This work looks at competing, overarching, guiding principles for American foreign policy in the post-Cold War era, not only by delineating these belief systems but also by linking them to current foreign policy actors in Congress and the executive branch. The book perfects a tool, schools-of-thought analysis, which relates theory to political processes and specific policymakers. It is an attempt to both classify and analyze the intellectual and political nature of the post-Cold War era.