Elmer Plischke - Böcker

The realists' concern for power in the global perspective is evident and persuasive throughout as Plischke chooses to focus on concepts such as national interests; vital interests; and national purposes, goals, and policy perspectives. The author also looks at national planning and strategy and at the general concept of decision making in foreign policy. A must for graduate students in international relations and therefore for the libraries that support them. ChoiceThis volume provides a broad survey of ideas, literature, and national practice concerning the principal constituents of foreign relations. Much has been written concerning the elements of foreign policy but little has been done to define their meanings and to meld them into an integrated volume. This study is based on a broad survey of English-language commentary on foreign affairs, and on the development of American concepts, interpretations, and commentary. The treatment is historic, explanatory, and systematic. The object is to progress from perceptions and ideas to usable terminology and concrete meanings. The overall goal is to distill from these commonly used concepts their essential and universal meanings.

This is a collection of documents--including speeches and official statements--relating to selected issues of US foreign policy with a brief narrative introduction to each section. The documents date from the end of WWII to the late 1980s and focus primarily on events since 1960. . . . The topics chosen address most of the significant aspects of foreign policy, including how it is made, how it is managed, a catalog of general doctrines and functional policies, significant crises, continuing issues broken down along geographical lines, and the US role in international organizations. Thus the book becomes a handy reference that provides accurate statements about how and why US foreign policy was articulated at various times. ChoiceSince its inception, the United States government has pursued a liberal access and publication policy for its foreign relations documentation. Currently, diplomatic papers, the texts of all treaties, and most important executive agreements are systematically published, resulting in the public availability of massive quantities of official documents. In this work, Elmer Plischke has produced a collection of carefully chosen documents and commentary that constitute a comprehensive anthology of U.S. foreign policy resources for the post-World War II era. Plischke has combined critical and illustrative segments pertaining to a wide range of topics that altogether provide broad-scale coverage of America's contemporary foreign relations.The method employed for choosing documents involved three approaches: securing key documents, surveying basic documentary collections to locate representative records, and preparing a chronology of important events. The contents of the volume are arranged topically, with major segments devoted to foreign policymaking, the conduct of foreign affairs, general foreign policy principles and presidential doctrines, crisis diplomacy, basic and specialized functional foreign policies, and regional issues. Each chapter is divided into subsections, with documents arranged either topically or chronologically. Types of documents excerpted include policy pronouncements of government leaders, legislative enactments, international compacts, diplomatic exchanges, presidential doctrines, and international declarations and resolutions. Internal cross-referencing links related subjects and documents, and citations provide sources and guidance to additional materials. Students of U.S. history, foreign relations, political science, and international affairs will value this work as a useful reference tool, and academic and public libraries will find it an important addition to their collections.

This reference history describes and analyzes the State Department and Foreign Service of the United States. It also outlines the history of three major State Department functions, namely, the treatymaking process and record, representation in international conferences, and participation in international organizations and other agencies. The volume covers more than two centuries—from the genesis of American diplomacy to the 1990s. Unlike other works, this volume deals with such matters as departmental organization and management; personnel and staffing; administrative practices, reform, and reorganization; and the Department's operations, functions, principal and other officers, and problems.The volume consists of eight chapters, extensively footnoted, each of which focuses on successive periods grouped in four major historical eras. Tables are designed to serve as further reference for long-range historical analysis and exploration. The book is supplemented with three appendixes and a comprehensive bibliography. A complete and up-to-date major reference, this will be an asset to the reference collections of both academic and public libraries.