Beyond the Water’s Edge : How Partisanship Corrupts U.S. Foreign Policy

Intense partisanship is a familiar part of the contemporary United States, but its consequences do not stop at the country’s borders.The damage now extends to U.S. relations with the rest of the world. Too often, political leaders place their own party’s interest in gaining and keeping power ahead of the national interest. Paul R. Pillar examines how and why partisanship has undermined U.S. foreign policy, especially over the past three decades.Placing present-day discord in historical perspective going back to the beginning of the republic, Beyond the Water’s Edge shows that although the corrupting effects of partisan divisions are not new, past leaders were often able to overcome them.Recent social and political trends and developments including the end of the Cold War, however, have contributed to a surge of corrosive partisanship.Pillar demonstrates that its costs range from the prolongation of war and crisis to the intrusion of foreign influence and the undermining of democracy.He