US Foreign Policy in a Challenging World

Book excerpt: This book examines how the US is dealing with the challenge of reconciling its global interests with regional dynamics and how it is able to produce and sustain order at the system level and within regional subsystems. The book comprises four parts, the first of which addresses global issues such as nonproliferation, trade, and freedom of the seas. US policies in these areas are carefully analyzed, considering whether and how they have been differently implemented at the regional level. The remaining parts of the book focus on the US posture toward specific regions: Europe, the Middle East, and East Asia. The policies adopted by the US to confront the most relevant challenges in each region are identified, and the ways in which policies in a specific region influence or are influenced by challenges in another region are explored. The book is a rich source of knowledge on the nature of the balance that the US has pursued between global and regional interests. It will be of much interest to scholars, to practitioners, to postgraduate/PhD students of international relations theory and American foreign policy, and to all with an interest in the ability of the US to produce international order.