| At Home Abroad: Identity and Power in American Foreign Policy Contributor(s): Nau, Henry R. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0801439310 ISBN-13: 9780801439315 Publisher: Cornell University Press OUR PRICE: $47.47 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: February 2002 Annotation: The United States has never felt at home abroad. The problem is not threats to American power -- the United States has faced few direct security threats. The reason for this unease is that Americans see themselves as members of an exceptional liberal society in a world until recently composed of largely non-democratic states. The United States finds no comfort in this world and, alternately, tries to withdraw from or reform it. But withdrawal violates an American sense of moral purpose, and global reform exhausts its resources. America cycles between ambitious efforts to enlarge democracy and create a New World Order, and more humble appeals to reduce U.S. military commitments and require that European and Japanese allies do more. In At Home Abroad, Henry R. Nau explains that America is no longer exceptional. All the industrial great powers are now strong democracies. When identities converge, nations do not need to balance military power against one another. U.S. relations with western Europe and Japan constitute a new, peaceful partnership that anchors America's identity in the world. Nau shows how national identities as well as national power interact to define America's national interests. He combines realist and constructivist perspectives to differentiate U.S. grand strategy toward various countries. The author provides many fresh insights to guide policymakers who must deal with both moral and material interests simultaneously. In Europe, the identity and power perspective advocates NATO expansion to consolidate democratic identities in eastern Europe and concurrent but separate great power cooperation with Russia in the United Nations. In Asia, it recommends thedevelopment of a multilateral democratic security community with Japan, Australia, and South Korea, progressively widening to include ASEAN states and, if it democratizes, China. In the developing world, it cautions against U.S. military intervention unless U.S. identity (moral) and power (material) interests are equally engaged, as in Kosovo and Haiti but not in Sudan or Somalia. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Political Science | International Relations - General - Political Science | Political Economy |
| Dewey: 327.73 |
| LCCN: 2001005555 |
| Series: Cornell Studies in Political Economy (Hardcover) |
| Physical Information: 1.08" H x 6.37" W x 9.63" (1.46 lbs) 336 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: The United States has never felt at home abroad. The reason for this unease, even after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, is not frequent threats to American security. It is America's identity. The United States, its citizens believe, is a different country, a New World of divided institutions and individualistic markets surviving in an Old World of nationalistic governments and statist economies. In this Old World, the United States finds no comfort and alternately tries to withdraw from it and reform it. America cycles between ambitious internationalist efforts to impose democracy and world order, and more nationalist appeals to trim multilateral commitments and demand that the European and Japanese allies do more.In At Home Abroad, Henry R. Nau explains that America is still unique but no longer so very different. All the industrial great powers in western Europe (and, arguably, also Japan) are now strong liberal democracies. A powerful and peaceful new world exists beyond America's borders and anchors America's identity, easing its discomfort and ending the cycle of withdrawal and reform.Nau draws on constructivist and realist perspectives to show how relative national identities interact with relative national power to define U.S. national interests. He provides fresh insights for U.S. grand strategy toward various countries. In Europe, the identity and power perspective advocates U.S. support for both NATO expansion to consolidate democratic identities in eastern Europe and concurrent, but separate, great-power cooperation with Russia in the United Nations. In Asia, this perspective recommends a shift of U.S. strategy from bilateralism to concentric multilateralism, starting with an emerging democratic security community among the United States, Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, India, and Taiwan, and progressively widening this community to include reforming ASEAN states and, if it democratizes, China. In the developing world, Nau's approach calls for balancing U.S. moral (identity) and material (power) commitments, avoiding military intervention for purely moral reasons, as in Somalia, but undertaking such intervention when material threats are immediate, as in Afghanistan, or material and moral stakes coincide, as in Kosovo. |
Contributor Bio(s): Nau, Henry R.: - Henry R. Nau is Professor of Political Science and International Affairs at George Washington University. He is the author of The Myth of America's Decline and the coeditor of Divided Diplomacy and the Next Administration. |