American Diplomacy - (Walgreen Foundation Lectures) 60th Edition by George F Kennan (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

For more than sixty years, George F. Kennan's American Diplomacy has been a standard work on American foreign policy. Drawing on his considerable diplomatic experience and expertise, Kennan offers an overview and critique of the foreign policy of an emerging great power whose claims to rightness often spill over into self-righteousness, whose ambitions conflict with power realities, whose judgmentalism precludes the interests of other states, and whose domestic politics frequently prevent prudent policies and result in overstretch. Keenly aware of the dangers of military intervention and the negative effects of domestic politics on foreign policy, Kennan identifies troubling inconsistencies in the areas between actions and ideals-even when the strategies in question turned out to be decided successes.

In this expanded sixtieth-anniversary edition, a substantial new introduction by John J. Mearsheimer, one of America's leading political realists, provides new understandings of Kennan's work and explores its continued resonance. As America grapples with its new role as one power among many-rather than as the "indispensable nation" that sees "further into the future"-Kennan's perceptive analysis of the past is all the more relevant. Today, as then, the pressing issue of how to wield power with prudence and responsibility remains, and Kennan's cautions about the cost of hubris are still timely. Refreshingly candid, American Diplomacy cuts to the heart of policy issues that continue to be hotly debated today.

"These celebrated lectures, delivered at the University of Chicago in 1950, were for many years the most widely read account of American diplomacy in the first half of the twentieth century."-Foreign Affairs, Significant Books of the Last 75 Years

Review Quotes

"The best short summary of the subject."

--Henry A. Kissinger (11/13/2011 12:00:00 AM)

"Part of what makes Kennan so compelling is the sheer beauty of his prose--few other historians come close to matching its gorgeousness, which seems to come from his deep reading of great works of fiction. But what makes us go back to Kennan's worksdecades after the Cold War are his enduring insights into American foreign policy. . . . To profit from his genius, American Diplomacy is the best place to start."
-- "American Conservative" (6/13/2013 12:00:00 AM)

"A book about foreign policy by a man who really knows something about foreign policy."

-- "New York Times"

"A classic foreign policy text."

-- "Washington Post Book World"

About the Author

George F. Kennan (1905-2005) was former ambassador to the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, and professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.