Description
Book SynopsisAmerica''s Global Role, a collection of essays and reviews on national security, geopolitics and war, combines a broad historical and geopolitical overview of U.S. national security policy with commentary on historical events and biographical sketches of historical figures. This book offers insights into the evolution of U.S. national security policy from the founding to the present. Sempa shows how the United States began as a sliver of territory on the eastern seaboard of central North America; pursued a policy of westward expansion by diplomacy, war, and conquest, exploiting the European balance of power; formulated and implemented national security doctrines designed to protect its security and promote further expansion; and survived a terrible Civil War that threatened to halt that expansion. Afterwards, America began to play a larger role on the global stage. During the first half of the twentieth century, the U.S. acted as an offshore balancer to restore the balance of power on
Trade ReviewAn invaluable collection of his essays and reviews...Sempa writes from a geopolitical perspective, which solidly roots his views in the facts of geography, the structure of international politics, and the historical struggle for power and their enduring influence on events. -- Dr. James L. Abrahamson, Col., U.S. Army (Ret.) and author of American Arms for a New Century
Prolific and profound. His essays demonstrate keen insights about U.S. foreign and national security policies as well as deep understanding of the forces that shape international affairs. -- James Bullington, retired Foreign Service Officer and Editor of American Diplomacy
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Acknowledgements Chapter 2 Preface Chapter 3 Introduction Chapter 4 I. National Security in Historical Perspective Part 5 U.S. National Security Doctrines Historically Viewed Part 6 Trafalgar and the Balance of Power Part 7 Visionaries of the American Empire: Hamilton and Mahan Part 8 Sea Power and Capitalism Part 9 The Geopolitics of the American Civil War Chapter 10 II. World Wars I and II Part 11 Churchill and World War I Part 12 Woodrow Wilson and the First World War Part 13 The War of the World Part 14 The Terrible Shadow of the First World War Part 15 Winston Churchill and the Wilderness Years Part 16 The Immediate Origins of the Second World War Part 17 Allied Strategy and the Tactics in the Second World War Part 18 Somewhere in France, Somewhere in Germany Chapter 19 III. The Cold War Part 20 This War Called Peace Part 21 James Burnham and the Struggle for the World Part 22 Inchon and the Course of U.S. Foreign Policy Part 23 Arms Races, Arms Control, and the History of the Cold War Part 24 Henry M. Jackson: Hero of the Cold War Part 25 Solzhenitsyn: The Most Consequential Writer of the 20th Century Part 26 Ronald Reagan and the Collapse of the Soviet Empire Part 27 Ronald Reagan and the End of the Cold War Chapter 28 IV. The Post-Cold War World Part 29 The Grand Chessboard Part 30 The Sheriff: America's Defense of the New World Order Part 31 Preventative Containment Part 32 Central and Eastern Europe Part 33 Taiwan and West Berlin Part 34 The Asian Eclipse of Europe Chapter 35 Conclusion: Manifest Destiny and the American Empire: Past, Present and Future Chapter 36 About the Author Chapter 37 Index
