The first comprehensive description and critique of the six most important historical interpretations of US Cold War foreign policy: Traditionalism, Revisionism, Post-Revisionism, Corporatism, World Systems Theory, and Post-Structuralism.

This book offers a comprehensive description and critique of the six most important historical interpretations of U.S. Cold War foreign policy: traditionalism, revisionism, postrevisionism, corporatism, world systems theory, and poststructuralism. In each chapter a description of the perspective's underlying theoretical framework and how it explains U.S. foreign policy is followed by a critique of that theory. This critical companion reveals how historians have sought to explain U.S. Cold War foreign policy and the key differences between their perspectives.