Learning Objectives

In general, after you finish reading and studying this chapter, you should understand the following:

• the roots of U.S. foreign and defense policy before it became a world power
• U.S. policy during and after the Cold War; the years the U.S. became a superpower
• the executive branch and foreign policy
• groups that influence foreign policy
• twenty-first century challenges in foreign and defense policy, including the global war on terrorism and the war in Iraq
• building a grand strategy for the twenty-first century