Ethics, American Foreign Policy, and the Third World

Ethics, American Foreign Policy and the Third World provides a balanced historical analysis of the rhetoric and reality of American foreign policy toward Third World nations, emphasizing the period since the end of World War II. Cingranelli concentrates on the moral dimensions of foreign policy - asking important questions about what should be the goals of American interaction with the Third World. Throughout the book, there is a focus on how American policy has encouraged or hindered the expression of human rights. Cingranelli considers various interpretative approaches to readings of public records and documents. To aid his analysis, he presents a typology of different objectives in foreign policy - Nationalist, Exceptionalist, Progressive, and Radical Progressive. Contrasting the periods before and after World War II, he argues that, despite setbacks and inconsistencies, American foreign policy toward the Third World has increasingly included progressive values toward human rights and democracy.