American National Security Policy should be read by anyone wanting to be a United States national security professional, by anyone who wants to understand how United States national security policy is formulated, and especially by public policy faculty charged with teaching future national security practitioners. These faculty should use this book in their classes. Superbly organized and clearly written, American National Security Policy is a practitioners’ guide to the subject. It explains succinctly how ideas shape policy makers’ world views and then proceeds to describe clearly each of the elements of the United States national security policy-making process. It also contains a varied and fascinating set of cases, in some of which the author was a direct participant, to illustrate points in a manner useful for future practitioners. Readers seeking fiction or fantasy about United States national security policy should avoid this book. Those compelled by facts should give it their full attention.

Louis W. Goodman, Emeritus Dean of the School of International Service at American University

John Fishel provides a compelling insider's perspective on some of the most important political crises the United States has faced over the past thirty years, including conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Yugoslavia, and Panama. As he adeptly demonstrates, the details matter, and lives are lost or saved depending on a complex interaction of policies, ideological agendas, professional relationships, and decisions made by individuals at all levels of the chain of command. Fishel's work has shaped my thinking about national security strategies for a long time, and it will continue to do so for many years to come.

Adam Lankford, Criminology Professor, The University of Alabama

This is a realistic book about U.S. security policy and a superb starting point for a course on security policy for leaders or students in any country that deals with America—and that’s most of the world. Fishel’s case studies are redolent with the lessons of the generations who have passed through his classrooms. Security policy making is a living art, and the practice has changed with each of the operations described. This is a readable, teachable, text. We can only hope that somewhere in Moscow and Beijing there are Russian and Chinese counterparts working to explain the reality of those powers’ national security policy making. I think that would help to make the world a safer place.

David Last, Royal Military College of Canada