This work is a contemporary chronicle of the Cold War and offers an analysis of policy and rhetoric of the United States and Soviet Union during the 1980s. The authors examine the assumptions that drove political decisions and the rhetoric that defined the relationship as the Soviet Union began to implode.

This work demonstrates that while the subsequent unraveling of the Soviet empire was an unintended side effect of Mikhail Gorbachev's reforms, termination of the Cold War was not. Ronald Reagan deserves full credit for recognizing Gorbachev's sincerity and his determination to change...

Drawing on his knowledge of the comparative history of warfare and arms control across preliterate, ancient, medieval, and modern polities, Richard Dean Burns focuses longitudinally on such perennial arms control issues as negotiation, verification, and compliance. Although he does not, for example, allege that war elephants and nuclear weapons are of equal destructive potential, he does discern instructive similarities between Carthage in 202 BCE and Iraq in 1991 AD.

Arms control and disarmament measures have been pursued and adopted throughout the history and prehistory of...

"The Missile Defense Systems of George W. Bush: A Critical Assessment" asks and answers a number of pressing questions about Bush's decision to deploy ground-based missiles. Has the system become reliable? If not, what are the prospects for it to become effective? What have the fiscal costs been? What was the political impact of efforts to expand ABM systems to Europe?

This is the only major book that brings together all of the factors--historical and current--to allow readers to assess President Bush's decisions for themselves. Opening with an extensive history of missile defense, the...

When three of the nation's leading historians come together to fashion a fresh study of American history, the resulting work cannot help but be a monumental addition to the field. "Foreign Affairs and the Founding Fathers: From Confederation to Constitution, 1776-1787" is such a work. These eminent scholars provide a thoughtful, realist interpretation of the Founders' view of America's place in the world, delivering a timely reassessment of their aspirations, thoughts, and actions during the seminal decades of the American nation.

This book takes readers backstage where they can...

"American Foreign Relations since Independence" explores the relationship of American policies to national interest and the limits of the nation's power, reinterpreting the nature and history of American foreign relations.

The book brings together the collective knowledge of three generations of diplomatic historians to create a readily accessible introduction to the subject. The authors explicitly challenge and reject the perennial debates about isolationism versus internationalism, instead asserting that American foreign relations have been characterized by the permanent tension...