ABSTRACT
In some ways, there is more certainty about what is desired in foreign policy than in domestic policy. While there is agreement on goals, there is controversy over what those goals mean and how to achieve them. American foreign policy in the post-World War II period can be divided into three parts. The first part, from the end of the war to 1991, had as its major strategic formulation the containment and defeat of communism, particularly that represented by the Soviet Union. The second period began with the defeat of communism and continued until 2001. The third period began abruptly on September 11, 2001. Its strategic formulation has been marked by a war on terrorism, with some modification by the Obama administration. The chapter considers the various conflicts and the US role in dealing with those conflicts, including the war on terrorism. Creating a new vision and a new strategy will be the great task of twenty-first-century US foreign policy.
