The Cold War and After : : History, Theory, and the Logic of International Politics / / Marc Trachtenberg.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Princeton University Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Trachtenberg, Marc,
• Place / Publishing House: Princeton, NJ : : Princeton University Press, , [2012]; ©2012
• Year of Publication: 2012
• Edition: Course Book
• Language: English
• Series: Princeton Studies in International History and Politics ; 138
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (336 p.)

What makes for war or for a stable international system? Are there general principles that should govern foreign policy? In The Cold War and After, Marc Trachtenberg, a leading historian of international relations, explores how historical work can throw light on these questions. The essays in this book deal with specific problems--with such matters as nuclear strategy and U.S.-European relations. But Trachtenberg's main goal is to show how in practice a certain type of scholarly work can be done. He demonstrates how, in studying international politics, the conceptual and empirical sides of the analysis can be made to connect with each other, and �how historical, theoretical, and even policy issues can be tied together in an intellectually respectable way. These essays address a wide variety of topics, from theoretical and policy issues, such as the question of preventive war and the problem of international order, to more historical subjects--for example, American policy on Eastern Europe in 1945 and Franco-American relations during the Nixon-Pompidou period. But in each case the aim is to show how a theoretical perspective can be brought to bear on the analysis of historical issues, and how historical analysis can shed light on basic conceptual problems.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- PART I. Theory -- Chapter One. The Question of Realism: An Historian’s View -- Chapter Two. The Problem of International Order and How to Think about It -- Part II. History -- Chapter Three. The United States and Eastern Europe in 1945: A Reassessment -- Chapter Four. America, Europe, and German Rearmament, August–September 1950: A Critique of a Myth -- Chapter Five. The Making of the Western Defense System: France, the United States, and MC 48 -- Chapter Six. The Structure of Great Power Politics, 1963–75 -- Chapter Seven. The French Factor in U.S. Foreign Policy during the Nixon-Pompidou Period -- Part III. Policy -- Chapter Eight. Preventive War and U.S. Foreign Policy -- Chapter Nine. The Iraq Crisis and the Future of the Western Alliance -- Index