Theoretical Roots of US Foreign Policy: Machiavelli and American Unilateralism(Contemporary Security Studies)

This volume explores the reasons why American leaders from the 1700s onwards frequently adopt policies of unilateralism. Thomas M. Kane presents fresh explanations for America’s invasion of Iraq and defiance of international agreements, which go much deeper than conventional critiques of particular presidents to examine the real significance of the September 11 attacks. As the only and unprecedented sole superpower, the US faces a range of new and complex problems. Kane draws on the thinking of Machiavelli to illuminate and assess the key challenges for both the US and the global community. This unique book: connects contemporary US policy to patterns that reach back to America’s founding explores political dynamics affecting all republics contributes to theoretical debates about the benevolence, or otherwise, of American democracy highlights the key issues that Americans and non-Americans alike must address now and in the future. Theoretical Roots of US Foreign Policy will be of great interest to all students of US foreign policy, strategy and history and of international relations, politics and strategic studies in general.

Table of Contents:
1. The Rogue Superpower 2. Political Freedom and Grand Strategy 3. New Ways and Methods 4. World Politics, World Wars 5. The Cold War 6. A New Rome? 7. Kicking Fortuna 8. Conclusion: Machiavelli’s Value Bibliography Index

Review :
This proposal compares favorably to its competition for a variety of reasons. For starters, most of its competitors are limited in their scope to events after 1945 or since 11 September 2001. Those works that do provide historical context do so selectively (as in the case of Johnson’s The Sorrows of Empire) to advance their arguments. Dr. Kane’s work is unique in that it suggests that works of theory can inform events of today. Dr James Kiras Dr. Kane’s effort to, at length, discuss the relationship between the Bush Administration’s foreign policy and Machiavelli is unusual and, as a result, I think the book has a good "niche." Dr C. Dale Walton On the whole, Dr. Kane’s work is an important corrective to the existing arguments about American unilateralism that center on President Bush’s personal interests and beliefs, or the "hijacking" of American national security policy by Vice President Cheney and his "cabal" of neoconservatives. Dr Brian Auten