Defending the National Interest: Raw Materials Investments and U.S. Foreign Policy

For most people the greatest value of this very substantial book will be its examination of U.S. policy toward American investment in raw material production abroad over a long period of time. There is excellent case material and a careful sifting of evidence about aims and motives. The big fish the author is after, however, is evidence that there is a "statist" approach to American foreign policy in which concepts of the national interest prevail over what other theories tell us about group and class interests. He seems somewhat surprised to find that there is.