The Rise of the American Security State: The National Security Act of 1947 and the Militarization of U.S. Foreign Policy

This book examines the impact of the National Security Act of 1947, the most important foreign policy legislation that many Americans (including policymakers and academics) have never heard of.

• Surveys U.S. foreign policy in the Cold War and post-Cold War eras through the careful and consistent evaluation of 14 case studies

• Examines the National Security Act of 1947 (and subsequent amendments) and its main creations that have propelled the United States into being the interventionist nation it is today

• Makes connections between the policymakers involved in the Cold War consensus (both in the White House National Security Counsel and on Capitol Hill) in the late 1940s and those of today's era