A comprehensive account of ideology and its role in the foreign policy of the United States of America, this book investigates the way United States foreign policy has been understood, debated and explained in the period since the US emerged as a world power, on its way to becoming the world power.

1. The question of ideology 2. The age of ideology in foreign policy 3. Anti-communism fixed 4. The Johnson administration and the defence of freedom in Vietnam 5. Doctrine, dominoes and democracy in the Nixon-Kissinger foreign policy 6. The exceptionalism of Ronald Reagan: ideology and Cold war, from intensification to end 7. George W. Bush administration: terrorism, Iraq and freedom 8. Ideological framings of American foreign policy: the domestic legacy

"It is often claimed that we are moving into a new era of ideological conflict and contestation in world politics. In this context, Ideologies of American Foreign Policy could not be more timely. Innovative, insightful and remarkably wide-ranging, this is a book that challenges us to think more seriously and systematically about the role of ideas in foreign policy, and their impact on both the actions of the United States and the emerging global order." – Michael C. Williams, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa, Canada"Callaghan, O’Connor and Phythian marry the theoretical rigor of the political scientist to the rich sources of the historian to update how ideology has influenced top US makers of foreign policy into the twenty-first century. This book should be required reading not only for scholars and students of international relations but also their actors, so that they better understand why they do what they do." – Alan McPherson, Temple University, USA"Ideology is a notoriously slippery concept. But in Ideologies of American Foreign Policy, Callaghan, O’Connor and Phythian provide a clear and compelling analysis of how ideology and exceptionalism have indelibly shaped the history of American foreign relations." – Andrew Preston, University of Cambridge, UK