1. By examining "who we are and who we have been," Mead provides historic perspective with which to analyze the questions of what the general nature of U.S. foreign policy should be in today's world.
2. tradition that have impacted on foreign policies
   1. By time frame
      1. George Washington(1789) ~ WWW-I
         1. isolationism: 'avoid entangling alliance'
      2. WW-II ~ Cold War(1991)
         1. containment policy: keeping communism from spreading beyond the countries
      3. Cold War ~ the present
         1. cooperation w/ other nations: admited the US is a member of world community
   2. Four basic ways of looking at foreign policy
      1. Hamiltonians
         1. the economic primacy of the US: IMF, World Bank, NAFTA, & WTO the strong nations along w/ big business is the key both to domestic stability and to effective action abroad engage w/ the global economy in favor terms.
      2. Wilsonians
         1. moral obligation and in spreading American democratic and social values: UN domanant view in the 19th century, since Woodraw Wilson
      3. Jeffersonians
         1. protection of American democracy on the home front: Monroe doctrine (isolationism) skeptical about Hamilton and Wilsonians, concerns about the increasing risks of war.
      4. Jacksonian
         1. physical security and the economic well-being of the American people: Ronal Reagan should not seek out foreign quarrels, but once engaged the US must win.
   3. Successes and failures
      1. Mead assessed overall the US have succeeded in such cases: Korea is the primacy example. - Obtaining French help to win the American Revolution. - The Louisiana Purchase. - Cooperating with Great Britain on the Monroe Doctrine to effectively and inexpensively secure the Western Hemisphere from European incursions. - Opening Japan to world commerce. - Blocking Confederate efforts to obtain European help. - Completing expansion into current continental boundaries. - The Panama Canal He is correct, but overstated comparing w/ those of the European power.
      2. Nixon and the collapse of the Bretton Woods system: The Continental realists of the Nixon administration reduced economics to a distant second place behind political and military policy. By "putting Vietnam ahead of Bretton Woods," the Nixon administration presided over the two costliest failures of the Cold War.
3. conclusion