Efraim Inbar - US Foreign Policy and Global Standing in the 21st Century: Realities and Perceptions

This book examines US foreign policy and global standing in the twenty-first century.

The United States is the most powerful actor in world politics today. Against this backdrop, the present volume examines how the foreign policies pursued by Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama have affected elite and public perceptions of the United States. By examining the United States standing from the perspective of different actors from across various regions, including China, Russia, Latin America, and the Middle East, while also assessing how these perceptions interact with the United States own policies, this books presents a fresh interpretation of the United States global standing. In doing so, the volume evaluates how these perceptions affect the realities of US power, and what impact this has on molding US foreign policy and the policies of other global powers. A number of books address the question of which grand strategy the United States should adopt and the issue of whether or not the United States is in relative decline as a world power. However, the debate on these issues has largely been set against the policies of the Bush administration. By contrast, this volume argues that while Obama has raised the popularity of the United States since the low reached by Bush, the United States credibility and overall standing have actually been damaged further under President Obama.

This book will be of much interest to students of US foreign policy, US national security, strategic studies, Middle Eastern politics, international relations, and security studies generally.

Efraim Inbar is Professor in Political Studies at Bar-Ilan University and the Director of the Begin-Sadat (BESA) Center for Strategic Studies, Israel. He is author/editor of numerous titles, including most recently The Arab Spring, Democracy and Security: Domestic and Regional Ramifications (Routledge, 2013).

Jonathan Rynhold is Senior Lecturer of Political Studies at Bar-Ilan University, Israel, Director of the Argov Center for the Study of Israel and the Jewish People, and a Senior Researcher at the Begin-Sadat (BESA) Center for Strategic Studies. He is author of The ArabIsraeli Conflict in American Political Culture (Cambridge University Press, 2015).

Series Editor: Efraim Inbar

Middle Eastern Security
Prospects for an arms control regime
Edited by Efraim Inbar and Shmuel Sandler

Religious Radicalism in the Greater Middle East
Edited by Bruce Maddy-Weitzman and Efraim Inbar

The National Security of Small States in a Changing World
Edited by Efraim Inbar and Gabriel Sheffer

Israeli Strategy after Desert Storm
Lessons of the Second Gulf War
Aharon Levran

The Politics and Economics of Defense Industries
Edited by Efraim Inbar and Benzion Zilberfarb

Democratic Societies and Their Armed Forces
Israel in comparative context
Edited by Stuart A. Cohen

US Allies in a Changing World
Edited by Barry Rubin and Thomas A. Keaney

Armed Forces in the Middle East
Politics and strategy
Edited by Barry Rubin and Thomas A. Keaney

The Gulf War of 1991 Reconsidered
Edited by Andrew J. Bacevich and Efraim Inbar

Democracies and Small Wars
Edited by Efraim Inbar

Religion in World Conflict
Edited by Jonathan Fox and Shmuel Sandler

Radical Islam and International Security
Challenges and responses
Edited by Hillel Frisch and Efraim Inbar

USIsraeli Relations in a New Era
Issues and challenges after 9/11
Edited by Eytan Gilboa and Efraim Inbar

The New Citizen Armies
Israels armed forces in comparative perspective
Edited by Stuart A. Cohen

Israeli Statecraft
National security challenges and responses
Yehezkel Dror

The Arab Spring, Democracy and Security
Domestic and international ramifications
Edited by Efraim Inbar

US Foreign Policy and Global Standing in the 21st Century
Realities and perceptions
Edited by Efraim Inbar and Jonathan Rynhold