ABSTRACT

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.

chapter 1|24 pages

Introduction

chapter 2|33 pages

Building and Maintaining the Postwar Order

FDR to Jimmy Carter

chapter 3|24 pages

Ronald Reagan

The Shining City on the Hill

chapter 4|29 pages

The New World Order

George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton

chapter 5|23 pages

George W. Bush

Challenging Collective Security

chapter 6|28 pages

Barack Obama

Pragmatism in the Service of a Future Global Order

chapter 7|30 pages

Donald Trump

The Impulses of Nativism and Isolationism

chapter |5 pages

Epilogue