The Best Laid Plans: The Origins of American Multilateralism and the Dawn of the Cold War

by Stewart Patrick

Overview

The long-standing, but unresolved debate of the virtues and values of multilateralism vs. unilateralism in American foreign policy is critically important in today's complicated world. To understand the history of each approach is to understand their opportunities and challenges for the future. The Best Laid Plans answers two central questions. First, why did the United States embrace the principles and practices of liberal multilateralism during World War II? Second, why did it cling to this vision of world order despite the outbreak of the Cold War in the late 1940s, as the "One World" that had been anticipated by U.S. postwar planners split into two rival global camps?

The book contends that neither the U.S. turn to liberal multilateralism nor the persistence of this orientation during the Cold War can be attributed solely or even primarily to the global power structure or crude considerations of material self interest. Rather, Stewart Patrick argues that a combination of enduring identity commitments and new ideas, based on the lessons of recent, cataclysmic events, shaped the policy preferences of American central decision-makers in the Roosevelt and Truman administrations. Although the book is steeped in history, its conclusions have tremendous relevance for the contemporary era, when the United States once again finds itself at the apex of world power, and debates are rife about the role of multilateral cooperation in the realization of U.S. foreign policy objectives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780742562981
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	12/12/2008
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	412
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.40(d)

About the Author

Stewart Patrick is senior fellow and director of the Program on International Institutions and Global Governance at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is the coeditor of Multilateralism an U.S. Foreign Policy: Ambivalent Engagement (2002) and Good Intentions: Pledges of Aid for Post-Conflict Recovery (2000).

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Introduction: Identity, Ideas, and the Quest for an Open World
Chapter 2 Chapter 1. From Washington to Wilson
Chapter 3 Chapter 2. Planning the Postwar World: From the Atlantic Charter to Dumbarton Oaks
Chapter 4 Chapter 3. "A World of Power, Tempered by a Little Reason:" Creating the United Nations
Chapter 5 Chapter 4. "When Goods Move, Soldiers Don't:" Opening the World Economy
Chapter 6 Chapter 5. Bretton Woods and the British Loan: The Postwar Monetary and Trading System
Chapter 7 Chapter 6. "An Imperative Principle of Action:" Self-Determination
Chapter 8 Chapter 7. A Dream Deferred: Adapting Multilateralism to Containment
Chapter 9 Chapter 8. A World Economy Postponed
Chapter 10 Chapter 9. From Collective Security to Collective Defense: The Origins of NATO
Chapter 11 Chapter 10. Between Anticolonialism and Anti-Communism: The Search for a Post-Imperial Order
Chapter 12 Conclusion: The Sources of American Conduct

Editorial Reviews

In this beautifully written account of the genesis of the post-1945 world order, Patrick traces the celebrated efforts of the Roosevelt and Truman administrations to turn victory in World War II into an open and stable international system.. . .The result is an eloquent reminder that a great deal of what the United States did in fighting the Cold War was done in the West, among allies.

Foreign Affairs - Sept-Oct 2009

A timely and important book, which shows convincingly how and why the twenty-first century quest for a viable global order is linked inextricably with the ongoing political struggle for the heart and soul of America itself.

John Gerard Ruggie

Patrick provides a compelling and nuanced account of the evolution of liberal internationalism in the United States. He uncovers how interests, ideas, and America’s liberal identity came together to fashion a multilateral brand of global engagement, shedding important light on where U.S. grand strategy has come from and where it may be headed.

Charles A. Kupchan

Stewart Patrick has added an important piece to the continuing puzzle of why the U.S., which enjoyed a dominant strategic position in 1945, chose an overarching strategy of multilateralism. He shows how the values that undergird America’s national identity and changing strategic assumptions among the foreign policy elite helped move the country from isolationism to a genuine and pervasive commitment to institutionalized decision-making. At a time when our strategic assumptions are once again being challenged by the new threats of the 21st century, Best Laid Plans charts our recent past in ways that offer a valuable guide to the future.

Anne-Marie Slaughter

In this beautifully written account of the genesis of the post-1945 world order, Patrick traces the celebrated efforts of the Roosevelt and Truman administrations to turn victory in World War II into an open and stable international system.. . .The result is an eloquent reminder that a great deal of what the United States did in fighting the Cold War was done in the West, among allies.

From the Publisher

In this beautifully written account of the genesis of the post-1945 world order, Patrick traces the celebrated efforts of the Roosevelt and Truman administrations to turn victory in World War II into an open and stable international system. . . .The result is an eloquent reminder that a great deal of what the United States did in fighting the Cold War was done in the West, among allies. Sept-Oct 2009

Foreign Affairs