The American Way of Foreign Policy: Ideology, Economics, Democracy

What is distinctively American about American foreign policy? An eminent foreign relations scholar explores this question and its implications.

What is distinctively American about American foreign policy? The American Way of Foreign Policy answers that question by identifying three features of the nation's relations with other countries and tracing their impact from the eighteenth century to the twenty-first.

First, from its beginnings the United States has conducted an unusually ideological foreign policy in comparison with the foreign policies of other countries. It has tried, in different ways over the years, to promote the political ideas - individual rights, political democracy, and international peace - that have played a dominant role in America's domestic politics.

Second, while most countries have used political instruments to win economic benefits - the great empires that European countries conquered and then exploited over the centuries are examples - the United States has reversed this pattern. It has regularly adopted economic policies, particularly sanctions, to pursue its political goals abroad.
Third, the United States has conducted an unusually democratic foreign policy in that the American public has had much more influence over its government's activities abroad than the publics in other countries. As the book shows, public opinion has had a particularly powerful impact on questions of war and peace, at some times pushing the nation into armed conflict but at others forcing an end to it.

Concisely and clearly written for the general reader, The American Way of Foreign Policy explores the origins of these three enduring features of the nation's foreign relations, shows how they have made themselves felt from the founding of the republic to the present day, and assesses their contributions to the successes and failures of what the United States has accomplished abroad. It provides readers with a new understanding of how and why America has conducted its relations with the world over 250 years.

Author: Michael Mandelbaum
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 04/15/2026
Pages: 184
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 0.92lbs
ISBN: 9780197840931


Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 03/01/2026
Library Journal 03/13/2026 pg. 1

About the Author
Michael Mandelbaum is the Christian A. Herter Professor Emeritus of American Foreign Policy at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies. He previously taught at Harvard, Columbia, and the U.S. Naval Academy, and was a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York. He holds a B.A. from Yale, an M.A. from King's College, Cambridge University, and a Ph.D. from Harvard.