Reviews for Kennan and the art of foreign policy

The average rating for Kennan and the art of foreign policy based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-09-18 00:00:00 John Mordach First to review: This is kind of a strange book in that it is both a history of GK's thought but also an extended critique. The flow of the book was that he would explore some facet of GK's thought and policy-making and then interrogate the logic and historical accuracy. This would be an interesting way to approach a familiar subject, but the book is written in overly academic language and is poorly structured; it needed clearer chapter titles and sub-headings. It was also kind of vague about chronology, making it hard for the reader to know what part of GK's career Stephanson was talking about at any given time. Still, the book does present some interesting insights into Kennan and makes some sound critiques. It is well-balanced between his foreign and domestic thought, and it gives a great account of his "organicist conservatism," his somewhat eclectic politics, and his critique of the materialism of US culture. Stephanson finds Kennan's foreign policy and perceptions of the USSR to be too generalized and contradictory to be all that useful; he treats GK less as an analyst than a mobilizer of the bureaucracy. He provides a great analysis of Kennan's realism, which was haphazardly theorized but interesting in the sense of providing clear delineations of what parts of the world matter to the US and which ones don't; a Kennan-led foreign policy, for instance, would have fought neither Vietnam nor Iraq (although the Persian Gulf did matter to him). This book is not for the lay reader; at times it is a bit of a slog. However, if you are studying Kennan it is probably a must. I found it particularly useful for the discussions of totalitarianism and his read on the underlying motives of Soviet foreign policy. Still, the best book on Kennan remains Gaddis' outstanding biography (Kennan's American Diplomacy lecture-book is also outstanding) and the best book on Cold War containment remains Gaddis' Strategies of Containment.

Review # 2 was written on 2010-05-11 00:00:00 Toralf Wirsig The best compilation of theoretical essays on American foreign policy during the last 60 years in my mind.