Cold War US Foreign Policy: Key Perspectives

A critical companion to the key interpretations of Cold War US foreign policy This book provides the first comprehensive description and critique of the six most important historical interpretations of US Cold War foreign policy: Traditionalism Revisionism Post-Revisionism Corporatism World Systems Theory Post-Structuralism The author uses the ‘levels of analysis’ approach to demonstrate how each of these perspectives can be understood as an explanatory framework combining different types of factors located at different levels of the international system. This original way of explaining the work of the historians discussed helps the reader to see past the narrative and empirical elements of their writings and to grasp more clearly the underlying theoretical assumptions. This critical companion can be read alongside the works of the historians themselves, showing how they have sought to explain US Cold War foreign policy and the key differences between their perspectives.