Theoretical Roots of US Foreign Policy: Machiavelli and American Unilateralism

By the end of the 1990s, America's overseas critics had begun to describe the sole remaining superpower as, in the words of one writer, the "original rogue state." America's policies would not have surprised Niccolo Machiavelli. Machiavelli, in his Discourses on Livy, constructs a theory about the grand strategy of republics. This theory suggests that foreign entanglements are peculiarly dangerous to republican societies, and that republics can master these dangers by adopting long-term strategies of imperialism. This new book analyses Machiavelli's thoughts on these subjects, discusses contending interpretations of Machiavelli's work, and goes on to consider, throughout several chapters, the accuracy with which Machiavelli's theory explains the historical development of US grand strategy.