Review

Reviewed Work(s): After the Cold War: American Foreign Policy, Europe, and Asia by
Arthur I. Cyr
Review by: David C. Hendrickson
Source: Foreign Affairs, Vol. 77, No. 3 (May - Jun., 1998), p. 141
Published by: Council on Foreign Relations
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20048918
Accessed: 29-10-2016 17:11 UTC
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Recent Books
programs at the beginning of the twen
tieth century, Miller argues, were born
of a confident and generous faith in the
ideals of American life, but they became
fatally distorted when the First World
War induced rampant fears of division
and disloyalty. Compulsive conformity
then replaced a healthy and necessary
desire for cohesion. Since the author's
own program for abolishing group
rights is driven (not unreasonably) by
the fear of Balkanization, the evident
danger is that it pushes too far in the di
rection of uniformity. But while the au
thor's recommended policies may not all
strike the right balance, he presents a
strong and convincing case of the bal
ance (between unum and pluribus) that
needs to be struck.

size political ideology, and institutional

explanations that emphasize the structure
of the state in their respective accounts of

conflict and change. Whether so much

explanatory punch can be provided by
sectional interests defined almost entirely
in material terms will undoubtedly be

questioned. But the freshness of view and

vigor of analysis displayed in this work
entitle it to wide attention.

After the Cold War: American Foreign

Policy, Europe, and Asia, by Arthur i.

cyr. New York: New York University
Press, 1997, 204 pp. $40.00.
A sober and wide-ranging analytical
essay placing American foreign policy
and the evolution of the international
system in a broad historical context. Cyr,

who is president of the World Trade

Defining the National Interest: Conflict and Center and former Vice President of the
Change in American Foreign Policy, by
Chicago Council on Foreign Relations,
peter trubowitz. Chicago:
explores the intellectual, structural, and
University of Chicago Press, 1998,
sociological dimensions of U.S. policy,
353 PP- %5-oo (paper, $18.95).
usefully characterizing the challenge for
America after the Cold War as one of
This intellectually exciting study, by a
political scientist at the University of
Texas, takes an original look at the
influence of sectionalism on American

"leadership in a non-crisis environment."

He places particular emphasis, somewhat

idiosyncratically, on the special role that

foreign policy. Trubowitz analyzes three Great Britain and South Korea should
decades (the 1890s, 1930s, and 1980s)
play in U.S. policies. Although the work
marked by profound clashes over Amer lacks any startling new perspectives, the
ica's role in the world, and in each case he author does give thoughtful considera
finds the differing interests of Northeast, tion to the ways in which the United
South, and West (due mainly to their un States should use "traditional diplomacy,
equal participation in the world econ
economic persuasion, military means and
omy) to be decisive in determining the
political example to lead in ordering a
more stable world."
outlook of political leaders. Along the
way he wages an intrepid fight against re
alist explanations that emphasize external
forces, cultural explanations that empha
To order any book reviewed or advertised in Foreign Affairs, fax 203-966-4329.

FOREIGN AFFAIRS-May/Junei998 [141]

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