United States Foreign Policy in the Interwar Period, 1918-1941

United States Foreign Policy in the Interwar Period, 1918-1941

Author: Benjamin Rhodes

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published: 2001-07-30

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 0313075514

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This study presents an in-depth survey of the principal policies and personalities of American diplomacy of the era, together with a discussion of recent historiography in the field. For two decades between the two world wars, America pursued a foreign policy course that was, according to Rhodes, shortsighted and self-centered. Believing World War I had been an aberration, Americans na^Dively signed disarmament treaties and a pact renouncing war, while eschewing such inconveniences as enforcement machinery or participation in international organizations. Smug moral superiority, a penurious desire to save money, and naíveté ultimately led to the neglect of America's armed forces even as potential rivals were arming themselves to the teeth. In contrast to the dynamic drive of the New Deal in domestic policy, foreign policy under Franklin D. Roosevelt was often characterized by a lack of clarity and, reflecting Roosevelt's fear of isolationists and pacifists, by presidential explanations that were frequently evasive, incomplete, or deliberately misleading. One of the period's few successes was the bipartisan Good Neighbor policy, which proved far-sighted commercially and strategically. Rhodes praises Cordell Hull as the outstanding secretary of state of the time, whose judgment was often more on target than others in the State Department and the executive branch.


Freedom of the Seas and US Foreign Policy

Freedom of the Seas and US Foreign Policy

Author: Connor Donahue

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2024-04-05

Total Pages: 186

ISBN-13: 1040008704

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This book critically analyzes US political-military strategy by arguing that freedom of the seas discourse is fundamentally unfit for an era of maritime great power competition. The work conducts a genealogical intellectual history of freedom of the seas discourse in US foreign policy to show how the concept has evolved over time to facilitate American control over the global ocean space. It concludes that the contemporary discourse works to establish the high seas as an arena free from claims of sovereignty so that the United States, as the presumed unrivaled naval power, can intervene globally on behalf of its national interests. However, since sea control strategies depend on a preponderance of material force, as the United States wanes in relative material capability it becomes less able to support political-military strategies predicated on the assumption of global naval dominance. The book provides a timely commentary on the current geopolitical competition between the United States and China, and critiques the US approach toward China in the maritime domain in order to highlight potential avenues of foreign policy action that may enable the two countries to mitigate the risk of conflict. This book will be of much interest to students of naval history, maritime security, US foreign policy, and international relations.


The First World War Peace Settlements, 1919-1925

The First World War Peace Settlements, 1919-1925

Author: Erik Goldstein

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2013-10-11

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 1317883675

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The First World War changed the face of Europe - two empires (the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the Ottoman Empire) collapsed in its wake and as a result many of the boundaries of Europe were redrawn and new states were created. The origins of many of the international crises in the late twentieth century can be traced back to decisions taken in these critical years, Yugoslavia being the most obvious example. An understanding of the peace settlements is thus crucial for any student studying international history/international relations, which is what this book offers. This book provides and accessible and concise introduction to this most important period of history.


The United States, Revolutionary Russia, and the Rise of Czechoslovakia

The United States, Revolutionary Russia, and the Rise of Czechoslovakia

Author: Betty Miller Unterberger

Publisher: Texas A&M University Press

Published: 2000

Total Pages: 500

ISBN-13: 9780890969311

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The First World War and the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia set the stage on which Woodrow Wilson had to direct U.S. policy toward Czechoslovakia as it sought liberation in the early twentieth century. Betty Unterberger's now classic study of the ferment of this period and the way President Wilson dealt with it gives insight into both Great Power relations and the next eighty years of developments in Central Europe. A decade after the original publication of The United States, Revolutionary Russia, and the Rise of Czechoslovakia, Unterberger has added an updated introduction that reconsiders the region in light of new knowledge gleaned from recently available Soviet, Czech, and French documents.


Soviet-American Relations, 1917-1920, Volume I

Soviet-American Relations, 1917-1920, Volume I

Author: George Frost Kennan

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2021-07-13

Total Pages: 576

ISBN-13: 1400843820

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Winner of the Pulitzer Prize in History, the National Book Award for Nonfiction, the George Bancroft Prize, and the Francis Parkman Prize, this absorbing volume explores the complexities of the Soviet-American relationship between the November Revolution of 1917 and Russia's final departure in March 1918 from the ranks of the warring powers. These four months, which witnessed the Bolshevik Revolution and Russia's departure from the warring powers, set the stage for future relations between the two emerging superpowers. Volume 2 of Soviet American Relations, entitled The Decision to Intervene (Princeton, 1958), explored U.S. intervention in northern Russia and Siberia between 1918 and 1920.The distinguished scholar and public servant George F. Kennan opens the way to an understanding not only of these events but of the subsequent pattern of Soviet-American relations and the complex process of international diplomacy generally. Kennan became the U.S. government's key analyst of the Soviet Union after a two-year stint in the Foreign Service there (1944-1946), which had been preceded by service in the American embassy in Moscow before World War II. His "long telegram" to his superiors at the State Department, written in 1946 and published a year later in revised form in Foreign Affairs as the famous "X" article, was perhaps the most influential statement in the early years of the Cold War. After leaving the Foreign Service, Kennan joined the faculty at the School for Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where he wrote Russia Leaves the War and subsequent books.


The United States in World War I

The United States in World War I

Author: James T. Controvich

Publisher: Scarecrow Press

Published: 2023-05-08

Total Pages: 657

ISBN-13: 0810883198

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With the centennial of the First World War rapidly approaching, historian and bibliographer James T. Controvich offers in The United States in World War I: A Bibliographic Guide the most comprehensive, up-to-date reference bibliography yet published. Organized by subject, this bibliography includes the full range of sources: vintage publications of the time, books, pamphlets, periodical titles, theses, dissertations, and archival sources held by federal and state organizations, as well as those in public and private hands, including historical societies and museums. As Controvich’s bibliographic accounting makes clear, there were many facets of World War I that remain virtually unknown to this day. Throughout, Controvich’s bibliography tracks the primary sources that tell each of these stories—and many others besides—during this tense period in American history. Each entry lists the author, title, place of publication, publisher, date of publication, and page count as well as descriptive information concerning illustrations, plates, ports, maps, diagrams, and plans. The armed forces section carries additional information on rosters, awards, citations, and killed and wounded in action lists. The United States in World War I: A Bibliographic Guide is an ideal research tool for students and scholars of World War I and American history.