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Foreign Policy and the American Character

By Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.
Fall 1983
Article Summary and Author Biography

Foreign policy is the face a nation wears to the world. The minimal motive is the same for all states_the protection of national integrity and interest. But the manner in which a state practices foreign policy is greatly affected by national peculiarities.

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., Albert Schweitzer Professor in the Humanities at the City University of New York, is working on a book about Franklin D. Roosevelt and the coming of the Second World War. This article is adapted from the Cyril Foster Lecture delivered at Oxford University in May 1983. Copyright (c) 1983 by Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

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