In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Journal of Cold War Studies 4.4 (2002) 104-106



[Access article in PDF]

Book Review

US Foreign Policy in World History


David Ryan, US Foreign Policy in World History. London: Routledge, 2000. 255 pp. $82.50.

The back cover of David Ryan's new book does him a disservice. US Foreign Policy in World History, it says, "explores whether consciousness and 'spirit' has been the main motivating force in U.S. foreign affairs or whether in reality it has been driven by materialism." This claim is true enough. Ryan, principal lecturer in history at De Montfort University in Britain, has indeed chosen to reassess the relative importance of self-interest and ideals in the shaping of American foreign policy. And yet this book is much more than that, as Ryan not only presents a sophisticated argument about the wellsprings of American foreign policy but also attempts to explain how these two seemingly contradictory values have coexisted throughout the history of American foreign relations.

The back cover also claims that US Foreign Policy in World History is "a survey of US foreign relations." It is a survey of an unusual sort, perhaps, as Ryan aspires to draw general conclusions about American foreign policy by examining a series of critical events and values; but the book really makes no attempt to be a traditional synthesis. Essentially, Ryan examines American foreign policy since the Revolution through a handful of case studies, such as the Monroe Doctrine, progressive-era diplomacy, the Cold War, and the American response to the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. To Ryan's credit as a writer, the use of such narrowly focused topics does not lead to the choppy and broken narrative that often mars such an approach. He does an excellent job of connecting the disparate events with one another and with his own theoretical foundation. A chapter, for example, may ostensibly revolve around the Spanish-American War, but it does so without isolating the war from other events of the time, and it emphasizes connections to larger issues of imperialism and American society. Accordingly, anyone looking for a general survey of American foreign relations would be best served by going elsewhere, as Ryan's book is far too selective in its choices and skimpy in its details to provide a useful overview; the Korean War, for example, goes virtually unmentioned. But anyone looking for a challenging and insightful book about the nature of American foreign policy will find that US Foreign Policy in World History fits the bill nicely.

Ryan's book is divided into two sections. The first part focuses on the roots of U.S. foreign policy by looking at the way that certain myths and symbols became integrated into American society and formed the basic principles for the country's later [End Page 104] moves in international relations. Although Ryan identifies a number of such constructs, he sees a central theme emerging: the tendency of Americans to define themselves as superior to "the other" (no matter who that "other" might be at any given time) by publicly associating their country with personal liberty and self-determination. Thus, he suggests, the Declaration of Independence not only proclaimed American independence from the British empire, but also helped unite a disparate collection of people behind the notion that they represented the spirit of freedom and liberty that would always stand in stark contrast to old world colonialism. Such notions and self-definitions, Ryan suggests, formed the backbone of future American conduct in the international arena.

Although Ryan recognizes the centrality of selfless ideals in early American society, he argues that such claims merely masked the country's attempts to advance its self-interest, primarily in the economic realm. The revolutionary generation, he contends, embraced the rhetoric of universal freedoms and individual liberties while at the same time taking actions abroad that denied those very principles to others. "In the name of the Monroe Doctrine," he writes, "Latin American nations were often denied their self-determination through US intervention.... Democracy was often secondary to other US interests: order, stability, opportunity, the exercise...

pdf

Share