Book Description

The Imperial Mantle The United States, Decolonization, and the Third World David D. Newsom A probing analysis of relations between the United States and the Third World in the post--World War II era. "To understand why some people in the Third World like to throw rocks at us, read this book." -- Richard B. Parker Many Americans are bewildered by the hostilities and even hatred toward the United States on the part of newly independent Third World nations. Experienced diplomat and scholar David D. Newsom seeks to understand these animosities in this thoughtful review of U.S. relations with the Third World since World War II. The Imperial Mantle traces the upheavals in the postwar era as the peoples of British, Dutch, Belgian, and Portuguese empires demanded and gained independence. As the most powerful leader of the free world, despite its anti-colonial heritage, the United States tended to inherit the imperial mantle in this period, becoming the focus of both expectations and demands from the new nations. How the United States lived up to these expectations, and how it responded to the challenge of leadership and the burdens of being the dominant world power are the central issues in this book. It is must reading for anyone who wants to understand the foreign policy challenges that America will face in the 21st century. David D. Newsom, a former Under Secretary and Assistant Secretary of State, served as U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Indonesia, and the Philippines. After retiring from the Foreign Service, he became Director of the Institute for the Study of Diplomacy and Professor and Dean at the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and Professor in the Department of Government and Foreign Affairs at the University of Virginia, where he is a senior fellow at the Miller Center. He is author of The Soviet Brigade in Cuba, Diplomacy and the American Democracy and The Public Dimension of Foreign Policy. March 2001 256 pages, 4 maps, 6 1/8 x 9 1/4, bibl., index, append. cloth 0-253-33844-4 $29.95 s / £22.95