Foreign Economic Relations - United States, 20th Century American History - Relations - General & Miscellaneous, U.S. Diplomatic Relations - History
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Overview
The Imperial Republic based as it is on Raymond Aron'srealist philosophy, is involved only indirectly or by implication
in the disputes about moralism, revisionism,
and even imperialism. Its main aim is to account for
the diplomacy of the United States as it was in a special
time period. Like all diplomacy, it can be explained only
within the system of inter-state relations to which the
protagonist belongs.
United States diplomacy during the twenty- eight year
period of 1945-73 is examined from strategic, political,
and moral stand points were in diplomats openly declared
their aim, and did they achieve it? Does the result justify
accusations either of incompetence or of imperialism? Does
not the reaction within the United States to a policy which
had been a striking success now induce second thoughts
about both the policy and its results? The imperial republic
is trying to throw off its burden; once a missionary, it has
lost the sense of mission; it is still capitalist, but its spoiled
children no longer believe in money; it was puritan, but its
cities abound in sex shops; it regards itself as scientific,
yet mystical and nudist sects are common.
The reader is not asked to endorse Aron's paradoxical
interpretations, but to try to discover the reasons for any
disagreement he may feel regarding differences in political
judgment. People who have acquired the habit of thinking
of the contemporary world in Manichaean terms-in
terms of the reduction of whole populations to slavery by
monsters, or in terms of capitalism, imperialism, or revisionism-
may be out raged by a book that is notconcerned
with grounds for outrage and in which there are neither
villains nor heroes; but rather with mixed messages by
decent policymakers. At the time of its initial publication
The Times Literary Supplement called The Imperial
Republic "an important book"no other author does so
much." It remains so!
Book Details
Published
April 1, 1982
Publisher
Washington, D.C. : University Press of America, [1982] c1974.
Pages
378
Format
Paperback
ISBN
9780819121028