The US Secretaries of State and Transatlantic Relations

Transatlantic relations have been among the most crucially important areas for US foreign policy since 1945. For reasons of self-interest and with regard to common transatlantic values and political, economic and security interests, every American Secretary of State to date has dedicated a considerable period of time to America’s relations with Europe. This book assesses the transatlantic policy which America’s most important post-Second World War Secretaries of State pursued. Brief profiles of each Secretary’s political philosophy and his/her policy towards Europe provide insights into the continuities and changes US foreign policy towards Europe has displayed from 1945 to the present.

The book provides a synopsis of America’s relations with Europe during the last six decades. It establishes an overview of the crucial problems in American-European relations and indeed in America’s global role. Each chapter embeds an assessment of the respective Secretaries of State within a general survey of American foreign policy during both the Cold War and the post-Cold War world.

This book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Transatlantic Studies.

Klaus Larres is professor of history and international affairs at the University of Ulster. He is the former holder of the Henry A. Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.