As conflict continues to escalate in the Middle East and Africa, with the United States playing a key role especially in the Middle East, scholars and the public often wonder what led to this situation. In a number of recently published works on the trajectory of United States foreign policy over several decades, historians of…
Tag: US foreign policy
H-Diplo | RJISSF Roundtable 16-26 on Wilford, The CIA
In his latest book, The CIA: An Imperial History, Hugh Wilford recognizes the impossibility of being comprehensive. Because the life-span of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which was founded in 1947 and is still functioning today, coincides with the period of America’s status as a great power, it would be an unachievable task to cram…
H-Diplo | RJISSF Review Essay 117: Miller on Fink, Undoing the Liberal World Order
What went wrong? The liberal international order had such promise. It began with the noblest of intentions, to establish a new era of peace on the bedrock of human dignity. After the wreckage of the World Wars there seemed little alternative. Spheres of influence, power balancing, empire: all had had their day and been found…
H-Diplo | RJISSF Roundtable 16-23 on Rakove, Days of Opportunity
For students of contemporary history, Afghanistan has become virtually synonymous with upheaval, instability, bloodshed, warfare—and tragedy. Over the past nearly half-century, the embattled country and its long-suffering citizens have experienced invasions, occupations, armed resistance movements, impoverishment, severe economic dislocation, the displacement of millions of refugees, and repressive misrule by religious fanatics. Scholars, journalists, and policy…
H-Diplo | RJISSF Review Essay 114: James on Gavin, The Taming of Scarcity and the Problems of Plenty
With The Taming of Scarcity and the Problems of Plenty: Rethinking International Relations and American Grand Strategy in a New Era, Francis Gavin has written an elegant and thought-provoking extended essay on the challenges facing the modern world, offering reflections on how to formulate an adequate grand strategy for not only the US, but also…
H-Diplo | RJISSF Review Essay 112: Ouyang on Prasch, The World is Our Stage
Political observers and the public alike now take as given that American presidents are active participants and policymakers on the global stage. Indeed, as Allison Prasch states, “US presidents have used their rhetorical appeals to exert power, extend influence, persuade audiences to adopt a specific view of the world, and rally the citizenry around a…
H-Diplo | RJISSF Roundtable 16-20 on Cox, Agonies of Empire
Agonies of Empire is the product of years of thinking about the United States. Michael Cox reflects on the recent past—the decades of what we still refer to as the “post–Cold War”—to understand the difficulties and limits of US global power.
H-Diplo | RJISSF Roundtable 16-19 on Demarais, Backfire
It is hard to browse the news without seeing reports on yet another wielding of economic sanctions. The United States currently has various forms of sanctions against over 30 countries as well as over 15,000 “specially designated” companies and individuals. The European Union has its own list, not as long as the US but longer…
H-Diplo | RJISSF Roundtable 16-14 on Edwards, Prisoner of their Premises
George C. Edwards’s Prisoners of their Premises: How Unexamined Assumptions Lead to War and Other Policy Debacles tackles a central question in the study of foreign policy making: how do we explain decisions that have observably catastrophic outcomes? Edwards’s argument is that a vital step in the making process–problem identification–provides significant purchase on this question….
H-Diplo | RJISSF Roundtable 16-11 on Hunt, The Nuclear Club
The contemporary nuclear order and the status of the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which stands at its core, have never been more critical or under siege. Between Russian President Vladimir Putin’s nuclear saber-rattling over the war in Ukraine, North Korea’s nuclear build-up, and developments in the Iranian nuclear program, our need to understand nuclear…