Faces of Power: Constancy and Change in United States Foreign Policy from Truman to Obama
Seyom Brown's authoritative account of U.S. foreign policy from the end of the Second World War to the present challenges common assumptions about American presidents and their struggle with power and purpose. Brown shows Truman to be more anguished than he publicly revealed about the use of the atomic bomb; Eisenhower and George W. Bush to be more immersed in the details of policy formulation and implementation than generally believed; Reagan to be more invested in changing his worldview while in office than any previous president; and Obama to have modeled his military exit from Iraq and Afghanistan more closely to Nixon and Kissinger's exit strategy from Vietnam than he would like to admit. Brown's analyses of Obama's policies for countering terrorist threats at home and abroad, dealing with unprecedented upheavals in the Middle East, preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and containing new territorial expansion by China and Russia reinforce the book's "constancy and change" theme, which shows that serving the interests of the most powerful country in the world transforms the Oval Office's occupant more than its occupant can transform the world.

Praise for previous editions:

"Systematic and informative... [Brown] has a gift for clear analysis that makes his book a useful contribution to the Cold War literature."—The Journal of American History

"Comprehensive and clear... thorough without ever becoming dull, providing detailed analysis of decisions while never neglecting the environment within which they are made."—International Affairs

"An excellent reference for those interested in United States foreign policy.... Well-written and well-researched, it is appropriate for use in both undergraduate and graduate courses."—International Journal

"An analysis with difference—an important difference. Seyom Brown discusses United States policy from the perspective of how decision makers in the United States viewed their adversaries and the alternatives as those decision makers saw them.... Well worth the effort of a careful reading."—American Political Science Review
1119719610
Faces of Power: Constancy and Change in United States Foreign Policy from Truman to Obama
Seyom Brown's authoritative account of U.S. foreign policy from the end of the Second World War to the present challenges common assumptions about American presidents and their struggle with power and purpose. Brown shows Truman to be more anguished than he publicly revealed about the use of the atomic bomb; Eisenhower and George W. Bush to be more immersed in the details of policy formulation and implementation than generally believed; Reagan to be more invested in changing his worldview while in office than any previous president; and Obama to have modeled his military exit from Iraq and Afghanistan more closely to Nixon and Kissinger's exit strategy from Vietnam than he would like to admit. Brown's analyses of Obama's policies for countering terrorist threats at home and abroad, dealing with unprecedented upheavals in the Middle East, preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and containing new territorial expansion by China and Russia reinforce the book's "constancy and change" theme, which shows that serving the interests of the most powerful country in the world transforms the Oval Office's occupant more than its occupant can transform the world.

Praise for previous editions:

"Systematic and informative... [Brown] has a gift for clear analysis that makes his book a useful contribution to the Cold War literature."—The Journal of American History

"Comprehensive and clear... thorough without ever becoming dull, providing detailed analysis of decisions while never neglecting the environment within which they are made."—International Affairs

"An excellent reference for those interested in United States foreign policy.... Well-written and well-researched, it is appropriate for use in both undergraduate and graduate courses."—International Journal

"An analysis with difference—an important difference. Seyom Brown discusses United States policy from the perspective of how decision makers in the United States viewed their adversaries and the alternatives as those decision makers saw them.... Well worth the effort of a careful reading."—American Political Science Review
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Faces of Power: Constancy and Change in United States Foreign Policy from Truman to Obama

Faces of Power: Constancy and Change in United States Foreign Policy from Truman to Obama

by Seyom Brown
Faces of Power: Constancy and Change in United States Foreign Policy from Truman to Obama

Faces of Power: Constancy and Change in United States Foreign Policy from Truman to Obama

by Seyom Brown

Paperback(third edition)

$50.00 
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Overview

Seyom Brown's authoritative account of U.S. foreign policy from the end of the Second World War to the present challenges common assumptions about American presidents and their struggle with power and purpose. Brown shows Truman to be more anguished than he publicly revealed about the use of the atomic bomb; Eisenhower and George W. Bush to be more immersed in the details of policy formulation and implementation than generally believed; Reagan to be more invested in changing his worldview while in office than any previous president; and Obama to have modeled his military exit from Iraq and Afghanistan more closely to Nixon and Kissinger's exit strategy from Vietnam than he would like to admit. Brown's analyses of Obama's policies for countering terrorist threats at home and abroad, dealing with unprecedented upheavals in the Middle East, preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and containing new territorial expansion by China and Russia reinforce the book's "constancy and change" theme, which shows that serving the interests of the most powerful country in the world transforms the Oval Office's occupant more than its occupant can transform the world.

