George F. Kennan’s “Mr. X” Doctrine and the Realist Foundations of U.S. Cold War Strategy The trajectory of U.S. foreign policy in the Cold War era was profoundly shaped by the intellectual intervention of George F. Kennan, whose anonymous article, "The Sources of Soviet Conduct" (1947), published under the pseudonym “Mr. X” in Foreign Affairs, … Continue reading How did the strategic thought articulated by “Mr. X” (George F. Kennan) influence the conceptual foundations of U.S. Cold War foreign policy, and in what ways did it reflect the realist tradition in international relations theory?