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Contemporary American Foreign Policy
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Contemporary American Foreign Policy
Influences, Challenges, and Opportunities


Other Titles in:
American Foreign Policy

January 2016 | 568 pages | CQ Press

Contemporary American Foreign Policy: Influences, Challenges, and Opportunities looks at today’s most pressing foreign-policy challenges from a U.S. perspective, as well as from the vantage point of other states and peoples. It explores global issues such as human rights, climate change, poverty, nuclear arms proliferation, and economic collapse from multiple angles, not just through a so-called national interest lens. Authors Richard Mansbach and Kirsten L. Taylor shed new light on the competing forces that influence foreign-policy decision making, outline the various policy options available to decision makers, and explore the potential consequences of those policies, all to fully grasp and work to meet contemporary foreign-policy challenges.

 
Introduction
Competing Models of U.S. Foreign Policy

 
Organization of the Book

 
Pedagogical Tools

 
 
Part I. Policy Orientations
 
Chapter 1: Sources of American Foreign Policy
The Linkage of Domestic and Foreign Policies

 
Sources of Foreign-Policy Influence

 
Conclusion

 
 
Chapter 2: Competing Currents in U.S. Foreign Policy
Competing Currents

 
Past: Competing Currents in Historical Perspective

 
Present: The Impact of 9/11

 
Conclusion: Engagement or Disengagement?

 
 
Part II. Challenges in Key Issue Areas
 
Chapter 3: American Military Strategy in an Era of Power Diffusion
Sources of U.S. Military Strategy

 
Past: Managing Superpower Rivalry

 
Present: Grand Strategy in a Changing World

 
Future: Adapting to a Changing Environment

 
Conclusion: A Changing Strategic Environment

 
 
Chapter 4: America and the Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction
Past: Proliferation in the First Nuclear Age

 
Present: Proliferation in the Second Nuclear Age

 
Nonproliferation and the Future

 
Conclusion: A Dangerous World

 
 
Chapter 5: An American Economic Conundrum: Neoliberalism or Neo-Mercantilism?
Sources of U.S. Foreign Economic Policy

 
Past: The Evolution of U.S. Foreign Economic Policy

 
Present: Contemporary Economic Challenges

 
Future: Foreign Economic Policy

 
Conclusion: America and the Globalized Economy

 
 
Chapter 6: Democracy and Human Rights: Legitimate Objectives of American Policy?
Sources of U.S. Human-Rights Policies

 
Past: Discerning Trends in U.S. Human Rights Policy

 
Present: Recent Challenges to Democracy Promotion and Human Rights

 
Future: Promoting Democracy and Human Rights

 
Human Rights and National Security

 
Conclusion: An Inconsistent Human Rights Record

 
 
Chapter 7: The U.S. and the Global South: Practicing Intervention, Aid, and Neglect
Sources of U.S. Aid and Intervention

 
Past: U.S. Aid and Intervention

 
Present: Challenges in the Global South

 
Future: Balancing Aid, Intervention, and Neglect

 
Conclusion

 
 
Chapter 8: Energy and the Environment: The Limits of U.S. Leadership
Sources of U.S. Environmental and Energy Policies

 
Past: Changing Trends in U.S. Environmental Leadership

 
Future: Environmental and Energy Alternatives

 
Conclusion: Environment and Energy Issues

 
 
Part III: Challenges in Key Regions and Countries
 
Chapter 9: America and the Palestinian-Israeli Imbroglio
Sources of U.S. Policy toward Israel

 
Past: From Israel’s Birth to the Six-Day War, 1948-1967

 
Present, 1967-2015

 
Future: Disputed Issues

 
Conclusion: Is Peace Possible?

 
 
Chapter 10: Arab Spring or Arab Winter?
Sources of U.S. Policy toward the Arab World

 
Past: Before the Arab Spring

 
Present: Stirrings of Spring

 
Future: An Arab Winter?

 
Conclusion: Arab Spring or Arab Winter?

 
 
Chapter 11: America and Radical Islam
Sources of U.S. Policy toward Terrorism

 
The Islamic Past

 
Present: The War on Terror

 
Future: Is the War on Terror Over?

 
Conclusion: Have We Won?

 
 
Chapter 12: The United States and China: Engagement or Containment?
Sources of American Policy toward China

 
Past: From Hostility to Engagement

 
Present: Partners or Adversaries?

 
Future: Balancing Cooperation and Conflict

 
Conclusion: Containment or Engagement?

 
 
Chapter 13: America, Europe, and NATO: A Changing Partnership
Sources of U.S. Policy toward Europe

 
Past: The New World and the Old

 
Present: NATO’s Changing Mission

 
Future: NATO Reinvented

 
Conclusion: NATO Redux

 
 
Chapter 14: America and Russia: Values versus Power
Past: A Bipolar World

 
Present: From Cooperation to Conflict

 
Future: Churchill’s “Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery inside an Enigma”

 
Conclusion: Did the “Reset” Succeed?

 
 
Part IV: Conclusion
 
Chapter 15: Conclusion: America, a Wary Hegemon
The Evolution of American Foreign Policy before the Cold War

 
After the Cold War

 
Contemporary Foreign-Policy Challenges

 
What Next?

 

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“Mansbach and Taylor’s practical, solution-oriented approach is novel and valuable. Its use of levels of analysis for causal factors and the way that it conscientiously includes important components of the global environment often neglected in other texts are just some of the factors that set it apart.”

Alynna Lyon
University of New Hampshire

“Manbach and Taylor enliven the subject matter and make it relevant to current situations. Each chapter provides an effective overview of the historical context and contemporary importance of a significant foreign policy issue, providing needed perspective that combines strong scholarship and engaging writing.”

James Seroka
Auburn University

“Mansbach and Taylor provide a thoroughly up-to-date, useful pedagogical tool for studying and learning about U.S. foreign policy. Contemporary American Foreign Policy is particularly strong in its assessments of the opportunities and constraints relative to various foreign policy options presented to the American Foreign Policy Establishment. Its strongest assets lie in its incorporation of an issue areas–approach to foreign affairs and in its various case studies.” 

Matt Caverly
University of North Florida

“Mansbach and Taylor present a timely, comprehensive, and engaging text, involving readers in the evaluation of each policy by showing positive and negative outcomes, as well as policy alternatives and approaches for analysis.  Contemporary American Foreign Policy will be attractive to both upper division and lower division undergraduates alike.” 

Martha Cottam
Washington State University

Sample Materials & Chapters

Chapter 1


Richard W. Mansbach

Richard W. Mansbach (BA Swarthmore College, DPhil Oxford University) is a former Marshall Scholar and three-time Fulbright Scholar. He has authored, co-authored, or edited seventeen books and numerous articles and book chapters largely concerning theory in global politics and foreign policy. His scholarship has extended our understanding of global politics beyond the traditional notion of territorial states interacting in an anarchic system to encompass a wide variety of actors complexly related across a variety of issues. Increasingly, his work has moved from the dominant role of “states” in international relations theory to encompass a... More About Author

Kirsten Lee Taylor

Kirsten Taylor (BA University of Pittsburgh, PhD McGill University) is Associate Professor and Department Chair of Government and International Studies at Berry College, a private liberal arts college in Northwest Georgia. Her scholarship focuses on the development and transformation of international institutions and norms, with particular emphases on security and environmental institutions, teaching with simulations. Her articles have appeared in International Studies Perspectives, Canadian Journal of Political Science and Comparative Strategy. Dr. Taylor also is co-author of a textbook, Introduction to Global Politics, with Richard... More About Author

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ISBN: 9781452287232
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