Alexander Hamilton's Revenge? Executive Power and American Foreign Policy Revisited

摘要

Between the Civil War and the turn of the century, the United States grew increasingly rich and powerful. During the first twenty-odd years (1865—89), U.S. involvement in foreign affairs was limited; but then, during the next two decades (1889-1908), its foreign policy commitments expanded fast and furiously. Why? In From Wealth to Power, Fareed Zakaria explains the puzzle. He argues that growth in the domestic clout and capacity of the American state lagged behind the broader growth of national power, and that in the first period of "imperial understretch" this lagging growth prevented the United States from exploiting its chances to expand. By the second period the American state had become stronger and better able to harness national power, and so it exploited opportunities to expand with more vigor and success.