The American Way of Strategy: U.S. Foreign Policy and the American Way of Life

305 Pages·2006·2.07 MB·English

by  Michael Lind

THE AMERICAN WAY OF STRATEGY
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THE AMERICAN WAY
OF STRATEGY
MICHAEL LIND
2006
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Copyright © 2006 by Michael Lind
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Lind, Michael.
The American way of strategy / Michael Lind.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13:978-0-19-530837-2
ISBN-10:0-19-530837-9
1. United States—Foreign relations. 2. United States—Military policy.
3. Strategy—History. 4. National characteristics, American. I. Title.
E183.7.L55 2006 327.73—dc22
2006005502
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
IN MEMORY OF
DANIEL PATRICK MOYNIHAN
1927–2003
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Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Part I America’s Purpose
1 Defending the American Way of Life 3
2 The American Way of Strategy 23
Part II A World Safe for American Democracy
3 Independence, Unity, and the American Way of Life 43
4 Averting a Balance of Power in North America:
Power Politics and American Expansion 55
5 Why the United States Fought in World War I 79
6 World War II and the American Way of Life 95
7 The Cold War 110
8 The Cold Peace 125
Part III The Future of the American Way of Strategy
9 U.S. Hegemony and the American Way of Life 151
10 A Concert of Power 171
11 American Strategy in the Asian Century 189
viii CONTENTS
12 The American Way of Military Strategy 207
13 The American Way of Trade 225
14 The World Order Which We Seek 249
Notes 261
Index 285
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ix
Acknowledgments
I would like to express my gratitude to Ted Halstead, President of the New
America Foundation, and to John C. Whitehead for his generous support
during my tenure as the Whitehead Senior Fellow at the New America
Foundation. I am grateful to Sherle Schwenninger, Steven Clemons, Barry
Lynn, Anatol Lieven, and Thomas M. Langston for their helpful criticisms
of drafts of this book. I would like to thank the two editors at Oxford
University Press who worked with me, Tim Bartlett and Elda Rotor. Fi-
nally, I am, as always, indebted to my agent, Kristine Dahl of International
Creative Management.