America′s Foreign Policy Toolkit: Key Institutions and Processes - Softcover

Stevenson, Charles A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1608719855 ISBN 13: 9781608719853

Publisher: CQ Press, 2012

Synopsis

How is foreign policy in the United States really crafted? In America′s Foreign Policy Toolkit, Charles A. Stevenson identifies what the key foreign policy tools are, which are best for which tasks, and what factors constrain or push how they′re used, bringing fresh insight into the challenges facing national security decisionmakers. Engagingly written with examples drawn from "behind the scenes," Stevenson brings depth and dimension to the institutions and processes of foreign policy.

This brief text looks first at the historical context and then in turn at the tools available to the president and congress, and to the shared budgetary tools. The following section surveys each of the diplomatic, economic, military, intelligence, homeland security, and international institutions instruments. The book concludes by considering the limitations of the U.S. toolkit. Each chapter ends with a case study that connects the theory of the toolkit with the realities of decisionmaking.

About this title

About the Author

Dr. Charles A. Stevenson teaches courses in American foreign policy at the Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University. Previously, he was a longtime professor at the National War College, where he directed the core course on the interagency process for national security policy. He has executive branch experience, including service on the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff, and served for 22 years as a Senate staffer on defense and foreign policy. He is the author of a study of the congressional role in major military operations, Congress at War; a historical survey of U.S. civil-military relations, Warriors and Politicians; and a comparative analysis of U.S. Secretaries of Defense, SecDef. He was a member of the Project on National Security Reform and headed its working group on Congress. He has an AB and PhD from Harvard.

Review

"At last! A text on the institutions and processes the United States uses to make foreign policy - accessible, clear, and complete. Stevenson focuses on what’s missing in the literature: how the organizations work, what they are like, and how they can be improved, illustrating how the policy sausage gets created and implemented by the world’s most powerful nation. America’s Foreign Policy Toolkit is essential reading for students, faculty, and anyone interested in working in the foreign policy arena." Author: Gordon Adams

Voters, pundits, and even officials who should know better would waste fewer words in naive recommendations for foreign policy if they really understood how the complex institutional process of decision and implementation creates, blocks, confuses, and channels possibilities. Yet there is remarkably little first-rate literature that explores these mysteries clearly and comprehensively. Charles Stevenson, drawing on an uncommonly appropriate mix of direct professional experience and analytical incisiveness, fills this gap admirably. America’s Foreign Policy Toolkit manages to be thorough, engaging, reliable, and wise all at once. No other work on this subject can boast such a high level combination of educational virtues." Author: Richard K. Betts

"America’s Foreign Policy Toolkit is innovative, practical, and written with incredible clarity, making it a most useful resource for practitioners and undergraduates alike. Stevenson goes beyond the mere theoretical framework of foreign policy decision-making to elucidate the basis of how decisions are made, taking the narrative to the next step - how those decision-makers actually carry out their policies." Author: Gary Donato

Edition details

• Publisher: CQ Press
• Publication date: 2012
• ISBN 10: 1608719855
• ISBN 13: 9781608719853
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 408