1st Edition
American Presidents and the United Nations Internationalism in the Balance
American Presidents and the United Nations: Internationalism in the Balance offers a fresh look at the U.S.–UN relationship. The current discourse regarding America’s linkage with the UN—and particularly about the President’s influence on the world body—has metamorphosed well beyond the conventional conversation of the post-World War II generation. This book places the UN–U.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 America’s role in the world. The book spotlights one of the most creative, complex, and inspirited global institutions ever devised by human beings—the United Nations—and puts it in context with the powerful role of the American presidency. Essential for students, scholars, and general readers alike.
Preface
Chapter 1 Introduction
The President and the United Nations
Presidential Worldviews
Some Definitions
The Liberal International Order
Idealism
Realism
Neoconservatism
Neoliberalism and its Critics from the Left
Populism
The American Debate about the United Nations and World Affairs
The United Nations at Three-Quarters of a Century
Traditional and Contemporary Arrangements of International Politics
Chapter 2 Building and Maintaining the Postwar Order: FDR to Jimmy Carter
Peace and Security in the Nuclear Age
Arms Control and Disarmament
Maintenance of Peace and Security
Envisioning a Better World
Conclusion
Chapter 3 Ronald Reagan: The Shining City on the Hill
Reagan and the World
Ronald Reagan and the UN: Phase One
The Evil Empire
The Middle East, Reagan, and the UN
Iran–Contra
Gorbachev
Reagan and the UN: Phase Two
Conclusion
Chapter 4 The New World Order: George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton
Reaching an Apex in Multilateralism
President Bush and the Gulf War
Peacekeeping
Democratic Enlargement
Peacekeeping Redux
UN Reform
Conclusion
Chapter 5 George W. Bush: Challenging Collective Security
God’s Will Be Done
Distaste for International Organizations and Agreements
September 11, 2001
Democracy and the End of Tyranny
Iraq War
The Quartet and a Roadmap to Peace
The Other Side of George W. Bush
The Missed Opportunity
Conclusion
Chapter 6 Barack Obama: Pragmatism in the Service of a Future Global Order
"Hardheaded at the Same Time as We’re Bighearted": The Niebuhrian President
Four Speeches and a Prize
America’s Retreat from UN Engagement
The Middle East
Ending Two Wars
Palestinian–Israeli Dispute
Arab Spring
Russia–U.S. Confrontation in the Security Council
Curbing Iran’s Nuclear Program
Climate Change
Conclusion
Chapter 7 Donald Trump: The Impulses of Nativism and Isolationism
The Crisis of 2020
America’s Retreat from Multilateralism
Struggles Within the Administration
Disrupting the Middle East Quagmire
The Korean Crisis
Confronting China
Trumpism, the UN, and the Future
Conclusion
Epilogue
Index
Biography
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.
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, 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 Trump's rejection of international allies and institutions was more a continuation and culmination than a complete departure. Despite the fact that many of the world's current crises are global in nature—from the coronavirus pandemic and climate change to economic inequality and racial justice—the authors rightly conclude that a revitalization of American-led international institutions, with the U.N. 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 world's 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.
"Overall, American Presidents and the United Nations will be especially useful for undergraduates and would make a fine addition to any U.S foreign policy or American presidency syllabus. Not only is it concise and clearly written, but each chapter also provides a bibliography of both primary and secondary sources, making it an excellent resource for students"
Tizoc CHavez, Colby College
