Hard Line: The Republican Party and U.S. Foreign Policy since World War II - Softcover

Dueck, Colin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0691141827 ISBN 13: 9780691141824

Publisher: Princeton University Press, 2010

Synopsis

Hard Line traces the history of Republican Party foreign policy since World War II by focusing on the conservative leaders who shaped it. Colin Dueck closely examines the political careers and foreign-policy legacies of Robert Taft, Dwight Eisenhower, Barry Goldwater, Richard Nixon, Henry Kissinger, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, and George W. Bush. He shows how Republicans shifted away from isolationism in the years leading up to World War II and oscillated between realism and idealism during and after the cold war. Yet despite these changes, Dueck argues, conservative foreign policy has been characterized by a hawkish and intense American nationalism, and presidential leadership has been the driving force behind it.

What does the future hold for Republican foreign policy? Hard Line demonstrates that the answer depends on who becomes the next Republican president. Dueck challenges the popular notion that Republican foreign policy today is beholden to economic interests or neoconservative intellectuals. He shows how Republican presidents have been granted remarkably wide leeway to define their party's foreign policy in the past, and how the future of conservative foreign policy will depend on whether the next Republican president exercises the prudence, pragmatism, and care needed to implement hawkish foreign policies skillfully and successfully. Hard Line reveals how most Republican presidents since World War II have done just that, and how their accomplishments can help guide future conservative presidents.

About this title

From the Back Cover

"A lucid, provocative, deeply learned account of contemporary Republican foreign policy from one of America's best young diplomatic historians. If today's conservatives want to move beyond the foreign-policy failures of the Bush era, they should start by reading Dueck's book."--Peter Beinart, author of The Good Fight: Why Liberals--and Only Liberals--Can Win the War on Terror and Make America Great Again

"Colin Dueck notes that foreign policy is made by presidents, not intellectuals, and he is right. But his smart, lively new book shows what intellectuals can add to the discussion: sharp, honest analysis that uncovers the reality behind the rhetoric. Hard Line is more than a masterful guide to Republican thinking and practice over the last century--it is a major contribution to the literature on American foreign policy in general."--Gideon Rose, managing editor of Foreign Affairs

"Dueck has written a clear, persuasive, and important study of Republican foreign policy. Neither an apologist nor a reflexive critic, he examines the various strands that exist within what he describes as a 'hawkish nationalist' bent. He knows that ideas are one thing, implementation and the cut and thrust of policy quite another. A major contribution to our understanding of the last six decades of American foreign policy--and, one suspects, several more to come."--Eliot A. Cohen, Johns Hopkins University

"This book provides an excellent overview of the changes in conservative thinking on foreign policy by looking at the leading figures in each successive era, from Robert Taft to George W. Bush. The prose flows beautifully, and Dueck is admirably objective in his assessments of these individuals. An extremely valuable study."--James M. Goldgeier, George Washington University

"An engaging, important, and timely study, Hard Line offers the best coverage of this period of Republican foreign policy I have seen. Through meticulous research, Dueck demonstrates the coherence and diversity of a uniquely conservative view of international affairs just at the moment when the Republican Party is reexamining and debating its foreign policy agenda for the future."--Henry R. Nau, George Washington University

About the Author

Colin Dueck is associate professor of public and international affairs at George Mason University. He is the author of Reluctant Crusaders: Power, Culture, and Change in American Grand Strategy (Princeton).

Edition details

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0691141827
• ISBN 13: 9780691141824
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 400