American Foreign Policy (with InfoTrac ) [Paperback]

Eugene R. Wittkopf (Author), Charles W. Kegley (Author), James M. Scott (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0534600484 | ISBN-13: 978-0534600488 | Publication Date: July 11, 2002 | Edition: 6

AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY is the market leader for the American foreign policy course. Guiding students through 21st century American foreign policy by placing contemporary issues, debates, challenges, and opportunities in their historic context, this text helps students understand and assess the forces underlying continuity and change. This Sixth Edition retains the book's effective analytical framework. Harnessing the conceptual, theoretical, and historical components that facilitate analysis of American foreign policy, the text maintains that five sources--international, societal, governmental, role, and individual--collectively influence decisions about foreign policy goals and the means chosen to realize them. Readers will come away from this text with knowledge of how the enduring principles, values and interests of the United States (peace and prosperity, stability and security, democracy and defense) define and reinforce the ability of policymakers to respond to changes in the international environment.

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"AMERICAN FOREIGN POLICY is the single best text I know of in this and related fields."

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About the Author

Eugene R. Wittkopf was the R. Downs Poindexter Professor Emeritus at Louisiana State University (LSU). He also held appointments at the University of Florida and the University of North Carolina. He received his doctorate from The Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs at Syracuse University. He published more than thirty books on international politics and foreign policy and several dozen refereed articles in professional journals and chapters in books. He held offices in professional associations and served on the editorial boards of numerous profession journals. In 2002 he received the Distinguished Scholar Award of the Foreign Policy Section of the International Studies Association. Earlier, Professor Wittkopf was named the 1996 Distinguished Research Master of Arts, Humanities, and Social Studies at Louisiana State University. This is the highest award given by the LSU in recognition of faculty contributions to research and scholarship.

Charles Kegley, Jr., is a founding partner of Kegley International, Inc., a publishing, research, and consulting foundation, and the Corporate Secretary of the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs. Faculty Research Associate at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University, he also is Distinguished Pearce Professor Emeritus of International Relations at the University of South Carolina. Recipient of the Distinguished Scholar Award in Foreign Policy of the International Studies Association, Kegley is a graduate of the American University (BA) and Syracuse University (PhD) and is a Pew Faculty Fellow at Harvard University. His written work is widely published, appearing in more than 45 books and 100 articles.

James M. Scott is Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at Oklahoma State University. His areas of specialization include foreign policy analysis and international relations, with particular emphasis on U.S. foreign policymaking and the domestic sources of foreign policy. He is author or editor of four books, over 40 articles, book chapters, review essays, and other publications. He has been President of the Foreign Policy Analysis section and President of the Midwest region of the International Studies Association¿where he has also served as conference organizer for both sections and has been a two-time winner of the Klingberg Award for Outstanding Faculty Paper at the ISA Midwest Annual Meeting. Since 1996, he has received over two dozen awards from students and peers for his outstanding teaching and research, including his institution's highest awards for scholarship in 2000 and 2001. Since 2005, he has been Director of the Democracy and World Politics Summer Research Program, a National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates.

Product Details

• Paperback: 672 pages
• Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing; 6 edition (July 11, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0534600484
• ISBN-13: 978-0534600488
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,689,210 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre text tangled in webs of double-talk., July 25, 2006

By 

D. Michael "Cloistered Biologist" (Boulder, CO United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: American Foreign Policy (with InfoTrac ) (Paperback)

To start, I have read every page of this text from front to back. Although I am not a student of the political sciences, as a Molecular Biologist I have read more than my fair share of dry texts; this book however, takes the cake.

This book turns an exciting subject into a tedious examination of 'trends' without conclusions. More dry than engaging, the authors consistently contradict themselves, even in the space of two pages. Wittkopf et al's claim that American foreign policy arises from 'Funnel of Casuality' early on within the text and wallow in 'doubletalk' throughout the rest of the book, rarely if ever committing themselves to a strong conclusion.

As a student, I am appalled by the authors refusal to provide key lessons and distinct arguments, if I needed a discussion that raised multiple difficult points and then provided 'wishy-washy' analysis I would have looked to one of the many friendly but inept potheads that typically surrounded my college campus.