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At Home Abroad: Identity and Power in American Foreign Policy
Henry R. Nau
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Description for At Home Abroad: Identity and Power in American Foreign Policy
Hardback. Series: Cornell Studies in Political Economy. Num Pages: 336 pages, 17. BIC Classification: 1KBB; JPS; KCP. Category: (G) General (US: Trade); (P) Professional & Vocational; (UP) Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly; (UU) Undergraduate. Dimension: 246 x 163 x 27. Weight in Grams: 668.
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 ... Read moreto 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. Show Less
Product Details
Publisher
Cornell University Press
Series
Cornell Studies in Political Economy
Place of Publication
Ithaca, United States
Shipping Time
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About Henry R. Nau
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.
Reviews for At Home Abroad: Identity and Power in American Foreign Policy
When Henry R. Nau writes about America in this intriguing book, his profound ideas and incisive explanations sweep across the landscape of American foreign policy. Everyone who wants or needs to understand who Americans are, where they are headed, and why, would be rewarded by spending a few hours with this volume, which is especially pertinent to the era that ... Read morebegan on September 11, 2001.
Richard Halloran
Far Eastern Economic Review
The war on terrorism has made it increasingly clear that the United States must rethink its long-term strategy in international affairs. Henry Nau makes an admirable start here, arguing that an America strong and self-confident first recognize it no longer represents a New World, separate and apart. European nations as well as Japan have become mature democracies, too, and the U.S. can best find security through building a community with them. Nau's theoretical framework is original and fresh, meriting the attention of academics and practitioners alike.
David Gergen The realities underlying U.S. foreign policy are shifting, so we all need ideas on how to think through opportunities and problems. Henry Nau provides a carefully thought framework of ideas and shows us how to use that framework. This volume is not just for reading, but even more for studying and thinking.
George P. Shultz Power is a means to an end, and those ends are heavily influenced by a state's identity. In this important, interesting, and timely book, Nau uses a states' views about the legitimate use of force to define a state's identity and the distribution of identities across states. Combining the distributions of identities and power, At Home Abroad then provides a very thoughtful and thought-provoking analysis of American foreign policy and some of the challenges ahead.
Robert Powell, University of California at Berkeley One of the most significant aspects of Nau's book is that he considers identity and power as equally influential in foreign policy-making.... Nau's approach is thought-provoking and relatively refreshing. He makes cogent arguments and his book should be widely read by those concerned with the future directions of US foreign policy and international affairs more generally.
Trevor B. McCrisken, UWE Bristol/Rothermere American Institute, Oxford University
International Affairs
Not only did the 'conventional' interpretive and prescriptive frameworks... fail to predict or explain the outcome of the Cold War, but none appears to offer an adequate foundation for examining or navigating the post-Cold War environment. At Home Abroad is a smart, challenging effort to guide scholars and policy makers out of this quagmire.... Nau's book exceeds the sum of its parts and warrants close reading.
Choice
Nau here strives to transcend the perennial, and sterile, debate between realists and idealists over the proper shape of American foreign policy.... Solid and well argued if not outstanding, At Home Abroad belongs in all international affairs collections.
Library Journal
Henry Nau combines realism and constructivism in showing that ideas are as important as mere possession of power in determining the national interest. He has produced a creative and original roadmap for American foreign policy in the global information age that has succeeded the Cold War.
Joseph Nye, Dean, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University At Home Abroad has something for everyone.... Scholars will find value in Nau's novel synthesis of competing paradigmatic traditions. Policy makers and nonprofessionals with special interest in international affairs should be pleased with the authors straightforward prose, his concern with the real world of diplomacy, and his willingness to offer concrete policy recommendations.
Stephen R. Rock, Vassar College
Political Science Quarterly
An engaging, wide-ranging study, At Home Abroad warrants the attention of all who write or think seriously about contemporary international relations.
Robert J. McMahon, University of Florida
The Journal of American History
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