Ideologies of American Foreign Policy

Description

A comprehensive account of ideology and its role in the foreign policy of the United States of America, this book investigates the way United States foreign policy has been understood, debated and explained in the period since the US emerged as a global force, on its way to becoming the world power. Starting from the premise that ideologies facilitate understanding by providing explanatory patterns or frameworks from which meaning can be derived, the authors study the relationship between ideology and foreign policy, demonstrating the important role ideas have played in US foreign policy. Drawing on a range of US administrations, they consider key speeches and doctrines, as well as private conversations, and compare rhetoric to actions in order to demonstrate how particular sets of ideas – that is, ideologies – from anti-colonialism and anti-communism to neo-conservatism mattered during specific presidencies and how US foreign policy was projected, explained and sustained from one administration to another. Bringing a neglected dimension into the study of US foreign policy, this book will be of great interest to students and researchers of US foreign policy, ideology and politics. Cover Half Title Series Title Copyright Contents List of figures Notes on authors Acknowledgements 1. The question of ideology Understanding political ideology Ideology and foreign policy Aims and structure 2. The age of ideology in foreign policy Woodrow Wilson’s vision Roosevelt’s world view Global conflict resumed The growth of anti-communism in America Problems of analysis and policy 3. Anti-communism fixed McCarthy shows the way Third World interventions Over to Kennedy 4. The Johnson administration and the defence of freedom in Vietnam Johnson: background, foreign policy beliefs and inheritance Thinking About US aims and options in Vietnam: ideology as constraint Deepening commitment In Retrospect 5. Doctrine, dominoes and democracy in the Nixon-Kissinger foreign policy Nixon and Kissinger: backgrounds and ideological bases of foreign policy Doctrine and democracy Towards the Nixon Doctrine Iran Chile Conclusions 6. The exceptionalism of Ronald Reagan: ideology and Cold War, from intensification to end Reaganism: the man and his administration Reagan’s anti-communism Reagan’s nationalism Reagan and American exceptionalism The Reagan Doctrine Arms negotiation: did Reagan become a Realist? 7. George W. Bush administration: terrorism, Iraq and freedom The Bush Doctrine Bush’s freedom agenda The War on Terror A neo-conservative war? 8. Ideological framings of American foreign policy: the domestic legacy Index