Shields of the Republic
Shields of the Republic

Author: Mira Rapp-Hooper

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2020-06-09

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 0674246020

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Is America’s alliance system so quietly effective that politicians and voters fail to appreciate its importance in delivering the security they take for granted? For the first century and a half of its existence, the United States had just one alliance—a valuable but highly controversial military arrangement with France. Largely out of deference to George Washington’s warnings against the dangers of “entangling alliances,” subsequent American presidents did not consider entering another until the Second World War. Then everything suddenly changed. Between 1948 and 1955, US leaders extended defensive security guarantees to twenty-three countries in Europe and Asia. Seventy years later, the United States had allied with thirty-seven. In Shields of the Republic, Mira Rapp-Hooper reveals the remarkable success of America’s unprecedented system of alliances. During the Cold War, a grand strategy focused on allied defense, deterrence, and assurance helped to keep the peace at far lower material and political costs than its critics allege. When the Soviet Union collapsed, however, the United States lost the adversary the system was designed to combat. Its alliances remained without a core strategic logic, leaving them newly vulnerable. Today the alliance system is threatened from without and within. China and Russia seek to break America’s alliances through conflict and non-military erosion. Meanwhile, US politicians and voters are increasingly skeptical of alliances’ costs and benefits and believe we may be better off without them. But what if the alliance system is a victim of its own quiet success? Rapp-Hooper argues that America’s national security requires alliances that deter and defend against military and non-military conflict alike. The alliance system is past due for a post–Cold War overhaul, but it remains critical to the country’s safety and prosperity in the 21st century.

A Search for Enemies
A Search for Enemies

Author: Ted Galen Carpenter

Publisher: Cato Institute

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 9780932790965

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The passing of the Cold War is the most important development of the late 20th century, yet the United States clings tenaciously to old policies. Both the Bush administration and Democratic leaders have insisted on perpetuating a host of obsolete alliances, including NATO and the alliance with Japan, which cost American taxpayers nearly $150 billion a year. Ted Galen Carpenter, director of foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, offers a provocative critique of that status quo strategy. Although Washington's outdated alliances have no real adversary or credible mission, Carpenter says, they hold the potential to embroil the United States in obscure conflicts, ethnic and otherwise, that have little relevance to America's legitimate security concerns. As an alternative, he proposes strategic independence, under which the United States would act only to defend vital interests - the republic's physical integrity, political independence, or domestic liberty. Carpenter calls for the foreign policy equivalent of zero-based budgeting, insisting that because of the dramatic changes in the world caused by the collapse of the Soviet Union, all alliances must be justified anew, regardless of any utility they may have had during the Cold War. He places under the microscope America's multilateral treaty obligations to defend other nations - NATO; ANZUS, which links the United States, Australia, and New Zealand; and the Rio Treaty, which provides a collective defense arrangement for the Western Hemisphere. He also examines four important bilateral security agreements - with Japan, South Korea, the Philippines, and Pakistan. This is the book on a new foreign policy for the United States.

Roosevelt's Lost Alliances
Roosevelt's Lost Alliances

Author: Frank Costigliola

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2013-02-24

Total Pages: 544

ISBN-13: 0691157928

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Shows how Franklin D. Roosevelt alienated his inner circle of advisors as he built an alliance between him, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin, an alliance that eroded when Harry Truman took the presidency after Roosevelt's death, eventually leading to the Cold War.

Shields of the Republic
Shields of the Republic

Author: Mira Rapp-Hooper

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 9780674246034

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Is America's alliance system so quietly effective that politicians and voters fail to appreciate its importance in delivering the security they take for granted? For the first century and a half of its existence, the United States had just one alliance--a valuable but highly controversial military arrangement with France. Largely out of deference to George Washington's warnings against the dangers of "entangling alliances," subsequent American presidents did not consider entering another until the Second World War. Then everything suddenly changed. Between 1948 and 1955, US leaders extended defensive security guarantees to twenty-three countries in Europe and Asia. Seventy years later, the United States had allied with thirty-seven. In Shields of the Republic, Mira Rapp-Hooper reveals the remarkable success of America's unprecedented system of alliances. During the Cold War, a grand strategy focused on allied defense, deterrence, and assurance helped to keep the peace at far lower material and political costs than its critics allege. When the Soviet Union collapsed, however, the United States lost the adversary the system was designed to combat. Its alliances remained without a core strategic logic, leaving them newly vulnerable. Today the alliance system is threatened from without and within. China and Russia seek to break America's alliances through conflict and non-military erosion. Meanwhile, US politicians and voters are increasingly skeptical of alliances' costs and benefits and believe we may be better off without them. But what if the alliance system is a victim of its own quiet success? Rapp-Hooper argues that America's national security requires alliances that deter and defend against military and non-military conflict alike. The alliance system is past due for a post-Cold War overhaul, but it remains critical to the country's safety and prosperity in the 21st century.

Unipolarity and the Evolution of America's Cold War Alliances
Unipolarity and the Evolution of America's Cold War Alliances

Author: Nigel Thalakada

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2012-05-04

Total Pages: 206

ISBN-13: 1137010967

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Thalakada argues that the principal purpose of US alliances have shifted since the end of the Cold War from containing communist expansionism (balance of power) to preserving and exercising US power (management of power).He also looks across all US alliances highlighting the trend from regionally-based to more globally-active alliances.

Rivalry and Alliance Politics in Cold War Latin America
Rivalry and Alliance Politics in Cold War Latin America

Author: Christopher Darnton

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 2014-06-30

Total Pages: 298

ISBN-13: 1421413620

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The success or failure of foreign policy initiatives in Latin America is heavily influenced by bureaucratic and military background players. Rivalry and Alliance Politics in Cold War Latin America, Christopher Darnton’s comparative study of the nature of conflict between Latin American states during the Cold War, provides a counterintuitive and shrewd explanation of why diplomacy does or doesn’t work. Specifically, he develops a theory that shows how the “parochial interests” of state bureaucracies can overwhelm national leaders’ foreign policy initiatives and complicate regional alliances. His thorough evaluation of several twentieth-century Latin American conflicts covers the gamut of diplomatic disputes from border clashes to economic provocations to regional power struggles. Darnton examines the domestic political and economic conditions that contribute either to rivalry (continued conflict) or rapprochement (diplomatic reconciliation) while assessing the impact of U.S. foreign policy. Detailed case studies provide not only a robust test of the theory but also a fascinating tour of Latin American history and Cold War politics, including a multilayered examination of Argentine-Brazilian strategic competition and presidential summits over four decades; three rivalries in Central America following Cuba’s 1959 revolution; and how the 1980s debt crisis entangled the diplomatic affairs of several Andean countries. These questions about international rivalry and rapprochement are of particular interest to security studies and international relations scholars, as they seek to understand what defuses regional conflicts, creates stronger incentives for improving diplomatic ties between states, and builds effective alliances. The analysis also bears fruit for contemporary studies of counterterrorism in its critique of parallels between the Cold War and the Global War on Terror, its examination of failed rapprochement efforts between Algeria and Morocco, and its assessment of obstacles to U.S. coalition-building efforts.

Alliances and American Foreign Policy
Alliances and American Foreign Policy

Author: Robert Endicott Osgood

Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press

Published: 1968

Total Pages: 192

ISBN-13:

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Describes changes in international alignments since World War II and their probable effects on American relations with other countries.