Disunited Nations explores American reactions to hostile world opinion, as voiced in the United Nations by representatives of the Global South from 1970 to 1984. Sean T. Byrnes suggests this challenge had a significant impact on US policy and politics, shaping the rise of the New Right and neoliberal visions of the world economy. Integrating developments in American political and diplomatic history with the international history of decolonization and the "Third World," Disunited Nations adds to our understanding of major transitions in foreign policy as the US moved away from the expansive internationalist global commitments of the immediate postwar era toward a more nationalist and neoliberal understanding of international affairs.
"Sean Byrnes ably traverses the border between diplomatic, intellectual, and political history on the road to convincingly and elegantly demonstrating why Daniel Patrick Moynihan and Jeane Kirkpatrick deserve a place alongside William F. Buckley and Jerry Falwell in understanding the rise of the Reagan coalition. An excellent study."
Rick Perlstein, author of "Reaganland: America's Right Turn, 1976–1980"
