US Foreign Policy in World History is a survey of US foreign relations and its perceived crusade to spread liberty and democracy in the two hundred years since the American Revolution. David Ryan undertakes a systematic and material analysis of US foreign policy, whilst also explaining the policymakers' grand ideas, ideologies and constructs that have shaped US diplomacy.

US Foreign Policy explores these arguments by taking a thematic approach structured around central episodes and ideas in the history of US foreign relations and policy making, including:

* The Monroe Doctrine, its philisophical goals and impact

* Imperialism and expansionism

* Decolonization and self-determination

* the Cold War

* Third World development

* the Soviet 'evil empire', the Sandinistas and the 'rogue' regime of Saddam Hussein

* the place of goal for economic integration within foreign affairs.