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The Best Laid Plans
The Origins of American Multilateralism and the Dawn of the Cold War
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2008
Summary
The long-standing, but unresolved debate of the virtues and values of multilateralism vs. unilateralism in American foreign policy is critically important in today's complicated world. To understand the history of each approach is to understand their opportunities and challenges for the future. The Best Laid Plans answers two central questions. First, why did the United States embrace the principles and practices of liberal multilateralism during World War II? Second, why did it cling to this vision of world order despite the outbreak of the Cold War in the late 1940s, as the 'One World' that had been anticipated by U.S. postwar planners split into two rival global camps? The book contends that neither the U.S. turn to liberal multilateralism nor the persistence of this orientation during the Cold War can be attributed solely or even primarily to the global power structure or crude considerations of material self interest. Rather, Stewart Patrick argues that a combination of enduring identity commitments and new ideas, based on the lessons of recent, cataclysmic events, shaped the policy preferences of American central decision-makers in the Roosevelt and Truman administrations. Although the book is steeped in history, its conclusions have tremendous relevance for the contemporary era, when the United States once again finds itself at the apex of world power, and debates are rife about the role of multilateral cooperation in the realization of U.S. foreign policy objectives.
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Bibliographic data
Copyright year
2008
ISBN-Print
978-0-7425-6298-1
ISBN-Online
978-0-7425-6586-9
Publisher
Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham
Language
English
Pages
378
Product type
Book Titles
Table of contents
ChapterPages
Contents No access
Acknowledgments No access
Introduction. Identity, Ideas, and the Quest for an Open World No access
Chapter 1. From Washington to Wilson No access Pages 1 - 40
Chapter 2. Planning the Postwar World: From the Atlantic Charter to Dumbarton Oaks No access Pages 41 - 72
Chapter 3. "A World of Power, Tempered by a Little Reason": Creating the United Nations No access Pages 73 - 104
Chapter 4. "When Goods Move, Soldiers Don't": Opening the World Economy No access Pages 105 - 140
Chapter 5. Bretton Woods and the British Loan: The Postwar Monetary and Trading System No access Pages 141 - 172
Chapter 6. "An Imperative Principle of Action": Self-Determination No access Pages 173 - 212
Chapter 7. A Dream Deferred: Adapting Multilateralism to Containment No access Pages 213 - 230
Chapter 8. A World Economy Postponed No access Pages 231 - 266
Chapter 9. From Collective Security to Collective Defense: The Origins of NATO No access Pages 267 - 296
Chapter 10. Between Anti-Colonialism and Anti-Communism: The Search for a Post-Imperial Order No access Pages 297 - 324
Conclusion. The Sources of American Conduct No access Pages 325 - 334
