Rowman & Littlefield Publishers America's Search for Security: The Triumph of Idealism and the Return of Realism

This book details the ways in which America's ascendancy to global superpower status was the result of its dueling foreign policy philosophies and forces: an historically expansive idealism balanced with an equally constant realist restraint. In America's Search for Security, Sean Kay surveys major historical trends in American foreign policy and provides a new context for thinking about America's rise to power from the founding period through the end of the Cold War. It details the post-Cold War rise of idealist foreign policy goals and the costs of abandoning realist roots, analyzing in-depth the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as examples of what disappointing, if not disastrous, outcomes can befall America abroad when foreign policy objectives are muddied, unclear, and fail to remain grounded in what historically has made America an unquestionable world power. This book also focuses on America's recent "pivot" to Asia, and efforts to restore a realist balance abroad and at home in the second Obama administration, concluding with a look at what the future of American power will look like in a rapidly evolving world in need of newer, more modernized, and adaptable forms of leadership. Tracing the tension between idealism and realism, Kay provides a detailed explanation of the rise of a post-Cold War idealist consensus in Washington, D.C. - and shows how that culminated in a return to realism in both the 2013 debates over intervention in Syria and the 2014 crisis with Russia. Review "[A] superb realist account of US foreign policy history and, as such, is a must for US foreign policy reading lists, as well as the bookshelf of any foreign policy academic."--Oxford Academic Journals If you want to know why the conduct of US foreign policy has been so consistently flawed in the post-Cold War period, read Sean Kay's important new book. Using basic international relations theory as a framework, he shows how America's powerful liberal inclinations were kept in check by realist calculations before 1989, which produced a foreign policy that served the country well for over two centuries. However, he also shows in exquisite detail how unbounded liberalism over the past twenty-five years has helped get the United States into one mess after another. One can only hope US policymakers read America's Search for Security and recognize the error of their ways.--John J. Mearsheimer, R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago Sean Kay's America's Search for Security is a deeply insightful, often brilliant, analysis of recent U.S. foreign policy making. With keen historical insight Kay tackles everything from the relevancy of NATO, Middle East wars, and the realist vs. human rights debate. His range of intellect is beyond impressive. Highly Recommended!--Douglas Brinkley, Professor of History at Rice University and author of Cronkite America's Search for Security captures brilliantly the tension between crusaders in foreign policy who charge at every injustice and problem in the world with little regard to America's stock of power and those who prioritize America's causes and purposes by what is doable and what maintains America's strength. The struggle between these camps has vital consequences for a nation that was king of the hill and then proceeded to be a king kicking down its own hill. Today, the Obama administration is trying to rebuild US power in order to do great things in the world -- a very tough challenge that Sean Kay explicates with valuable insights throughout his terrific book.--Steven Clemons, Washington Editor-at-Large, The Atlantic About the Author Sean Kay is Robson Professor of Politics and Government at Ohio Wesleyan University where he is also director of the Arneson Institute for Practical Politics and Chair of the International Studies Program. He is also an associate of the Mershon Center for International Security S