American Global Pre Eminence

Most discussions of US decline in global politics couch their arguments and evidence in the most contemporary context. But the US follows a global lineage that has been emerging and evolving for centuries. In 'American Global Pre-Eminence', William R. Thompson argues that systemic leadership is based on a pecking order established by leads in technological innovation, energy, and global reach. The ultimate irony is that as it becomes clearer how these variables interact, the processes under scrutiny may be fundamentally transforming. Thompson asks whether it remain possible for a single state to lead the global system as in the past.

This book addresses one of the least understood issues in modern international history: how, between 1930 and 1945, Britain lost its global pre-eminence to the United States. The crucial years are 1930 to 1940, for which until now no comprehensive examination of Anglo-American relations exists. Transition of Power analyses these relations in the pivotal decade, with an epilogue dealing with the Second World War after 1941. Britain and the United States, and their intertwined fates, were fundamental to the course of international history in these years. Professor McKercher's book dissects the various strands of the two powers' relationship in the fifteen years after 1930 from a British perspective - economic, diplomatic, naval and strategic.

A new history explains how and why, as it prepared to enter World War II, the United States decided to lead the postwar world. For most of its history, the United States avoided making political and military commitments that would entangle it in European-style power politics. Then, suddenly, it conceived a new role for itself as the world’s armed superpower—and never looked back. In Tomorrow, the World, Stephen Wertheim traces America’s transformation to the crucible of World War II, especially in the months prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. As the Nazis conquered France, the architects of the nation’s new foreign policy came to believe that the United States ought to achieve primacy in international affairs forevermore. Scholars have struggled to explain the decision to pursue global supremacy. Some deny that American elites made a willing choice, casting the United States as a reluctant power that sloughed off “isolationism” only after all potential competitors lay in ruins. Others contend that the United States had always coveted global dominance and realized its ambition at the first opportunity. Both views are wrong. As late as 1940, the small coterie of officials and experts who composed the U.S. foreign policy class either wanted British preeminence in global affairs to continue or hoped that no power would dominate. The war, however, swept away their assumptions, leading them to conclude that the United States should extend its form of law and order across the globe and back it at gunpoint. Wertheim argues that no one favored “isolationism”—a term introduced by advocates of armed supremacy in order to turn their own cause into the definition of a new “internationalism.” We now live, Wertheim warns, in the world that these men created. A sophisticated and impassioned narrative that questions the wisdom of U.S. supremacy, Tomorrow, the World reveals the intellectual path that brought us to today’s global entanglements and endless wars.

This book analyzes the response of the Indonesian press to American foreign policy during the administrations of Presidents Bush and Obama. Situated in Southeast Asia, Indonesia is the world’s fourth most populous country and the largest Muslim nation, and as such is a potentially vital economic and strategic partner to the US in the 21st century. Ever since Indonesian independence post World War II, relations to the US have been marked by ups and downs. The author argues that the way the Indonesian public perceives the world has an impact on the national self-image that again heavily influences national foreign affairs. For both the US and Indonesia, this is a crucial moment in bilateral relations. This study explores Indonesian media responses to American foreign policy by analyzing more than 400 press articles. In the context of President Obama’s declared “pivot to Asia”, both countries need to find a way to foster better relations.

The purpose of this book is to critically engage with a set of ideas and beliefs that define the neoconservative approach to American foreign policy, and illuminate many of the core foreign policy debates that have taken place within the United States over the past several years during the administrations of both George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

Michael Yahuda's extremely successful textbook introduces students to the International Politics of the Asia Pacific region since 1945.

The sequel and companion volume to C.A. Bayly's ground-breaking The Birth of the Modern World, 1780-1914, this wide-ranging and sophisticated study explores global history since the First World War, offering a coherent, comparative overview of developments in politics, economics, and society at large. Written by one of the leading historians of his generation, an early intellectual leader in the study of World History Weaves a clear narrative history that explores the themes of politics, economics, social, cultural, and intellectual life throughout the long twentieth century Identifies the themes of state, capital, and communication as key drivers of change on a global scale in the last century, and explores the impact of those ideas Interrogates whether warfare was really the pre-eminent driving force of twentieth-century history, and what other ideas shaped the course of history in this period Explores the causes behind the resurgence of local conflict, rather than global-scale conflict, in the years since the turn of the millennium Delves into the narrative of inequality, a story that has shaped and been shaped by the events of the last hundred years Part of The Blackwell History of the World Series The goal of this ambitious series is to provide an accessible source of knowledge about the entire human past, for every curious person in every part of the world. It will comprise some two dozen volumes, of which some provide synoptic views of the history of particular regions while others consider the world as a whole during a particular period of time. The volumes are narrative in form, giving balanced attention to social and cultural history (in the broadest sense) as well as to institutional development and political change. Each provides a systematic account of a very large subject, but they are also both imaginative and interpretative. The Series is intended to be accessible to the widest possible readership, and the accessibility of its volumes is matched by the style of presentation and production.