“The best short summary of the subject.”

Henry A. Kissinger
 

“A classic foreign policy text.”
Washington Post Book World

For more than sixty years, George F. Kennan’s 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 ideals—even when the strategies in question turned out to be decided successes.

In this sixtieth-anniversary edition, a new introduction by John J. Mearsheimer provides new understandings of Kennan’s work and explores its continued resonance. As America grapples with its new role as one power among many, Kennan’s 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 Kennan’s 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.

 

George F. Kennan (1904–2005) was an ambassador to the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia and professor in the School of Historical Studies at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton.