A foreign policy textbook for the post Cold War era

Sanford Institute director Bruce W. Jentleson is the author of a new foreign policy textbook for a new era. American Foreign Policy: The Dynamics of Choice in the 21st Century (W.W. Norton & Company, 2000) encompasses key issues of post-Cold War foreign policy strategy and politics.

Part I of the book provides the theory and history for establishing the framework of the dynamics of choice. The theory chapters draw on the literature of international relations and American foreign policy to "introduce core concepts, pose debates over alternative explanations and frame the analytic approach to foreign policy strategy and foreign policy politics," Jentleson says in the book's preface. "The history chapters help ensure that expressions like 'break with the past' are not taken too literally. Not only must we still cope with the legacies of the Cold War, but many current issues are contemporary versions of long-standing great debates with lengthy histories in U.S. foreign policy."

Part II applies the framework to the post-Cold War foreign policy agenda and the major choices the U.S. faces in the 21st century. What policies should the U.S pursue? What threats do we face? What interests do we have? Where do our democratic values fit in? How well is the process for making our foreign policy working?

The book incorporates several features that can be used in the classroom, including primary source materials, such as major speeches and policy documents; insightful and controversial views on major issues; and "dynamics of choice" boxes elaborating key aspects of the analytic framework.

The textbook is supplemented by a teaching resource, Perspectives on American Foreign Policy: Readings and Cases, including journal articles, book chapters and case studies that delve deeper into theoretical, historical and policy debates and provide insights into policy and process. http://www.amazon.com

Jentleson is professor of public policy and political science. He has taught numerous courses on U.S. foreign policy at the University of California and will teach a new course at Duke in the fall called "Globalization and Public Policy." He has served on the State Department's policy planning staff, and continues to serve as a foreign policy advisor to Vice President Al Gore. He is the author or editor of six other publications including, most recently, Opportunities Missed, Opportunities Seized: Preventive Diplomacy in the Post-Cold War World (Carnegie Commission, Rowan and Littlefield 1999).