Description
Book SynopsisExamines patterns of change and continuity in American foreign policy strategy by looking at four major turning points: the periods following World War I, World War II, the Cold War, and the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Trade ReviewOne of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2007 "A particularly valuable book. Utilizing a large body of sources, Dueck lucidly examines a core issue of American foreign policy, namely, the essential factors that determine its 'grand strategy.'... His arguments are persuasive and often unique... Essential."--Choice "Realists have long lamented the periodic tendency of the United States to embark upon ideological crusades abroad. Dueck's Reluctant Crusaders goes some way in providing a causal explanation for such anomalous, and at times, self-defeating, strategic behavior."--Jeffrey W. Taliaferro, Perspectives on Politics "Colin Dueck's Reluctant Crusaders is a well-researched, cogently argued explanation of how America's internal political characteristics have shaped its strategy toward the world...[It] is a welcome starting point for understanding how America's history and beliefs have enforced a surprising continuity in U.S. foreign policy, even as international threats and conditions have changed dramatically."--Todd R. Lowery, Claremont Review of Books
Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix INTRODUCTION: Change and Continuity in American Grand Strategy 1 CHAPTER ONE: Power, Culture, and Grand Strategy 9 CHAPTER TWO: Strategic Culture and Strategic Adjustment in the United States 21 CHAPTER THREE: The Lost Alliance: Ideas and Alternatives in American Grand Strategy, 1918-1921 44 CHAPTER FOUR: Conceiving Containment: Ideas and Alternatives in American Grand Strategy, 1945-1951 82 CHAPTER FIVE: Hegemony on the Cheap: Ideas and Alternatives in American Grand Strategy, 1992-2000 114 CONCLUSION: The American Strategic Dilemma 147 Notes 173 Index 215
