Best laid plans

"The long-standing but unresolved debate of the virtues and values of multilateralism vs. unilateralism in American foreign policy is critically important in today's complicated world. To understand the history of each approach is to understand their opportunities and challenges for the future. Stewart Patrick argues that a combination of enduring identity commitments and new ideas, based on the lessons of recent cataclysmic events, shaped the policy preferences of central American decision-makers in the Roosevelt and Truman administrations. Although the book is steeped in history, its conclusions have tremendous relevance for the contemporary era, when the United States once again finds itself as the apex of world power, and debates are rife about the role of multilateral cooperation in the realization of U.S. foreign policy objectives."--Jacket.