Understanding Presidential Doctrines: U.S. National Security from George Washington to Joe Biden

American foreign policy has long been caught between conflicting desires to influence world affairs and avoid becoming entangled in other states' conflicts. Presidential doctrines have crafted responses and directions conducive to an international order that best advances American interests, but the election of Donald J. Trump in 2016 challenged these commonalties. Aiden Warren and Joseph M. Siracusa undertake a comprehensive analysis of the defining presidential doctrines from George Washington through to the post-Trump, Joe Biden era.

Format: Hardback
Length: 328 pages
Publication date: 31 January 2022
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

American foreign policy has long been caught between conflicting desires to influence world affairs while simultaneously avoiding becoming entangled in the burdensome conflicts and damaging rivalries of other states. In the post-1945 context, the United States has failed in achieving this latter goal. As this new, expanded edition illustrates, the term "doctrine" has regained a charged prominence in the early twenty-first century, particularly regarding the many contested debates surrounding the controversial transition to the Biden administration. Despite these marked variations in the discourse, presidential doctrines have crafted responses and directions conducive to an international order that best advances American interests. This almost hubristic composition encompasses "democratic" states, open free markets, self-determining states, and a secure global environment in which US goals can be pursued unimpeded. However, with the election of Donald J. Trump in 2016, the doctrinal "commonalties" between Republican and Democratic administrations of previous times were significantly challenged, if not completely jettisoned. In seeking to provide a much-needed reassessment of the intersections between US foreign policy, national security, and doctrine, Aiden Warren and Joseph M. Siracusa undertake a comprehensive analysis of the defining presidential doctrines from George Washington through to the epochal post-Trump, Joe Biden era.

The United States has long been caught between conflicting desires to influence world affairs while simultaneously avoiding becoming entangled in the burdensome conflicts and damaging rivalries of other states. In the post-1945 context, the United States has failed in achieving this latter goal. As this new, expanded edition illustrates, the term "doctrine" has regained a charged prominence in the early twenty-first century, particularly regarding the many contested debates surrounding the controversial transition to the Biden administration. Despite these marked variations in the discourse, presidential doctrines have crafted responses and directions conducive to an international order that best advances American interests. This almost hubristic composition encompasses "democratic" states, open free markets, self-determining states, and a secure global environment in which US goals can be pursued unimpeded. However, with the election of Donald J. Trump in 2016, the doctrinal "commonalties" between Republican and Democratic administrations of previous times were significantly challenged, if not completely jettisoned. In seeking to provide a much-needed reassessment of the intersections between US foreign policy, national security, and doctrine, Aiden Warren and Joseph M. Siracusa undertake a comprehensive analysis of the defining presidential doctrines from George Washington through to the epochal post-Trump, Joe Biden era.

Dimension: 229 x 152 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781538155264
Edition number: 2 ed