Praise for previous editions:

"Systematic and informative... [Brown] has a gift for clear analysis that makes his book a useful contribution to the Cold War literature."—The Journal of American History

"Comprehensive and clear... thorough without ever becoming dull, providing detailed analysis of decisions while never neglecting the environment within which they are made."—International Affairs

"An excellent reference for those interested in United States foreign policy.... Well-written and well-researched, it is appropriate for use in both undergraduate and graduate courses."—International Journal

"An analysis with difference—an important difference. Seyom Brown discusses United States policy from the perspective of how decision makers in the United States viewed their adversaries and the alternatives as those decision makers saw them.... Well worth the effort of a careful reading."—American Political Science Review

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780231133296
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Publication date: 02/17/2015
Edition description: third edition
Pages: 864
Product dimensions: 6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.70(d)
Age Range: 18 Years

About the Author

Seyom Brown has been a senior policy analyst at the RAND Corporation, the Brookings Institution, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Harvard University's Belfer Center, the John Goodwin Tower Center for Political Studies, and the American Security Project and has served in the Department of State and the Department of Defense. He has taught at Brandeis University; Harvard University; Columbia University; the University of California, Los Angeles; the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies; Southern Methodist University; and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction: Constancy and Change Since WWII
Part I. The Truman Administration
1. The Shattering of Expectations
2. Implementing Containment
Part II. The Eisenhower Era
3. A New Look for Less Expensive Power
4. Waging Peace: The Eisenhower Face
5. Crises and Complications
Part III. The Kennedy-Johnson Years
6. Enhancing the Arsenal of Power
7. The Third World as a Primary Arena of Competition
8. Kennedy's Cuban Crises
9. Berlin Again
10. The Vietnam Quagmire
Part IV. Statecraft Under Nixon and Ford
11. Avoiding Humiliation in Indochina
12. The Insufficiency of Military Containment
13. The Middle East and the Reassertion of American Competence Abroad
14. The Anachronism of Conservative Realpolitik
Part V. The Carter Period
15. The Many Faces of Jimmy Carter
16. The Fusion of Realism and Idealism
17. The Camp David Accords: Carter's Finest Hour
18. Iran and Afghanistan: Carter's Struggles to Salvage Containment
Part VI. The Reagan Era—Realism or Romanticism?
19. High Purpose and Grand Strategy
20. The Tension Between Foreign and Domestic Imperatives
21. Middle East Complexities, 1981–1989: The Arab-Israeli Conflict, Terrorism, and Arms for Hostages
22. Contradictions in Latin America
23. The Reagan-Gorbachev Symbiosis
Part VII. Prudential Statecraft with George Herbert Walker Bush
24. Presiding Over the End of the Cold War
25. The Resort to Military Power
26. The New World Order
Part VIII. Clinton's Globalism
27. From Domestic Politician to Geopolitician
28. Opportunities and Frustrations in the Middle East
29. Leaving Somalia and Leaving Rwanda Alone
30. Getting Tough with Saddam and Osama
31. Into Haiti and the Balkans: The Responsibility to Protect
Part IX. The Freedom Agenda of George W. Bush
32. Neoconservatives Seize the Day
33. 9/11, the War on Terror, and a New Strategic Doctrine
34. From Containment to Forcible Regime Change: Afghanistan and Iraq
35. National Security and Civil Liberties
Part X. Obama's Universalism Versus a Still-Fragmented World
36. Engaging the World
37. Ending Two Wars
38. Counterterrorism and Human Rights
39. Ambivalence in Dealing with Upheavals in the Arab World
Epilogue
Notes
Index
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