For more than sixty years, George F. Kennanâs American Diplomacy has been a standard work on American foreign policy. Drawing on his considerable diplomatic experience and expertise, Kennan offers an overview and critique of the foreign policy of an emerging great power whose claims to rightness often spill over into self-righteousness, whose ambitions conflict with power realities, whose judgmentalism precludes the interests of other states, and whose domestic politics frequently prevent prudent policies and result in overstretch. Keenly aware of the dangers of military intervention and the negative effects of domestic politics on foreign policy, Kennan identifies troubling inconsistencies in the areas between actions and idealsâeven when the strategies in question turned out to be decided successes. In this expanded sixtieth-anniversary edition, a substantial new introduction by John J. Mearsheimer, one of Americaâs leading political realists, provides new understandings of Kennanâs work and explores its continued resonance. As America grapples with its new role as one power among manyârather than as the âindispensable nationâ that sees âfurther into the futureââKennanâs perceptive analysis of the past is all the more relevant. Today, as then, the pressing issue of how to wield power with prudence and responsibility remains, and Kennanâs cautions about the cost of hubris are still timely. Refreshingly candid, American Diplomacy cuts to the heart of policy issues that continue to be hotly debated today. âThese celebrated lectures, delivered at the University of Chicago in 1950, were for many years the most widely read account of American diplomacy in the first half of the twentieth century.ââForeign Affairs, Significant Books of the Last 75 Years
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