Politics and Strategy: Partisan Ambition and American Statecraft
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Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2011

​Why do some national leaders pursue ambitious grand strategies and adventuresome foreign policies while others do not? When do leaders boldly confront foreign threats and when are they less assertive? Politics and Strategy shows that grand strategies are Janus-faced: their formulation has as much to do with a leader’s ability to govern at home as it does with maintaining the nation’s security abroad. Drawing on the American political experience, Peter Trubowitz reveals how variations in domestic party politics and international power have led presidents from George Washington to Barack Obama to pursue strategies that differ widely in international ambition and cost. He considers why some presidents overreach in foreign affairs while others fail to do enough.

Named a Choice Magazine “Outstanding Academic Title” in 2011.

The Politics of Strategic Adjustment: Ideas, Institutions, and Interests
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edited with Emily Goldman and Edward Rhodes
Columbia University Press, 1999

This text examines a century of American experience to illustrate how the United States determines its security policies. While scholars have typically focused on "outside factors", such as international pressures, constraints and opportunities, this collection of essays shows that decisions about strategy are critically shaped by domestic politics - political ideologies, state structure and societal interests. At a time when America's security needs and goals are adjusting rapidly, this book offers policymakers and scholars of international affairs critical models for understanding the complex reality of security policy.

Defining the National Interest: Conflict and Change in American Foreign Policy​
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University of Chicago Press, 1998

The United States has been marked by a highly politicized and divisive history of foreign policy-making. Why do the nation’s leaders find it so difficult to define the national interest? Defining the National Interest argues that foreign policy conflict is grounded in America’s regional diversity. The uneven nature of America’s integration into the world economy has made regionalism a potent force shaping fights over the national interest. As Trubowitz shows, politicians from different parts of the country have consistently sought to equate their region’s interests with that of the nation. Domestic conflict over how to define the "national interest" is the result. Challenging dominant accounts of American foreign policy-making, Defining the National Interest exemplifies how interdisciplinary scholarship can yield a deeper understanding of the connections between domestic and international change in an era of globalization.

Awarded the Greenstone Book Prize in 1999 by the American Political Science Association.

American Foreign Policy: Theoretical Essays
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edited with G. John Ikenberry
Oxford University Press, 2014

Featuring thirty classic and contemporary selections, American Foreign Policy: Theoretical Essays, Seventh Edition, offers students an overview of the forces that shape and influence U.S. foreign policy. Edited by two top scholars, this acclaimed anthology showcases the wide range of theoretical perspectives used to analyze U.S. foreign policy and guides students in comparing, evaluating, and applying these theories. The essays highlight the debates and controversies that animate the field and the challenges posed by making foreign policy in the American political, economic, and cultural context. The seventh edition adds fourteen new articles, sharpening the book's contemporary focus.