MICHAEL E. SALLA is an Assistant Professor in the School of International Service, American University. Previously he was a lecturer at the Australian National University. He has been involved in non-offical peacemaking efforts for ethnic conflicts in East Timor and Kosovo since 1995. He is the author of Islamic Radicalism, Muslim Nations and the West and co-editor of Why the Cold War Ended (Greenwood Press, 1995).

Introduction
The Hero's Journey
The "Hero's Journey" in World Politics
America's First Hero's Journey
America's Second Hero's Journey (1823-1855)--Rule of Law and Manifest Destiny
The Third Hero's Journey (1855-1891)--Civil War and the Monroe Doctrine
America's Fourth Hero's Journey (1889-1912)-- America's Rise to Great Power Status
America's Fifth Hero's Journey (1913-1933)-- Making the World Safe for Democracy
America's Sixth Hero's Journey (1933-1974)--The Democratic Struggle Against Facism and Communism
America's Seventh Hero's Journey (1974-)--Human Rights, Humanitarian Intervention and the New World Order
Renewing America's Seventh Hero's Journey for the Second American Century
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index

The hero's journey is a process of (re)discovery of the principles that make up the national identity of a country. These principles must then be applied in the formulation and implementation of foreign policy. For the seventh time in its history, America has discovered a grand synthesis of power and morality in projecting its resources and principles into the global arena. This makes possible a more assertive, moral foreign policy course in responding to a range of foreign policy challenges. Of these challenges, Salla asserts, the most profound in terms of the scale of human suffering around the planet is that concerning violations of the rights of ethnic minorities.
Ethnic conflicts and the humanitarian crises and massive human rights violations they generate form a foreign policy challenge that will preoccupy the minds of policy makers for much of the 21st century. NATO's intervention in the Kosovo crisis is the high water mark for America's seventh hero's journey. The intervention sends a decisive signal to all governments that the U.S. and its allies will no longer remain inactive in the face of states attempting to militarily repress the aspirations of their ethnic minorities. This moral interventionism can safely be extended well into the 21st century if policy makers wisely combine the moral principles and foreign policy challenges that make up both the Second American Century and America's (Seventh) Hero's journey. This provocative analysis will be of interest to all scholars, students, and researchers involved with the development of American foreign policy.