Praise for American Presidents and the United Nations: Internationalism in the Balance
This carefully researched and clearly written study presents a comprehensive assessment of how U.S. presidents have engaged in international diplomacy through the United Nations from its founding to the present. With judicious and painstaking attention to detail, the authors explain American challenges and successes with the United Nations, providing a frank assessment of future prospects for cooperation. The instructive, engaging case studies are essential reading for scholars and classes on American foreign policy and international relations.
Meena Bose, Director, The Peter S. Kalikow Center for the Study of the Presidency, Hofstra University
Moore and Pubantz have not only written a much-needed text capturing the historical trends and ideological themes in U.S. international engagement, but they have revealed the critical role American presidents have played in altering the political commitments and diplomatic tenor at the United Nations. For students, scholars, and the public, their book provides a compact and compelling look at the competing political forces and the dominant personalities structuring the liberal international order during the past seventy-five years. Detailing the two-decades-long trend of U.S. presidents preferring unilateral over multilateral diplomacy, they also show that President Trumps rejection of international allies and institutions was more a continuation and culmination than a complete departure. Despite the fact that many of the worlds current crises are global in naturefrom the coronavirus pandemic and climate change to economic inequality and racial justicethe authors rightly conclude that a revitalization of American-led international institutions, with the UN playing a key role, is not a given because public opinion remains divided over their effectiveness in promoting peace and prosperity.
Lara Brown, Director, The Graduate School of Political Management, George Washington University
American Presidents and the United Nations: Internationalism in the Balance should be an indispensable part of any personal library focusing on international affairs or American politics. Much of the 20th and 21st centuries have involved starts and stops in creating an institutional manifestation of the international community, and the worlds greatest power for most of this time has been the United States. Often over the past 75 years, the UN has been both a real institution constantly evolving to address global issues and a symbol in American politics. American presidents have variously considered it the U.S.s tether to the world, a useful place to exercise leadership, a flawed but necessary part of international diplomacy, or, in the last few years, a hostile place thwarting American interests. In the end, the UN is what one Secretary of State, Lawrence Eagleburger, once told my students: If the UN did not exist, we would have to invent it. For it to survive, we do not have to invent it, but we do have to reform it to reflect the realities of a new and much more globalized world. This new book captures this history, this debate, and this reality.
Shelton L. Williams, President, The Osgood Center for International Studies, Washington, D.C.
American Presidents and the United Nations
American Presidents and the United Nations: Internationalism in the Balance offers a fresh look at the U.S.UN relationship. The current discourse regarding Americas linkage with the UNand particularly about the Presidents influence on the world bodyhas metamorphosed well beyond the conventional conversation of the post-World War II generation. This book places the UNU.S. relationship within the evolving fabric of international affairs and American political developments through the 2020 presidential election, into the early Biden administration. The text integrates analyses of individual presidential politics and presidential foreign policy preferences from Franklin Roosevelt through Donald Trump, with congressional responses, and seemingly ever-accelerating, troublesome, and often unanticipated international crises. Readers will find the latest scholarship, primary sourcing, as well as synthesis, and a fresh analysis of the ongoing and increasingly multifaceted political and intellectual debate about Americas role in the world. The book spotlights one of the most creative, complex, and inspirited global institutions ever devised by human beingsthe United Nationsand puts it in context with the powerful role of the American presidency. Essential for students, scholars, and general readers alike.
John Allphin Moore, Jr. is a professor of history emeritus, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He is co-editor of the Encyclopedia of the United Nations, co-author of The New United Nations, and has written or co-authored articles and books on topics ranging from UN studies to American political history.
Jerry Pubantz is a professor of political science and the founding dean of the International Honors College at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He is co-editor of the Encyclopedia of the United Nations, the co-author of The New United Nations, and the author of other works on the world body and American foreign policy.
American Presidents and the United Nations
Internationalism in the Balance
John Allphin Moore, Jr. and Jerry Pubantz
First published 2022
by Routledge
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and by Routledge
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Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
2022 Taylor & Francis
The right of John Allphin Moore, Jr. and Jerry Pubantz to be identified as authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Moore, John Allphin, 1940 author. | Pubantz, Jerry, 1947 author.
Title: American presidents and the United Nations: internationalism in the balance / John Allphin Moore Jr. and Jerry Pubantz.
Description: New York, NY: Routledge, 2021. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2021004611 (print) | LCCN 2021004612 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780367367398 (paperback) | ISBN 9781032042084 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781003190943 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: United NationsUnited States. |
PresidentsUnited StatesHistory20th century. |
PresidentsUnited StatesHistory21st century. |
United StatesForeign relations19451989. |
United StatesForeign relations1989 | Internationalism.
Classification: LCC JZ4997.5.U6 M66 2021 (print) |
LCC JZ4997.5.U6 (ebook) | DDC 341.23/73dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021004611
