American Foreign Policy Theoretical Essays

Featuring thirty classic and contemporary selections, American Foreign Policy: Theoretical Essays, Seventh Edition, offers students an overview of the forces that shape and influence U.S. foreign policy. Edited by two top scholars, this acclaimed anthology showcases the wide range of theoretical perspectives used to analyze U.S. foreign policy and guides students in comparing, evaluating, and applying these theories. The essays highlight the debates and controversies that animate the field and the challenges posed by making foreign policy in the American political, economic, and cultural context. The seventh edition adds fourteen new articles, sharpening the book's contemporary focus.

G. John Ikenberry is the Albert G. Milbank Professor of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University and Co-Director of Princeton's Center for International Security Studies.

Peter Trubowitz is Professor of International Relations at the London School of Economics and Co-Director of the United States International Affairs Programme at LSE IDEAS.

*=New to this Edition
Part I: THE PROBLEM OF EXPLANATION
1. Ole R. Holsti, "Models of International Relations and Foreign Policy," Diplomatic History 13:1 (January 1989): 15-44
* 2. James R. Kurth, "A Widening Gyre: The Logic of American Weapons Procurement," Public Policy 19 (Summer 1971): 373-404
Part II: GEOPOLITICS, POWER, AND SECURITY
3. Kenneth Waltz, "Anarchic Orders and Balances of Power," in K. Waltz, Theory of International Politics (Random House, 1979)
4. Melvyn P. Leffler, "The American Conception of National Security and the Beginnings of the Cold War, 1945-1948," American Historical Review, 89:2 (April 1984): 346-381
* 5. G. John Ikenberry, "Rethinking the Origins of American Hegemony," Political Science Quarterly, 104:3 (Autumn 1989): 375-400
* 6. Sebastian Rosato and John Schuessler, "A Realist Foreign Policy for the United States," Perspectives on Politics 9:4 (December 2011): 803-819
Part III: CAPITALISM, MARKETS, AND FOREIGN POLICY
7. Fred Block, "Economic Instability and Military Strength: The Paradoxes of the 1950 Rearmament Decision," Politics & Society 10:1 (1980): 35-58
* 8. Linda Weiss and Elizabeth Thurbon, "The Business of Buying American," Review of International Political Economy 13:5 (December 2006): 701-724
9. Jeff Frieden, "Sectoral Conflict and U.S. Foreign Economic Policy, 1914-1940," International Organization 42:1 (Winter 1988): 59-90
* 10. Kevin Narizny, "Rational Idealism: the Political Economy of Internationalism in the United States and Great Britain, 1870-1945," Security Studies 12:3 (Spring 2003): 1-39
Part IV: DOMESTIC INSTITUTIONS, ELECTORAL POLITICS, AND LOBBIES
11. Michael Mastanduno, "The United States Political System and International Leadership: A 'Decidedly Inferior' Form of Government?"
* 12. William G. Howell and Jon C. Pevehouse, "Presidents, Congress, and the Use of Force," International Organization 59:1 (Winter 2005): 209-232
13. Peter Trubowitz, "Political Conflict and Foreign Policy in the United States: A Geographical Interpretation," Political Geography 12:2 (March 1993): 121-135
14. John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, "The Israel Lobby," London Review of Books 28:6 (March 2006): 3-12
Part V: NATIONAL VALUES, COLLECTIVE BELIEFS, AND MASS OPINION
15. Samuel P. Huntington, "American Ideals Versus American Institutions," Political Science Quarterly 97:1 (Spring 1982): 1-37
* 16. Jeffrey Legro, "Whence American Internationalism," International Organization, 54:2 (Spring 2000): 253-289
* 17. Jon Western, "The War over Iraq: Selling War to the American Public," Security Studies 14:1 (January-March 2005): 106-139
* 18. Samantha Power, "Bystanders to Genocide: Why the United States Let the Rwandan Tragedy Happen," The Atlantic Monthly (September 2001): 85-108
Part VI: BUREAUCRATIC POLITICS AND ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE
19. Graham T. Allison, "Conceptual Models and the Cuban Missile Crisis," American Political Science Review 63:3 (September 1969): 689-718
20. Stephen Krasner, "Are Bureaucracies Important? (Or Allison Wonderland)," Foreign Policy 7 (Summer 1972): 159-179
* 21. Daniel W. Drezner, "Ideas, Bureaucratic Politics, and the Crafting of Foreign Policy," American Journal of Political Science 44:4 (October 2000): 733-749
* 22. Dina Badie, "Groupthink, Iraq, and the War on Terror: Explaining US Policy Shift Toward Iraq," Foreign Policy Analysis 6:4 (2010): 277-296
Part VII: LEADERS, PERCEPTIONS, AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY
23. Philip E. Tetlock and Charles B. McGuire, Jr., "Cognitive Perspectives on Foreign Policy," in S. Long, ed. Political Behavior Annual, Vol. 1 (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1986): 147-179
24. Robert Jervis, "Hypotheses on Misperception," World Politics 20:3 (April 1968): 454-479
* 25. Elizabeth N. Saunders, "Transformative Choices: Leaders and the Origins of Intervention Strategy," International Security 34:2 (Fall 2009): 119-161
26. Yuen Foong Khong, "Seduction by Analogy in Vietnam: The Malaya and Korea Analogies," in K.W. Thompson, ed., Institutions and Leadership: Prospects for the Future (New York: University Press of America, 1987): 65-77
Part VIII: THE FUTURE OF AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY
27. Barry R. Posen, "Pull Back: The Case for a Less Activist Foreign Policy" Foreign Affairs 92:1 (January/February 2013): 116-128
* 28. Aaron L. Friedberg, "Bucking Beijing: An Alternative U.S. China Policy," Foreign Affairs 91:5 (September/October 2012): 48-58
29. G. John Ikenberry, "The Future of the Liberal World Order," Foreign Affairs 90:3 (May/June 2011): 56-68
* 30. Charles A. Kupchan and Peter L. Trubowitz, "Grand Strategy for a Divided America," Foreign Affairs 86:4 (July/August 2007): 71-83