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From Wealth to Power : The Unusual Origins of America's World Role / Fareed Zakaria.

By: Material type: TextTextSeries: Princeton Studies in International History and Politics ; 82Publisher: Princeton, NJ : Princeton University Press, [1999]Copyright date: ©1999Description: 1 online resource (216 p.) : 2 tables 4 maps 1 line illusContent type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780691010359
  • 9781400829187
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 327.73
LOC classification:
  • E661.7 .Z35 2001
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Chapter One. Introduction: What Makes a Great Power? -- Chapter Two. A Theory of Foreign Policy: Why Do States Expand? -- Chapter Three. Imperial Understretch: Power and Nonexpansion, 1865-1889 -- Chapter Four. The Rise of the American State, 1877-1896: The Foundation for a New Foreign Policy -- Chapter Five. The New Diplomacy, 1889-1908: The Emergence of a Great Power -- Chapter Six. Conclusion: Strong Nation, Weak State -- Index
Summary: What turns rich nations into great powers? How do wealthy countries begin extending their influence abroad? These questions are vital to understanding one of the most important sources of instability in international politics: the emergence of a new power. In From Wealth to Power, Fareed Zakaria seeks to answer these questions by examining the most puzzling case of a rising power in modern history--that of the United States. If rich nations routinely become great powers, Zakaria asks, then how do we explain the strange inactivity of the United States in the late nineteenth century? By 1885, the U.S. was the richest country in the world. And yet, by all military, political, and diplomatic measures, it was a minor power. To explain this discrepancy, Zakaria considers a wide variety of cases between 1865 and 1908 when the U.S. considered expanding its influence in such diverse places as Canada, the Dominican Republic, and Iceland. Consistent with the realist theory of international relations, he argues that the President and his administration tried to increase the country's political influence abroad when they saw an increase in the nation's relative economic power. But they frequently had to curtail their plans for expansion, he shows, because they lacked a strong central government that could harness that economic power for the purposes of foreign policy. America was an unusual power--a strong nation with a weak state. It was not until late in the century, when power shifted from states to the federal government and from the legislative to the executive branch, that leaders in Washington could mobilize the nation's resources for international influence. Zakaria's exploration of this tension between national power and state structure will change how we view the emergence of new powers and deepen our understanding of America's exceptional history.
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Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9781400829187

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Chapter One. Introduction: What Makes a Great Power? -- Chapter Two. A Theory of Foreign Policy: Why Do States Expand? -- Chapter Three. Imperial Understretch: Power and Nonexpansion, 1865-1889 -- Chapter Four. The Rise of the American State, 1877-1896: The Foundation for a New Foreign Policy -- Chapter Five. The New Diplomacy, 1889-1908: The Emergence of a Great Power -- Chapter Six. Conclusion: Strong Nation, Weak State -- Index

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What turns rich nations into great powers? How do wealthy countries begin extending their influence abroad? These questions are vital to understanding one of the most important sources of instability in international politics: the emergence of a new power. In From Wealth to Power, Fareed Zakaria seeks to answer these questions by examining the most puzzling case of a rising power in modern history--that of the United States. If rich nations routinely become great powers, Zakaria asks, then how do we explain the strange inactivity of the United States in the late nineteenth century? By 1885, the U.S. was the richest country in the world. And yet, by all military, political, and diplomatic measures, it was a minor power. To explain this discrepancy, Zakaria considers a wide variety of cases between 1865 and 1908 when the U.S. considered expanding its influence in such diverse places as Canada, the Dominican Republic, and Iceland. Consistent with the realist theory of international relations, he argues that the President and his administration tried to increase the country's political influence abroad when they saw an increase in the nation's relative economic power. But they frequently had to curtail their plans for expansion, he shows, because they lacked a strong central government that could harness that economic power for the purposes of foreign policy. America was an unusual power--a strong nation with a weak state. It was not until late in the century, when power shifted from states to the federal government and from the legislative to the executive branch, that leaders in Washington could mobilize the nation's resources for international influence. Zakaria's exploration of this tension between national power and state structure will change how we view the emergence of new powers and deepen our understanding of America's exceptional history.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 30. Aug 2021)