present Danger: A Skeptical View of the U.S. Entry Into World War II. New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1972.

Utley, Jonathan G. Going to War With Japan, 1937-1941. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1985.

Heinrichs, Waldo. The Threshold of War: Franklin D. Roosevelt and American Entry into World War II. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1988.

Neumann, William L. America Encounters Japan. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins, 1963, pp. 184-289. ISBN: 0608040495.

Burns, James MacGregor. Roosevelt 1940-1945: The Soldier of Freedom. New York, NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1970.

Divine, Robert A. Roosevelt and World War II. New York, NY: Penguin, 1970.

Stoler, Mark. Allies and Adversaries: The Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Grand Alliance, and U.S. Strategy in World War II. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2000.

Greenfield, Kent Roberts. American Strategy in World War II: A Reconsideration. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1963.

Jonas, Manfred. Isolationism in America, 1935-1941. Chicago: Imprint, 1990.

Adler, Selig. The Uncertain Giant, 1921-1941: American Foreign Policy Between the Wars. New York, NY: Collier, 1965.

———. The Isolationist Impulse: Its Twentieth Century Reaction. New York, NY: Abelard-Schuman, 1957.

Cull, Nicholas John. Selling War: The British Propaganda Campaign Against American "Neutrality" in World War II. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1995.

Wyman, David S. Paper Walls: America and the Refugee Crisis 1938-1941. New York, NY: Pantheon, 1968.

———. The Abandonment of the Jews: America and the Holocaust, 1941-1945. New York, NY: Pantheon, 1984.

Frank, Richard B. Downfall: The End of the Imperial Japanese Empire. New York, NY: Random House, 1999.

Origins of the Cold War

Gaddis, John Lewis. Russia, The Soviet Union and the United States. New York, NY: John Wiley, 1978, pp. 175-206.

———. The United States and the Origins of the Cold War 1941-1947. New York, NY: Columbia University Press, 1972.

Paterson, Thomas G., and Robert J. McMahon, eds. The Origins of the Cold War. 3rd ed. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath, 1991. ISBN: 9780669244458.

Gaddis, John Lewis. "The Emerging Post-Revisionist Synthesis on the Origins of the Cold War." Diplomatic History 7, no. 3 (Summer 1983): 171-190.

Graebner, Norman A., ed. The Cold War. Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath, 1976.

Soviet-American Relations, the Cold War

Spanier, John W. American Foreign Policy Since World War II. 12th ed. Washington, DC: CQ Press, 2000. ISBN: 9780871877277.

Gaddis, John Lewis. Russia, The Soviet Union and the United States. New York, NY: John Wiley, 1978.

LaFeber, Walter. America, Russia, and the Cold War, 1945-1992. 7th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1992. ISBN: 9780070358539.

Nathan, James A., and James K. Oliver. United States Foreign Policy and World Order. Glenview, Ill.: Scott, Foresman, 1989.

Walker, Martin. The Cold War: A History. New York, NY: Henry Holt, 1993.

Garthoff, Raymond L. Detente and Confrontation: American-Soviet Relations from Nixon to Reagan. Washington, DC: Brookings, 1985.

———. The Great Transition: American-Soviet Relations and the End of the Cold War. Washington, DC: Brookings, 1994.

Kennan, George F. Russia and the West Under Lenin and Stalin. New York, NY: New American Library, 1960.

Chinese-American Relations

Schaller, Michael. The United States and China in the Twentieth Century. 2nd ed. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1990. ISBN: 9780195058666.

Foot, Rosemary. The Practice of Power: U.S. Relations with China since 1949. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1995.

Harding, Harry. A Fragile Relationship: The United States and China since 1972. Washington, DC: Brookings, 1992.

Stoessinger, John. Nations in Darkness—China, Russia, and America. 5th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill, 1990. ISBN: 9780075409205.

Alexander, Bevin. The Strange Connection: U.S. Intervention in China, 1944-1972. New York, NY: Greenwood, 1992.

Chiang, Hsiang-tse. The United States and China. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988.

Christensen, Thomas J. Useful Adversaries: Grand Strategy, Domestic Mobilization, and Sino-American Conflict, 1947-1958. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996.

Christensen, Thomas J. "A 'Lost Chance' For What? Rethinking the Origins of U.S.-PRC Confrontation." Journal of American-East Asian Relations 4, no. 3, (Fall 1995): 249-278.

Shambaugh, David. Beautiful Imperialist: China Perceives America, 1972-1990. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1991.

Freeman, Chas. W. "Sino-American Relations: Back to Basics." Foreign Policy 104 (Fall 1996): 3-17.

Nathan, Andrew J., and Robert S. Ross. The Great Wall and the Empty Fortress: China's Search for Security. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1997.

Bernstein, Richard, and Ross H. Munro. The Coming Conflict with China. New York, NY: A.A. Knopf, 1997.

Wang, Chi. History of U.S.-China Relations: A Bibliographical Research Guide. McLean, Va.: Academic Press of America, 1991.

The Korean War

Sandler, Stanley, ed. The Korean War: An Encyclopedia. New York, NY: Garland, 1994.

Kaufmann, Burton I. The Korean War: Challenges in Crisis, Credibility, and Command. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1986.

Foot, Rosemary. The Wrong War: American Policy and the Dimensions of the Korean Conflict, 1950-1953. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1985.

Spanier, John W. The Truman-MacArthur Controversy and the Korean War. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1965.

Lowe, Peter. The Origins of the Korean War. New York, NY: Longman, 1986.

Nathan, James A., and James K. Oliver. United States Foreign Policy and World Order. New York, NY: Longman, 1997. pp. 142-190. ISBN: 9780673396891.

Brodie, Bernard. War and Politics. New York, NY: Macmillan, 1973, pp. 57-112.

Halperin, Morton H. "The Korean War." In The Use of Force. Edited by Robert J. Art, and Kenneth N. Waltz. 3rd ed. New York, NY: University Press of America, 1988, pp. 220-237. ISBN: 9780819170033.

Whiting, Allen. China Crosses the Yalu: The Decision to Enter the Korean War. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1960.

Christensen, Thomas J. "Threats, Assurances, and the Last Chance for Peace" International Security 17, no. 1 (Summer 1992): 122-154.

———. Useful Adversaries: Grand Strategy, Domestic Mobilization, and Sino-American Conflict 1947-1958. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1996.

Lichterman, Martin. "To the Yalu and Back." In American Civil-Military Relations: A Book of Case Studies. Edited by Harold Stein. Birmingham: University of Alabama Press, for the Twentieth Century Fund, 1963, pp. 569-642.

Rees, David. Korea: The Limited War. Baltimore, MD: Penguin, 1970.

Paige, Glenn D. The Korean Decision, June 24-30, 1950. New York, NY: Free Press, 1968.

Simmons, Robert R. The Strained Alliance. New York, NY: Free Press, 1975.

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