A sense of power: the roots of America's global role
A sense of power: the roots of America's global role
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权力感：美国全球角色的根源
DOI：
10.1093/ia/iiw035
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发表时间：
2017
影响因子：
4.5
通讯作者：
Mistry K
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Mistry K
在这本明智的书中，约翰·A.汤普森开始解释为什么美国在世界事务中发挥突出作用。本书以世纪末至20世纪世纪中期为研究对象，研究美国外交政策的演变及其内部讨论，特别是美国人如何辩论和实践外交事务。它可能在某些方面非常不流行，但汤普森表明，外交史的方法，当有效和巧妙地利用，继续具有相关性，并可以作出关键贡献。他的核心论点是，权力是理解美国如何处理外交政策的被忽视的维度。他发现最常被引用的战略和经济解释并不令人满意。现实主义，至少在维护国家安全和金融利益方面，只能告诉我们这么多。意识形态也只是被简单地引用--奇怪的是，考虑到历史上对意识形态因素的广泛关注，它也没有解释为什么美国承担了真正的全球角色。关于后者的辩论往往归结为对美国领导地位的价值判断。然而，汤普森对一个智力问题提供了一个非争论性的答案，而不是鼓吹或说教。其结果是一个细致入微的和有说服力的工作的奖学金。《权力感》一书对有关美国在世界上的角色的开创性时刻和辩论进行了广泛的描述，但它并不是对二十世纪上半叶事件的详细年表。主要的冲突--主要是两次世界大战和冷战的爆发--当然是存在的，但考虑到美国更深的国际参与。汤普森植根于更广泛的阅读和参与大量的二手文献，提供了一个高超的史学解构的历史和政治
In this judicious book, John A. Thompson sets out to explain why the United States came to play a prominent role in world affairs. Focusing on the period from the late nineteenth century to the mid-twentieth century, this is a study of the evolution of US foreign policy and internal discussions about it, particularly how Americans debated and practised foreign affairs. It may be deeply unfashionable in some quarters, but Thompson shows how the diplomatic history approach, when utilized effectively and skilfully, continues to have relevance and can make a key contribution. His core argument is that power is the overlooked dimension to understanding how America approached foreign policy. He finds the most commonly cited strategic and economic explanations unsatisfactory. Realism, at least in terms of upholding national security and financial interests, only tells us so much. Ideology is also only briefly cited—curiously briefly given the broad historical attention to ideological factors; it too, according to Thompson, does not account for why the US assumed a truly global role. Debates on the latter often boil down to value judgements on the merits or virtue of American leadership. Yet Thompson is providing a non-polemical answer to an intellectual question, instead of advocating or moralizing. The result is a nuanced and persuasive work of scholarship. Offering a wide-lens account of seminal moments and debates concerning America’s role in the world, A sense of power is not a detailed chronology of the events of the first half of the twentieth century. The major conflicts—chiefly the two hot World Wars and the onset of Cold War—are present of course, but considered in the context of deeper US international involvement. Rooted in a wider reading and engagement with vast secondary literatures, Thompson offers a superb historiographical deconstruction of historical and political