Part 1 The United States and international politics: the ideology of American foreign policy; international relations theory and the decline of American power; interpreting American foreign policy - national mission, realism, revisionism and theories of American imperialism. Part 2 Theories of foreign policy-making: rationality and its limits; overarching theory and comparative foreign policy; middle-level perspectives; foreign policy-making and theories of state power; concluding remarks. Part 3 Presidential foreign policy, David M.Barrett: introduction - a president chooses between war and peace; the founders, presidents and foreign policy; Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt and the growth of presidential power; Harry Truman and the modern American foreign policy presidency; Vietnam - a test of the limits of presidential dominance in foreign affairs; decision-making styles and choices of modern presidents; presidential leadership on foreign policy issues - recent president, from Nixon to Bush. Part 4 Executive branch foreign policy: National Security Adviser and Secretary of State; the State Department; the Pentagon. Part 5 Congress: determinants of congressional influence; the foreign policy Congress; Congress and US foreign policy since 1964; war powers, advice and consent; foreign aid and defence budgeting. Part 6 The intelligence community: The CIA from Truman to Reagan; covert operations; congressional control of the CIA; strategic intelligence and analysis. Part 7 Public opinion: public opinion on foreign policy issues; policy and public influence; American women and foreign policy; citizen lobbying - the case of the nuclear freeze movement; sensitized public opinion - the ethnic lobbies; the media and foreign policy. Part 8 Private and regional power: corporations and foreign policy; foreign policy elites; defence contractors and the military industrial complex; foreign policy by state and local governments. part 9 Two case studies and conclusion: case study - Anglo-American relations and the Vietnam War, 1964-1968; case study - President Carter's human rights policy with special reference to Argentina; reflections on the case studies.