American foreign policy often looks like a trail of man-made debris
and disaster. Of course, the explanations for many poorly-made
decisions are rather complex. In this brief and cogent analysis,
Houghton shows us that understanding American foreign policy often
comes down to recognizing the cognitive limitations of the
decision-makers, which affects the foreign policy process. Then
there is the nature of the decisions themselves. Quite a few
decisions in American foreign policy involve 'tragic' choices,
where leaders are effectively confronted with a series of
progressively bad or uncomfortable options. And it is equally clear
that some policies are not the product of any one individual's
preferences, but emerge as a consequence of the way in which
complex modern governments with large bureaucracies operate.
Written with the interested layperson in mind, as well as students
of international affairs, this Citizen's Guide to American Foreign
Policy asks questions like, "Why do presidents so often do things
which seem to be directly against the national interests of the
United States - not just in retrospect, but even at the time?" "Why
do there seem to be so many fiascoes in US foreign policy?" "Why
does Congress sometimes tie the hands of the president in foreign
affairs?" "Why do presidents seem to respond more to opinion polls
or to what's on CNN and Fox News than they do to the core interests
of the United States?" Houghton's overview helps us see past the
partisan in-fighting that too often obscures the central issues in
foreign affairs. This is vital, required reading for all readers
who wish to better understand America's involvement in the world.
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